Rapper Meek Mill has vowed to “spread the word” against antisemitism following a visit to Auschwitz.
The Philadelphia-born African American musician traveled to Poland to participate in last week’s March of the Living, a two-mile walk from the concentration camps of Auschwitz to Birkenau.
The annual march commemorates the history of over a million citizens who were murdered at the camps by Nazis during the second world war.
During the visit, Mill promised to fight against antisemitism, which in recent years has risen drastically across the US.
“I always stand on anything that condemns racism, but now that I had an education, I’ll definitely spread the word to people in my culture about what I’ve seen and what I felt at that concentration camp today,” Mill told CNN.
He explained that he went to Auschwitz to “see this for myself and learn about it for myself”, adding that he saw “terror, pain, something you can’t really explain”.
Mill was joined in Auschwitz by his friend Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots and founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, who told the Jerusalem Post last year he grew up in a traditional Jewish home.
“It’s important for me to learn humanity’s history,” said Mill. “But I think it’s also important for me to support Robert, all my Jewish friends, everyone that always supported me. Robert supported me at a very high level. When I was going through what I was going through, he learned my lifestyle. He learned my cultures, where I come from, my background.”
Kraft helped advocate for Mill, who was released in 2018 from prison after being sentenced to two to four years on gun and drug charges at the age of 19.
Speaking about Mill, Kraft said: “He’s a man who’s very caring, and it’s very important to him to build bridges between people of the Jewish faith and people of color in America.
“He’s a sensitive man who has gone through some difficult situations where he wasn’t treated fairly. And I think for him to understand the culture of our people, what we’ve gone through and how many of the experiences are similar – where people, for no good reason, just stand up and hate,” he added.
Mill’s pledge to stand up against antisemitism stands in stark contrast to comments made by rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, who drew backlash last year after he proclaimed his love for Adolf Hitler, defended Nazis and posted swastikas on social media.
“We are two different artists. We represent two different things,” said Mill, adding that he “wasn’t educated to even know right from wrong” when Ye made his slew of antisemitic comments.
“But I know a lot of the things he was saying was wrong because it sounded like hate. Now that I’m educated to a small degree, because I’m at the beginning point, just, you know, spreading the word for humanity, pushing the cause,” Mill said.
