Whoopi Goldberg has been receiving heavy criticism after making a comment during a chat show that the Holocaust was "not about race".
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Goldberg, who was the host and moderator made the claim on the latest episode of 'The View', during a discussion about a Tennessee school district voting to pull Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel Maus, which was about the Holocaust, due to "inappropriate language" and nudity.
"Let's be truthful about it because Holocaust isn't about race. It's not about race. It's not about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man," Goldberg said.
Co-host Ana Navarro had pointed out, "But it's about white supremacists going after Jews-"
"But these are two white groups of people! The minute you turn it into a 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 replied.
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 even 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, and almost succeeded. Please rethink and apologize."
As per The Hollywood Reporter, eventually, on late Monday, Goldberg tweeted an apology for her comments.
"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," Goldberg wrote in a statement shared on her social media.
She added, "The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I'm sorry for the hurt I have caused."
Goldberg also reiterated, "The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver."
( With inputs from ANI )
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