Featured Image Credit: CBS/Whoopi Goldberg
Topics: Celebrity
Hannah Smith
Whoopi Goldberg has apologised for claiming that the Holocaust was 'not about race', after Jewish organisations labelled her comments 'dangerous'.
Goldberg made the claim during a discussion on her talk show The View about the recent decision by a US state to ban Maus – a Pulitzer Prize-winning children's book about the Holocaust – from being taught in schools.
'Let's be truthful – the Holocaust isn't about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man – that's what it's about,' the 66-year-old Oscar winner said.
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When challenged by a co-host who argued the Holocaust had been about 'white supremacy', Goldberg replied, 'But these are two white groups of people.'
'You're missing the point. 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,' she continued. 'It's a problem. It doesn't matter if you're Black or white, because Black, white, Jews... everybody eats each other.'
Goldberg's comments immediately sparked criticism from viewers as well as Jewish organisations, who pointed out that Jews were the target of a genocide by the Nazis because they were viewed to be an 'inferior race'.
'Six million of us were gassed, starved, and massacred because we were deemed an inferior race by the Nazis,' Stopantisemitism.org tweeted, per Sky News. 'How dare you minimise our trauma and suffering!'
Goldberg since issued a statement apologising for her remarks, clarifying, 'On today's show I said the Holocaust 'is not about race but about man's inhumanity to man'. I should have said it is about both.'
'As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, 'The Holocaust was about the Nazis' systematic annihilation of the Jewish people, who they deemed to be an inferior race.' I stand corrected.
'The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never [waver]. I am sorry for the hurt I have caused.'
In the statement cited by Goldberg, Greenblatt had stated, 'They dehumanised them and used their racist propaganda to justify slaughtering six million Jews. Holocaust distortion is dangerous.'
He later thanked Goldberg for her apology, saying in a follow-up statement, 'As antisemitism surges to historic levels, I hope we can work together to combat ignorance of that horrific crime and the hate that threatens all.'
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