(JTA) — Neil Patterson, identified as a member of The Landlord’s Union, posted an apology on the union's property118.com website for using a photo of the Auschwitz concentration camp to illustrate a news release about new government policies against rogue landlords.
The image reportedly first appeared on the site and Twitter two weeks ago, the British tabloid Metro reported, but was only removed on Monday. Patterson “I had no idea that the image I selected was one of Auschwitz and I certainly didn’t intend to offend the memorial or indeed anybody else.” He said he found the photo after searching for the keyword Prison on the Pexels stock images website. He added that Pexels also has since removed the image. In addition to the apology, Patterson made a donation to the Auschwitz Memorial. He said he did not know about the Twitter storm over the image since he does not have a Twitter account. He added that the use of the image also had been reported to Twitter, who emailed the Union on Tuesday morning to say that the “were taking no action on the basis that we had not breached their T&C’s or any copyright or other laws,” according to Patterson.