A 94-year-old Holocaust survivor invited DeSean Jackson to visit Nazi concentration camps after the Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver posted an anti-Semitic quote to Instagram on Monday.
Edward Mosberg penned an open letter to Jackson on Tuesday after Jackson shared a quote alleging a Jewish conspiracy to oppress black people. According to ESPN, the since-deleted quote that Jackson wrongly attributed to Adolf Hitler claimed white Jews “will blackmail America. [They] will extort America, their plan for world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were.” Jackson also expressed admiration for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Mosberg’s response was shared by the official Twitter account of From The Depths, a millennial-run organization that “aims to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and to give a name to those who were brutally murdered,” according to its website. Mosberg is an honorary chairman of the organization, the name of which is a reference to Psalm 130.
Powerful invite of Holocaust Survivor Edward Mosberg to @DeSeanJackson10 inviting him to visit Auschwitz, after his disgraceful post quoting Hitler. pic.twitter.com/nqEtxwDlni
— Jonny Daniels (@MrJonnyDaniels) July 7, 2020
“Almost my entire family was murdered by the German Nazis during the Holocaust,” Mosberg began. “I survived multiple German Nazi death camps, including the Mauthausen concentration camp, my late wife was a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau.”
Mosberg went on to express gratitude for the opportunity to establish himself in the United States after immigrating “without a penny to my name,” and condemned Jackson for using a quote he attributed to Hitler:
Your post on Instagram quoting Adolf Hitler, the man behind one of the most evil regimes this world has ever known and responsible for the deaths of over 6 million Jews, including my dear parents and sisters, as well as 2 million ethnic Poles and millions of other nationalities and minorities, is heartbreaking and so deeply wrong. The Allied Forces, including American troops, carrying with them American flags, fought valiantly and suffered unspeakable losses to stop this evil, the same man you quote!
Mosberg concluded his letter by inviting Jackson to “join me at the sites of these German Nazi death camps, to understand what evil truly is, and why sharing quotes of the man behind this evil is so offensive to us all.”
From The Depths founder Jonny Daniels told The Jerusalem Post, “Education is the key to making the world a better place and I truly hope that DeSean accepts Mr. Mosberg’s invitation. There is nothing more powerful than visiting a such a horrendous site, with someone who survived and hopefully after that he will realize quite how stupid and offensive his fake quote of Hitler was.”
The official Twitter account of the Auschwitz Memorial Museum echoed Mosberg’s invitation, urging Jackson to “consider following @AuschwitzMuseum where we commemorate the victims & educate about the tragic history of #Auschwitz, a place that became a symbols of Hitler’s hateful ideology & vision.”
.@DeSeanJackson10 Consider following @AuschwitzMuseum where we commemorate the victims & educate about the tragic history of #Auschwitz, a place that became a symbols of Hitler’s hateful ideology & vision.
Tour online: https://t.co/K5ahbXEaOf
E-lessons: https://t.co/5GqOAoIj0q— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) July 7, 2020
The Philadelphia Eagles released an official statement assuring fans that “we have spoken with DeSean Jackson about his social media posts,” and that “the messages he shared were offensive, harmful, and absolutely appalling.” A source told ESPN that “no discussion of a suspension or termination has been raised with Jackson to this point.”
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) July 7, 2020
Jackson posted a video to Instagram on Tuesday apologizing for the quote and claiming it “never was intended to put any race down or any religion down.”
“I just probably should have never posted anything that Hitler did because Hitler was a bad person and I know that,” he added. “I was just trying to uplift, you know, African Americans and slavery and, you know, just enlighten my people.”