AUBURN, Ala. — A youth ministry in Alabama said they had the best of intentions when they used a quote from Adolph Hitler on a billboard that was put up Friday, according to the Ledger-Enquirer.
The billboard, which was put up at a mall in Auburn, featured a group of smiling children beside of, “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future” – Adolf Hitler.
Officials with The Life Savers Ministries, based in Opelika, Ala., told the Ledger-Enquirer they understand why some people found the billboard offensive. They requested it be taken down Tuesday and replaced the Hitler quote with one from former President Herbert Hoover.
“We are pulling the billboard and certainly never intended to cause confusion. … Herbert Hoover would have been a far better one to quote when he said, ‘Children are our most valuable resource,’” founder James Anderegg told the Ledger-Enquirer. “We are a children’s organization and had honorable intentions and nothing less.”
The billboard also features a well-known Bible verse from Proverbs on it; “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”