Whoopi Goldberg Issues Apology After Claiming Holocaust Is Not About Race [Photo + Video]

Co-host Whoopi Goldberg caused chaos on ABC’s “The View” Monday when she insisted that the Holocaust was “not about race.”

via: THR

The View host and moderator made the claim on the latest episode of the ABC program during a discussion about a Tennessee school district voting to pull Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel Maus, which is about the Holocaust, due to “inappropriate language” and nudity.

“Let’s be truthful about it because Holocaust isn’t about race,” Goldberg said. “It’s not about race. It’s not about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man.”

Co-host Ana Navarro pointed out, “But it’s about white supremacists going after after Jews–”

“But these are two white groups of people!” Goldberg said. “The minute you turn it into race it goes down this alley. Let’s talk about it for what it is. It’s how people treat each other. It doesn’t matter if you’re Black or white, Jews, it’s each other.”

Goldberg’s comments have drawn immediate backlash from some viewers, as well as from some Jewish leaders.

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted: “No @WhoopiGoldberg, the #Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race. They dehumanized them and used this racist propaganda to justify slaughtering 6 million Jews. Holocaust distortion is dangerous. #ENOUGH.”

The official Auschwitz Memorial Twitter account messaged Goldberg with an online course about the Holocaust.

While the US Holocaust Museum, in what seemed to be a Goldberg subtweet, wrote, “Racism was central to Nazi ideology. Jews were not defined by religion, but by race. Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder.”

American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris tweeted: “Whoopi Goldberg absurdly claims the #Holocaust ‘isn’t about race.’ Nazi Germany considered all Jews a ‘subhuman race.’ That’s why they wanted to exterminate the entire Jewish people, including my family, & almost succeeded. Please rethink & apologize.”

Meanwhile, Israeli writer Hen Mazzig tweeted, “Being Jewish means watching white nationalists call for your death because you’re ‘not white’ while ladies on national TV say the Holocaust was ‘white people killing white people…y’all go fight amongst yourselves.’”

Late Monday, Goldberg tweeted an apology for her comments, saying, “I’m sorry for the hurt that I have caused.” She also reiterated, “The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver.”