#forced-labor

#forced-labor

The German airline Lufthansa acknowledged this week its responsibility during National Socialism and has commissioned an exhaustive scientific study on the role it played during that period, especially regarding the exploitation of forced laborers. Until now, it had been reluctant to revisit this past, arguing that the company that operated between 1926 and 1945 had nothing to do with the Lufthansa that emerged after 1953.

"I've never seen that much snow in my life," says Sudalenko. "As soon as you enter the prison, everyone including those in quarantine is ordered out to the courtyard to start shoveling. You are given an improvised shovel consisting of a piece of plywood nailed to a broomstick and told to shovel down to the blacktop. It's not about clearing sidewalks like in the outside world," he says. "No, not a single snowflake is allowed to be seen at the prison."

Yesterday, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the results of a joint study detailing the close connection between illicit trade in counterfeits and labor exploitation. The joint study shows clear, repeated associations between the intensity of counterfeit trade and abusive labor conditions, strongly suggesting that such conditions structurally enable the production and distribution of counterfeits.

Chinese authorities on Thursday confirmed that Cambodia had extradited a tycoon accused of running a massive online scam operation. Chinese-born Chen Zhi is chairman of Prince Holding Group, one of Cambodia's largest conglomerates that the US says has served as a front for "one of Asia's largest transnational criminal organizations." The US had indicted and sanctioned him in October on fraud and money-laundering charges over running a multibillion-dollar cyberscam network from Cambodia.

The production of prisoner clothing ceased by 1943, while the output of military uniforms surged, revealing the deepening violence of labor conditions.