KRAKOW, Poland — KRAKOW, Poland (AP) — Elon Musk, who is accused of allowing anti-Semitic messages on his social media platform X, visited the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp on Monday and said afterwards that the tragedy of The Holocaust “hits you much more in the heart when you see it in person.”
Musk toured the most notorious death camp built by Nazi Germany during World War II before attending a conference on anti-Semitism organized by the European Jewish Association in the nearby Polish city of Krakow.
He admitted that until recently he had been “naïve” about the extent of anti-Semitism, saying that was because most of his friends were Jewish and he had little contact with it in his own life.
“I see almost no anti-Semitism in the circles I move in,” Musk said in a discussion with Daily Wire podcaster Ben Shapiro at the conference. “And you know, there's that old joke: 'I have such a Jewish friend.' .' No, I have about two thirds of my friends are Jewish. I have twice as many Jewish friends as non-Jewish friends. I’m like a Jew by association, I’m an ambitious Jew.”
He defended his platform
“The overall goal of the X Platform is to be the best source of truth in the world,” he said. “The tireless pursuit of the truth is the goal of
The billionaire has been accused by the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish civil rights organization, and others of condoning anti-Semitic messaging on the platform formerly known as Twitter since the 2022 purchase.
He sparked an outcry in November, including at the White House, when he later apologized for the comment, calling it the “stupidest” post he had ever written.
Several major brands, including Disney and IBM, stopped advertising on the platform last year after liberal advocacy group Media Matters said their ads were running alongside Nazi content and white nationalist posts. X has since sued Media Matters, saying the Washington-based nonprofit created the report to “drive advertisers off the platform and destroy X Corp.”
Musk visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau site with his three-year-old son and others, including Shapiro and the founder and head of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin. The area near the town of Oswiecim in southern Poland is fenced off with barbed wire. Wooden barracks for prisoners and the ruins of gas chambers still bear witness to the crimes of the Nazis. There is also a memorial to the victims, where memorial ceremonies are held annually.
“It was incredibly moving and deeply sad and tragic that people could do this to other people,” Musk said of the visit. “I'm a history major, so I had seen the pictures, I had seen the videos, but… it hits you a lot more in the heart when you see it in person.”
Musk had been expected to make the visit on Tuesday and attend a memorial ceremony alongside political figures attending the EJA conference in Krakow, but he instead showed up at the Nazi death camp on Monday.
“Due to scheduling constraints, Elon Musk participated in a private visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau with EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Ben Shapiro and Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev prior to his arrival to the European Jewish Association conference. “Musk laid a wreath at the Wall of Death and attended a brief memorial ceremony and service at the Birkenau Memorial,” EJA said in an email.
Oliver Bradley, a media consultant for EJA, said the organization “challenged” Musk to come to Auschwitz several months ago during a Zoom conference about anti-Semitism on social media.
“Musk shrugged at the implication that he already knew the history of the Holocaust … as if a visit might not be a life-changing experience,” Bradley said.
But Margolin, the EJA chairman, “successfully convinced Musk of the need to experience a site of genocide in order to truly understand the dimensions of the Holocaust,” Bradley said.
X, the social media platform that Musk bought when it was still known as Twitter, did not respond to a request for comment about his trip and sent an automated message that said, “Busy now, please take a look Check back later.” SpaceX, Musk’s rocket maker, also did not respond to email requests for comment.
The EJA conference on the rise of anti-Semitism took place in Krakow on January 27, ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
More than 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis and their henchmen in Auschwitz during World War II. Most of those killed were Jews, but victims also included Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war and others. In total, around 6 million European Jews died during the Holocaust. When the Soviets liberated the camp, they found about 7,000 survivors.
Musk said that if social media had existed at the time of World War II, it would have been “impossible to hide the Holocaust” and lives could have been saved.