Whoopi Goldberg had to apologize for speaking about the Holocaust

During the talk show The View, Whoopi Goldberg stated that the genocide of the Jews involved the inhumane treatment of one group of white people toward another, but that there was no racial underpinning to it.

The reason for this discussion was the recent banning in a Tennessee school of the comic book Maus, in which hand-drawn pictures depict Jews fleeing the Holocaust as mice and Nazis as cats. The school board reasoned that the book contained profanity and illustrations of naked bodies, which was deemed inappropriate for teenagers.

“It surprises me that you were confused by the very fact that there is nudity in the book. First of all it’s a work about the Holocaust, about the murder of six million people, that didn’t embarrass you?” – Goldberg stated during the talk show.

“Let’s be honest. The Holocaust is not about race. No, it’s not about race,” Whoopi Goldberg added.

Program co-host Joy Behar tried to change Goldberg’s mind, pointing out that the Nazis considered Jews to be members of an inferior race. But she shot back and said, “No, it’s not about race. No. It’s about the inhumanity of some to others.”

“You’re missing the most important thing! As soon as you talk about racism, you put everything in that plane. Let’s talk about why this actually happened. This is a story about how people treat each other, that’s the problem,” Whoopi Goldberg parried.

The show has sparked a storm of criticism, including for spreading dangerous misinformation about the Holocaust. Critics noted that Hitler himself openly expressed racial hatred of Jews.

“Racism was central to Nazi ideology. Jews were not defined by religion, but by race. Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder,” said the U.S. Holocaust Museum.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro posted on Twitter a quote from Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf in which he explicitly calls the Jews a separate race.

Amid a growing wave of criticism, Goldberg was forced to apologize.

“In today’s program, I said that the Holocaust was not about race, but about the inhumane treatment of some people toward others. I should have said it was about both,” Goldberg wrote on her Twitter account.

“Jews around the world have always had my support, and it will never go away. I want to apologize for the pain my words have caused,” she added.