As the world remembers Auschwitz, the German far right has pushed back against the country\u2019s tradition of Holocaust remembrance, now with backing from US tech billionaire Elon Musk.
\n\u201cI think there\u2019s too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that,\u201d the ally of US President Donald Trump told an Alternative for Germany (AfD) rally in a video discussion at the weekend.
\n\u201cChildren should not be guilty for the sins of their great grandparents,\u201d he told supporters of the AfD, an anti-immigration party he has strongly supported ahead of February 23 elections.
\nMusk\u2019s comments flew in the face of those made by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to mark 80 years since the liberation of the extermination camp in what was Nazi-occupied Poland and on the \u201ccivilizational rupture\u201d of the Holocaust.
\n\u201cEvery single person in our country bears responsibility, regardless of their own family history, regardless of the religion or birthplace of their parents or grandparents,\u201d Scholz said in a speech.
\nMusk\u2019s comments were all the more divisive as they came ahead of Monday\u2019s 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, where more than one million Jewish people and over 100,000 others died between 1940 and 1945.
\nPolish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose country is hosting commemorations, was quick to criticize slogans made at Saturday\u2019s rally, although he did not mention Musk by name.
\n\u201cThe words we heard from the main actors of the AfD rally about \u2018Great Germany\u2019 and \u2018the need to forget German guilt for Nazi crimes\u2019 sounded all too familiar and ominous,\u201d the Polish leader wrote on X.
\n\u201cEspecially only hours before the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.\u201d
\nScholz, who went to Poland for the anniversary events, responded to Tusk\u2019s message: \u201cI couldn\u2019t agree more, dear Donald.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the world remembers Auschwitz, the German far right has pushed back against the country\u2019s tradition of Holocaust remembrance, now with backing from US tech billionaire Elon Musk. \u201cI think there\u2019s too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that,\u201d the ally of US President Donald Trump told an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-458029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n