Elon Musk admitted to being “naive” about the recent rise in anti-Semitism after visiting Poland's Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on Monday. The technology mogul described the experience as “incredibly moving.”
“It's more poignant when you see it in person,” Musk, the world's richest man, said after touring a death camp near the Polish city of Krakow.
“Frankly, I think it will take a few days to understand.”
Musk has been accused of allowing anti-Semitic messages on his social media platform He admitted that he was “naive about the world.”
“I don't have any Jewish friends,” Musk said. “Two-thirds of my friends are Jewish.”
“I look like a Jew,” he said with a laugh.
During his personal visit, Musk laid flowers and attended a memorial service hosted by the European Jewish Federation. He was photographed with his young son, Techno Mechanicus, on his shoulders, standing next to Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev and Daily Wire podcaster Ben Shapiro.
Birkenau is a village near Oświęcim in southern Poland, surrounded by barbed wire, with wooden barracks for prisoners of war and the ruins of gas chambers as evidence of Nazi crimes and a monument to the victims. International ceremonies are held there every year.
Musk said the Holocaust could have been prevented if the technology that exists today had been available to humanity decades ago.
“If social media existed, it would have been impossible to hide,” Musk said.
The Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp memorial and museum pays homage to the estimated 1.1 million Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and Allied prisoners of war who died at the hands of the Nazis during World War II.
The European Jewish Association held its annual conference in Krakow this week to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorated on January 27th.
Musk's visit to Auschwitz coincides with an attempt by his social media company X to win back advertisers after accusations that it allowed rampant pro-Nazi content on its site.
Several major brands, including Disney and IBM, took action last year after liberal advocacy group Media Matters claimed their ads were appearing alongside pro-Nazi content and white supremacist posts. We have stopped advertising on our platform.
Company X subsequently sued Media Matters, alleging that the Washington-based nonprofit created the report in an effort to “drive advertisers off the platform and destroy Company X.”
Musk himself denies accusations that he is an anti-Semite.
Critics leveled the accusations after he endorsed an X post by a user that appeared to accuse Jews of allowing “hordes of minorities” into Western countries.
The tycoon visited Israel in late November to show solidarity with the local population following a deadly attack by Hamas terrorists on October 7 that killed around 1,200 soldiers and civilians.
The X owner lashed out at Disney CEO Bob Iger at a business conference, telling his company and others who have abandoned the platform to “fuck themselves.”
Bloomberg News reported last month that X Company's ad sales in 2023 are expected to fall to about $2.5 billion.
with post wire
