The Anti-Defamation League spoke out on Thursday over a series Nazi Germany-themed puns posted by billionaire Elon Musk, slamming what it called “inappropriate and highly offensive jokes that trivialize the Holocaust.”
Musk's post contained the names of several German leaders who engineered the Holocaust in a Thursday morning post to X. The Tesla CEO and Donald Trump confidant was clearly trying to prod people who criticized his appearance at Trump's inauguration. During his speech, Musk used a gesture that fascism experts labeled a “Nazi salute.”
“Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations!” the X owner said. "Bet you did Nazi that coming."
In a quote-tweet, ADL CEO Johnathan Greenblatt warned Musk that it was “inappropriate and offensive to make light of..a singularly evil event.”
“Making inappropriate and highly offensive jokes that trivialize the Holocaust only serve to minimize the evil and inhumanity of Nazi crimes, denigrate the suffering of both victims and survivors and insult the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Shoah,” the ADL said in a statement from its official account.
The ADL had defended Musk earlier in the week, saying his stiff-armed salute was “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm.” Musk made the gesture before telling the crowd that “the future of civilization is assured,” a phrase critics noted resembled the neo-Nazi “14 Words,” a slogan the ADL classifies as a hate symbol.
Other Jewish groups disputed the defense, including Bend the Arc, a progressive Jewish action group that circulated a petition calling for the ADL to revoke its defense.
It's not the first time that Musk has found himself facing accusations of antisemitism. Months before Musk backed Donald Trump’s presidential bid, the ADL slammed his endorsement of a post claiming Jewish people were pushing “hatred against whites.”
