‘Insult to victims of Nazism’: Yad Vashem head condemns Musk speech to German far-right
Dani Dayan says failure to acknowledge Germany’s past is clear danger to its democratic future after prominent Trump ally tells AfD rally there’s too much focus on ‘past guilt’

Dani Dayan, chair of Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, came out against Elon Musk for comments he made to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party a day earlier in which he said there is “too much focus on past guilt” in Germany.
“Contrary to Elon Musk’s advice, the remembrance and acknowledgment of the dark past of the country and its people should be central in shaping the German society,” Dayan wrote on X on Sunday, the day before the world marked the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“Failing to do so is an insult to the victims of Nazism and a clear danger to the democratic future of Germany,” he added.
Addressing a rally for AfD on Saturday, Musk said he believed “there is too much focus on past guilt [in Germany], and we need to move beyond that.”
“Children should not feel guilty for the sins of their parents — their great-grandparents even,” Musk added, referring to World War II and the Holocaust.
Musk was accused of making a Nazi salute at an event celebrating US President Donald Trump’s inauguration last week.

The raised-arm gesture by the prominent Trump ally drew heavy criticism from many Jewish groups, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issuing a message of support for Musk, saying he was “being falsely smeared.”
Shortly afterward, Musk posted a series of Nazi jokes on X.
Netanyahu did not comment on Musk’s speech to the AfD.
Elon Musk tells an AfD rally in Germany: "I think there is too much focus on past guilt (in Germany), and we need to move beyond that. Children should not feel guilty for the sins of their parents – their great grandparents even" pic.twitter.com/xtFMfAYrIp
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) January 25, 2025
The antisemitism-fighting Anti-Defamation League also defended Musk after the alleged Nazi salute, calling it merely an “awkward gesture” and telling people to “give him grace.” The organization did, however, join Dayan in condemning the Tesla CEO’s comments to the AfD.
“Holocaust remembrance isn’t about guilting or shaming today’s Germany. It’s about education, commemoration, historical responsibility & fulfilling the promise of Never Again – a promise all nations should recommit to on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day,” the ADL wrote on X.

Thousands of Germans protested in Berlin and other cities on Saturday against the rise of the far-right and anti-immigrant AfD, which became the first far-right party in Germany’s post-World War II history to win a state election in September after it won in the former east German region of Thuringia.
At Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, participants blew whistles and sang anti-fascist songs, and in Cologne, protesters carried banners denouncing AfD.
Currently, the party is polling in second place as German elections approach on February 23, although even if it did win, it would be unlikely to form a coalition because other German parties refuse to work with it.
AP contributed to this report.