Featured Image Credit: Craig Stennett / Contributor / Getty
Elon Musk has been heavily criticized by the head of Germany's largest concentration camp memorial after the richest man in the world pledged his support for Gemany's far right nationalist party Alternative for Germany.
It has become clear over the past year that Elon Musk wishes to play a much larger role in politics than he did previously, as he has not only become a close ally of US President Donald Trump, earning him a spot as the head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, but he has also become keenly involved in foreign politics too.
Recent weeks have seen him launch a tirade against the UK government, allegedly threatening to invade the country on behalf of America, and it has also been hinted that he's willing to invest a significant sum of money into the far right Reform UK party.
Perhaps most time sensitive though is the weight that Musk has put behind Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is Germany's far right option that is a close contender in the upcoming election.
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He pledged his support for AfD in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, alongside hosting a panel with Alice Weidel, the party's co-leader, and this has drawn the ire of Jens-Christian Wagner, who runs Buchenwald - Germany's largest concentration camp memorial.
Wagner declared that Musk is a "mad extremist" in an interview with The Times, exploring that the tech mogul needs to "take a history book and withdraw for three days, read the history book and please be quiet with the poison he's spreading."
This is due to the fact that the AfD has played down the effects of the Holocaust, and engages in behavior that is "motivating violent neo-Nazis to take action."
He aligns the AfD's ascent with the rise of disinformation that has led to wider German society somewhat forgetting about the severity of the Holocaust, outlining: "What seemed like social consensus in the Noughties has become extremely brittle."
This has not dissuaded Musk from continuing to support the party though, claiming recently that "only AfD can save Germany." On top of this, Musk has questioned why AfD garner a negative reaction from individuals like Wagner, arguing: "They keep saying 'far right', but the policies of AfD that I've read about don't sound extremist. Maybe I'm missing something."
What Wagner would likely argue that Musk is 'missing' is the undeniable effect that AfD rhetoric has had on memorials like Buchenwald.
He revealed to The Times that the camp is now having to spend around 10% of its annual budget on around-the-clock security after incidents where visitors have made Nazi salutes, shouted 'Sieg Heil', and vandalism that involved the carving of swastikas and cutting down of memorial trees.
Significant criticism has further landed at Musk's feet after he has been accused of performing multiple Nazi salutes at the recent presidential inauguration, and while the billionaire has denied these claims - arguing instead that he was simply 'showing his heart to the crowd' - many remain convinced of what they saw.
