'Particularly dangerous': Concentration camp historian calls Musk a 'right-wing extremist'
Elon Musk — the world's richest man and top advisor of President Donald Trump — is now being directly criticized by a historian who runs a memorial honoring the victims of one of the most notorious Nazi concentration camps.
Newsweek recently reported on an interview professor Jens-Christian Wagner — who runs the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial and museum — gave to the Times of London. That interview came in the wake of Musk throwing up a gesture during an Inauguration Day rally that fascism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat called a "Nazi salute," who added that it was "very belligerent."
"One can only say to him, 'Take a history book and withdraw for three days, read the history book and please be quiet with the poison he's spreading,'" Wagner told the Times. "I think Musk is a mixture of mad and right-wing extremist and that is particularly dangerous."
READ MORE: 'The Holocaust is not a joke': Group that initially defended Musk's salute turns on him
Wagner's comments come amid a wave of scrutiny over Musk's more recent controversial public statements. Earlier this week, Musk made puns referencing several Nazi leaders on his X account with a crying-laughing emoji, writing: "Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down! Stop Gőring your enemies! His pronouns would’ve been He/Himmler! Bet you did nazi that coming."
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO's tweet was met with swift condemnation from both the Anti-Defamation League and its CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt. In a quote-post, Greenblatt told Musk that "the Holocaust is not a joke," and added that it was "inappropriate and offensive to make light of it."
While Musk has yet to face any major consequences for his gesture or statements, a TV meteorologist was recently fired from her job after five years after criticizing the salute. WDJT-TV in Milwaukee, Wisconsin announced Thursday that Samantha Kuffel was no longer with the station after a conservative talk radio host highlighted two of Kuffel's posts to her personal Instagram account.
One of Kuffel's posts showed a video of the salute with the text: ""Dude Nazi saluted twice. TWICE. During the inauguration. You f— with this man, I don't f— with you. Full stop." The other was a screenshot from the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, with the character Mac saying: ""Screw that old b—. He's a Nazi."
READ MORE: Local meteorologist fired after social media post criticizing Musk's salute
Click here to read Newsweek's article, and click here to read Wagner's interview in the Times of London.
