Musk visits Auschwitz amid surge in antisemitic posts on X
Tech titan Elon Musk made a private visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland on Monday, a gesture that comes weeks after he faced criticism for the proliferation of antisemitic content on his social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter.
Jewish leaders had called on Musk to witness the site of one of the most horrific chapters of the Holocaust amid escalating allegations of antisemitism against Musk and the platform, which he purchased and took private in 2022.
The Anti-Defamation League has reported that antisemitic content surged more than 900% on X in the weeks after the Israel-Gaza conflict erupted Oct. 7, with Musk using his account to amplify antisemitic tropes. The White House in November criticized him for “abhorrent promotion of Antisemitic and racist hate.”
“As Musk learns from his trip, we hope he and the leadership team at X will reflect on the ways in which antisemitism has been allowed to spread on their platform,” a spokesperson for the ADL said Friday in a statement to the Post.
Musk and his representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Musk threatened to sue the ADL over its report. But he has also embarked on media appearances in which he rebuked the Hamas militants for murdering innocent civilians. He toured a kibbutz with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in late November and was shown a video documenting atrocities against Israelis on Oct. 7.
Scores of major advertisers, including Disney and Universal, fled X in November after the left-leaning nonprofit group Media Matters for America revealed that Musk’s social media platform had been placing ads for major brands such as Apple next to antisemitic content, with memes portraying Nazism as a spiritual awakening and Adolf Hitler quotes presented in an inspirational style.
During World War II, more than 1 million people (overwhelmingly Jews) were killed at Auschwitz amid the occupation by Nazi Germany.
Musk toured the camp alongside European Jewish Association Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin, who in a live-streamed event on X in September invited the billionaire to Auschwitz “to walk there, to feel it, to understand it.” Musk laid a wreath at the wall of death and took part in a short ceremony and service by the Birkenau memorial, the EJA said in a statement emailed to The Post.
Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev and conservative pundit Ben Shapiro also toured the site with Musk ahead of a conference EJA is hosting in Krakow later Monday. Musk also brought his young son, Techno Mechanicus.
At the EJA conference in Krakow, Musk had been slated to chat with Shapiro about antisemitism, but the discussion was canceled. Shapiro has appeared publicly before with Musk on the subject of antisemitism. In a Sept. 28 discussion broadcast on X, Musk said he went to a Hebrew preschool in South Africa and described himself as “aspirationally Jewish.”