LA Firm Apologizes For Using Birkenau Image To Market Services

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A Los Angeles-based economic services firm issued an apology Monday after apparently using an image of the Birkenau concentration camp to promote its marketing services on its website.

The image of a guard tower and barbed wire appeared on the website for Econ One, which offers business litigation and consulting services, before it was taken down. It was unclear how long the image had been displayed.

A caption directly underneath the photo began with the sentence, "Great work is the only kind that's okay with us."

The firm posted an apology on its Facebook page for using the image.

"Econ One was unaware that the image used in its ad to depict the movie, The Great Escape, was an image of Birkenau," the statement read. "We immediately removed all images once this fact was brought to our attention. We sincerely apologize to anyone we offended by our use of the image."

Birkenau, which has been referred to as "Auschwitz II", was the largest of a network of concentration and extermination camps built by the Nazis in annexed Polish areas during World War II.

While exact figures are unknown, it is estimated between 700,000 and 1 million people were killed at Birkenau in the early 1940s.