Elon Musk, who is accused of allowing anti-Semitic messages to flourish on the number of attacks on Jewish people.
Musk made the comments after he and Shapiro toured Auschwitz, where more than a million Jewish people were slaughtered by the Nazis.
The South African went on to say that he only realized how big the problem of anti-Semitism was when “pro-Hamas” demonstrations began in Western cities and on American university campuses. He then blasted America’s elite universities for “encouraging hatred.”
Musk described his visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp on Monday, saying afterwards that the tragedy of the Holocaust “touches your heart much more when you see it with your own eyes.”
He also spoke about conversations with his family about anti-Semitism. ‘My children can read quite well. They have read a lot of history and are not ignorant, but I have had conversations with some cousins or relatives where I was really shocked to see examples of anti-Semitism.”
“In a disturbing conversation where we even said that we deserved to have the Twin Towers destroyed because of our foreign policy, I thought, ‘Is this what they teach you in our elite high schools?’” he continued.
Musk, holding his son
Musk toured the most infamous death camp set up 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 to having been “naive” about the extent of anti-Semitism until recently, saying this is because most of his friends are Jewish and he has had little contact with it in his own life.
“In the circles I move in, I see virtually no anti-Semitism,” Musk said at the conference in a conversation with podcaster Shapiro of the Daily Wire.
“And you know, there’s an old joke: ‘I have this one Jewish friend.’ No, I have about two-thirds of my friends who are Jewish. I have twice as many Jewish friends as non-Jewish friends. I am Jewish by association, I am Jewish by aspiration.”
He defended his
“The overarching goal of the X Platform is to be the best source of truth in the world,” he said.
The “relentless pursuit of the truth is the goal at X and allowing people to say whatever they want to say, even if it is controversial, provided it does not break the law.”
The billionaire has faced accusations from the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish civil rights organization, and others of tolerating anti-Semitic posts on the platform, formerly known as Twitter, since purchasing it in 2022.
He sparked outrage in November, including from the White House, when he responded to a user on
During his conversation with Ben Shapiro, Musk focused on DEI activists, legacy media and TikTok
During his visit, Musk lights a candle behind a sign that echoes the slogan: Never again
Musk pictured next to Shapiro at the site of the Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Oswiecim, Poland
He later apologized for the comment, calling it the “dumbest” post he has ever made.
Several major brands, including Disney and IBM, stopped advertising on the platform last year after liberal advocacy group Media Matters said their ads appeared alongside pro-Nazi content and white nationalist messages.
X has since sued Media Matters, saying the Washington-based nonprofit created the report to “drive advertisers off the platform and expose to destroy’.
Musk visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau site with his 3-year-old son and others, including Shapiro and the founder and head of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin.
The site, near the town of Oswiecim in southern Poland, is fenced off with barbed wire. Wooden barracks for the prisoners and the ruins of gas chambers remain evidence of Nazi crimes.
There is also a monument to the victims where commemoration ceremonies are held annually.
“It was incredibly moving, deeply sad and tragic that people could do this to other people,” Musk said of the visit.
“I’m a history student, so I’d seen the pictures, I’d seen the videos, but… it hits you in the heart a lot more when you see it with your own eyes.”
Musk looks at a map with Rabbi Menachem
Musk arrived in Poland on a private jet and took a Tesla car from the airport
Musk was expected to visit on Tuesday and take part in a memorial service along with political figures attending the EJA conference in Krakow, but instead he appeared at the Nazi death camp on Monday.
‘Due to scheduling issues, prior to Elon Musk’s arrival at the European Jewish Association conference, Elon Musk participated in a private visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau with EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Ben Shapiro and Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev.
Musk laid a wreath at the Wall of Death and participated in a short memorial ceremony and service at the Birkenau Monument,” the EJA said in an email.
Oliver Bradley, a media consultant for EJA, said the organization “challenged” Musk to come to Auschwitz during a Zoom conference on anti-Semitism on social media several months ago.
“Musk shrugged at the suggestion that he already knew the history of the Holocaust… as if a visit wouldn’t be an impactful experience,” Bradley said.
But Margolin, the EJA chairman, “successfully convinced Musk of the need to experience a place of genocide to even begin to truly understand the dimension of the Holocaust,” Bradley said.
The EJA conference on the rise of anti-Semitism was held in Krakow before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.
During the Second World War, more than 1.1 million people were murdered in Auschwitz by the Nazis and their accomplices.
In total, approximately 6 million European Jews died during the Holocaust. When the Soviets liberated the camp, they found approximately 7,000 survivors.
Musk said that if social media had existed during World War II, the Holocaust would have been “impossible to hide” and lives could have been saved.