German daily apologizes for using Auschwitz photo to illustrate local rail issues

The Munich-based Suddeutsche Zeitung has apologized for using a photo of the tracks at Auschwitz-Birkenau to illustrate a letter to the editor on the problems of  Germany's railway system.

“The railway needs staff to get back on track,” read the letter and caption. It was referring to problems at the city of Main’s main railway station.

But in the background was not the city on the Rhine but the guard towers and fence at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where well over 1 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust.

“Because of an editorial error on Monday, the photograph on the Letters to the Editor page that was intended to illustrate a letter about the problems at the Mainz Central Station has been replaced,” the paper’s correction read. “A photograph of the railway tracks to Auschwitz-Birkenau was published instead of the photograph that was chosen. We regret the error and ask for your forgiveness.”

This is Suddeutsche’s second such apology in as many months. In July it ran a caricature that depicted Israel as a ravenous monster feeding on German weapons. In that case the newspaper said the cartoon had been mistakenly chosen from a stock library.