Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Landlords Union Inadvertently Used A Picture Of Auschwitz On Twitter

(JTA) — The Landlords Union, an organization in the United Kingdom, is under fire for using a photo of Auschwitz to illustrate a news release about new government policies against rogue landlords.

The image reportedly first appeared on the news release on the union’s property118.com website two weeks ago, the British tabloid Metro reported, but was only removed on Monday.

A post with the same image also appeared on Twitter.

“Disgusting use of this photograph. I suggest you go and visit Auschwitz you then might realize how inappropriate this picture is. Remove it as soon as possible,” read one response. “Was wondering how it relates to their article,” read another. “Quite shocking,” read another response.

In a post to property118.com on Tuesday morning, Neil Patterson, identified as a member of The Landlord’s Union, posted an apology for using the image, saying “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.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.