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Elon Musk visits site of Auschwitz concentration camp after uproar over antisemitic X post
Elon Musk on Monday visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau site of a former Nazi death camp, a move that comes after the billionaire owner of X faced a backlash for calling an antisemitic post on the social platform “the actual truth.”
Musk’s November endorsement of the antisemitic post prompted some top advertisers, including Apple, Comcast, Disney, IBM and Warner Bros., to pull their marketing dollars from the platform. Musk later said the decision of these companies to cut spending on X, formerly known as Twitter, could “kill the company.”
Musk also came under fire from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an advocacy group that works to combat hate against Jewish people, with the group’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt writing on X that it is “dangerous to use one’s influence to validate and promote antisemitic theories.”
On Monday, Musk was photographed visiting the Birkenau site together with Daily Wire podcaster Ben Shapiro, with both set to attend a conference on antisemitism this week. Birkenau is a village near Oswiecim, in southern Poland, fenced off with barbed wire, where wooden barracks for the prisoners and the ruins of a gas chamber endure as evidence of Nazi crimes, and where a monument to the victims stands. International ceremonies are held there each year.
Musk also reposted a photo of himself and Shapiro touring the site, where more than 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis and their henchmen during World War II. Most who were killed were Jews, but the victims also included Poles, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and others. In all, about 6 million European Jews died during the Holocaust. When the Soviets liberated the camp, they found about 7,000 survivors.
In a statement emailed to CBS MoneyWatch, the ADL said it hoped the visit would result in changes at X. An ADL spokesperosn wrote, “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, as our research has shown, and truly redouble their efforts in terms of both policy and enforcement to stop its continued proliferation.”
The ADL added, “Anyone who has the opportunity to bear witness to the atrocities that took place in Auschwitz-Birkenau should go. Auschwitz serves as the ultimate reminder of what can happen when a society or its leaders are consumed with antisemitism.”
Antisemitism conference
Musk’s visit at the most notorious site of the horrors of the Holocaust came before a scheduled appearance later Monday at a conference on antisemitism organized by the European Jewish Association in the nearby Polish city of Krakow.
Musk had been expected to make the visit on Tuesday and take part in a memorial service, together with political figures attending the EJA conference in Krakow, but showed up at the Nazi death camp on Monday instead.
“Due to schedule concerns, before Elon Musk’s arrival to the European Jewish Association conference, he took part 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 took part in a short memorial ceremony and service by the Birkenau memorial,” the EJA said in an email.
Antisemitic X post
The backlash over Musk’s views came after he responded to an X user’s post that claimed Jews “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.”
Musk responded, “You have said the actual truth” while also criticizing the ADL, writing, “the ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people and Israel. This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat.”
He later apologized for the comment, calling it the “dumbest” post he’s ever done.
—With reporting by the Associated Press.
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
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A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.