13th April 1933
C & A

C&A

Clemens and August

C&A, textile manufacturer and retailer founded in Holland, 1841.

It now has European head offices in Vilvoorde, Belgium, and Düsseldorf, Germany. The company operates approximately 1,300 stores in Europe and approximately 300 stores in Brazil, as well as websites for online shopping. It also licenses the C&A name for stores in Mexico and China, which are under different ownership.

Allegations of collusion with the Nazi regime. In an attempt to build relations, C&A bosses sent a letter to the director of the Nazi four year economic plan Hermann Goering in 1937. The letter boasted how the firm 'never employed Jews' and took on 'Jewish supremacy' of the textile trade. As a result, the company expanded, with Goering approving the C&A takeover of a Leipzig store that was Jewish-owned. The company paid huge sums of money into the Nazi fund - masquerading as Winterhilfswerk donations.

In December 2021, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights filed a criminal complaint in a Dutch court against C&A and other brands, including Lidl and Hugo Boss, alleging that they benefited from and were complicit in the use of forced labour by Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

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