Alabama-based Life-Savers Ministries (LSM) has admitted that it was probably a poor decision to select a quote from Adolf Hitler for use on a billboard supporting children's education, reports Raw Story.

The large sign depicted a diverse group of smiling kids and incongruously declared, "He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future," attributing the quote to Hitler. Hitler said the phrase in 1935 during a speech at the Reichsparteitag in order to encourage young people to join the Hitler Youth.

Below the Hitler quote was a Bible verse which said, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

James Anderegg, founder of LSM, told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer that he was taking down the sign and "certainly never intended to cause confusion." He added, "Herbert Hoover would have been a far better one to quote when he said, 'Children are our most valuable resource.' We are a children's organization and had honorable intentions and nothing less."

Curiously the board did not include the name of Life-Savers Ministries, leading some Alabama residents to wonder about its origin. Lamar Advertising, the owners of the billboard, told the Ledger-Enquirer that it had been rented out by Life-Savers.