Elon Musk Visits Auschwitz and Denies Making Many Anti-Semitic Remarks

Elon Musk attends the European Jewish Association (EJA) forum. Photo=AP·Yonhap News

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, who was embroiled in controversy for allowing anti-Semitic messages on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter), paid a visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp on the 22nd (local time).

Since the war broke out between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas last October, anti-Semitic posts on X have surged, and Musk has been criticized for promoting this.

According to Reuters and AP, Musk visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp near Krakow before attending the anti-Semitism forum hosted by the European Jewish Association (EJA) in Krakow, Poland. Musk laid a wreath at the Wall of Death and attended a brief memorial service.

Auschwitz, divided into three sections, is the most notorious concentration camp where Nazi Germany carried out the Holocaust. Out of the 1.1 million victims there, 1 million were known to be Jews.

Musk’s visit to Auschwitz is part of his attempt to address the anti-Semitism controversy surrounding him.

IMusk stated, “You spoke the real truth,” in response to an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory posted on X in November of last year. This statement drew severe criticism from the Jewish communities and others in the United States.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a non-profit Jewish organization, claimed that anti-Semitic posts on X increased by 900% following Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel. Following the discovery by media watchdogs that corporate adverts on X are positioned next to anti-Semitic content, companies such as Apple, Walt Disney, and Walmart have pulled out one after the other.

After he visited the concentration camp, Musk attended the European Jewish Association (EJA) forum, where he said his comments regarding anti-Semitism at the time were “naive.” He added, “Two-thirds of my friends are Jewish. I never heard such talk (about anti-Semitism) at dinner conversations.” He disputed the claim that X has a high concentration of anti-Semitic remarks by saying, “An external audit showed that X has the least (anti-Semitism) compared to other social media.”