Auschwitz-Birkenau was one of the largest and most notorious Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The Nazis killed approximately 1.1 million Jews and other victims there. Today, the Auschwitz camp serves as a memorial and museum, reminding us of the atrocities of the Holocaust.
"It's incredibly sad and tragic that one group of people could do this to another," Elon Musk said, describing his visit to the former German concentration camp. "If we had social media and freedom of speech back then, this probably wouldn't have been possible."
During his trip, the businessman laid a wreath at the Wall of Death and participated in a brief ceremony and memorial service.
Musk's trip to Auschwitz was potentially an attempt to rehabilitate his reputation after an anti-Semitism scandal. In late November, the billionaire agreed with a user on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) who claimed that Jewish communities spread hatred toward white people. This led to a major scandal.
The nonprofit organization Media Matters for America responded to Musk's statement with an article accusing one of the world's richest men of supporting an "anti-Semitic conspiracy theory." The article noted that Musk's platform X openly published advertisements from companies like Apple, IBM, Xfinity, Bravo, and Oracle next to posts "glorifying Hitler and Nazi Germany."
As a result, IBM, Warner Bros., Walt Disney, and other major advertisers ended their cooperation with the X platform, resulting in significant losses for Musk's company.
