The company that sponsored an advert quoting a key Nazi has apologised for offending readers and admitted that it was “wrong.”

The advert, which ran on page 10 of the Evening Standard on Friday, provoked six complaints after using a passage from Joseph Goebbels’s diary that read: “The Jews have deserved the catastrophe that has now overtaken them.”

As Minister of Propaganda for the Nazi regime, Goebbels produced virulently antisemitic posters and films, promoting the idea that Jews were sub-human.

The heading above the quote in the Standard told the paper’s 1.7m readers: “Millions of refugees have fled war and persecution last year”.

Winston Churchill’s statement that “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” was placed below a picture of a refugee, with the accompanying hashtag #WhatWillWeDo.

Etefy, an online supermarket which sponsored the advert, told the JC that the company, despite “all the good intentions we had, we unfortunately offended people with this ad.

“It was never our intention, and as such saddens us very much. We have offered an apology to everyone and in hindsight, how the ad was created and placed was wrong.”

The spokesperson also said that the advert was meant to draw a direct comparison between modern-day refugees and Jews who escaped the Nazis.

“Families, children and women are fleeing murderous wars, dictators and persecution to come to Europe to be mostly unwelcome.

“And Jewish people in Europe have to be careful again, as right-wing parties have made big gains in elections, and it seems okay to be divisive again.

“As such we wanted to create a wake-up call. We combined a horrible quote with a quote of Churchill.”

A spokesman for the Advertising Standards Agency said the complaints will “be assessed to see if the ad has breached our Codes.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism, which complained to the authorities, said in a statement that “the inclusion of the quotation, without context, explanation or rebuttal, is inexcusable.”