Elon Musk makes private visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau

January 24, 2024

Elon Musk made a private visit to the site of a former Nazi concentration camp in Poland prior to speaking at a conference on antisemitism. Reuters reports that the owner of Tesla and the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) made the visit with European Jews Association chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin.

Musk has been the target of strong criticism since November when he responded to an allegedly antisemitic comment on X with, “You have said the actual truth.” NBC News says the comment made the claim that “Jewish people push hatred for white people.”

Musk was accompanied on his visit to Auschwitz by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev. A spokesperson for EJA stated:

“Musk laid a wreath at the wall of death and took part in a short memorial ceremony and service by the Birkenau memorial.“

In a YouTube video posted by Bloomberg Technology, Musk said:

“I must admit to being somewhat frankly naive about this. In the circles that I move, I see almost no antisemitism. … Two-thirds of my friends are Jewish. I’m aspirationally Jewish. So I was like, ‘What are people talking about with this antisemitism?’ Because I never hear it at dinner conversations. It’s like an absurdity — at least in my friend circles.“

Some major advertisers have parted with X following a report from Media Matters which claims it found advertisements next to posts that supported Nazism. The platform has since filed a defamation lawsuit against Media Matters.

Reuters reports that Musk traveled to Israel last November where he stated that he opposes anything that “promotes hate and conflict.”

Photo: top Elon Musk credit: Yoav Dudkevitch/ AP