Whoopi Goldberg is talking again about whether the Holocaust, which involved the murder of 6 million Jews, was racially motivated.
In a new interview with The Sunday Times of London shared during Hanukkah, Goldberg suggested that Jews are divided over whether it is a race, religion or both.
“My best friend said, ‘No wonder there’s no box in the census for the Jewish race. That leads me to believe we’re probably not a race,'” she recalled.
When The Times journalist Janice Turner mentioned the racially divisive laws established by the Nazis aimed at Jews, the co-host of “The View” insisted that the Holocaust “wasn’t originally” about “racial” or “physical” attributes.
“They were killing people they thought were mentally handicapped. And so they made this decision,” she said.
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Turner continued to backtrack, telling Goldberg, “The Nazis viewed the Jews as a race.”
“Yes, but that’s the killer, isn’t it? The oppressor is telling you what you are. Why are you believing them? They’re Nazis. Why believe what they’re saying?” the “Till” actress responded.
Goldberg added, “It doesn’t change the fact that you couldn’t tell a Jew on the street. You could find me. You couldn’t find them.”
The actress had previously been suspended from “The View” in January over similar comments. Addressing these comments, she said, “That was the point I was making. But you’d think I’d made a big ol’ smelly mess on the table, bare ass.”
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Goldberg’s comments to The Times of London are being met with backlash. “This is one of the moments where I think someone should force Whoopi Goldberg to go to a Holocaust museum and learn about the Nuremberg laws,” said video game director Luc Bernard. I wrote on twitter.
“Someone tell Whoopi that her comments are still disgusting and ignorant, even when spoken to a British newspaper,” said Boundless Israel founder Aviva Klompas. I wrote🇧🇷
USA TODAY reached out to representatives from Goldberg, the Anti-Defamation League and The View for comment.
Whoopi Goldberg was previously suspended from ‘The View’ over her Holocaust comments
Goldberg’s new comments echo comments she made about the Holocaust on “The View,” which led to her suspension in February.
ABC News President Kim Godwin said Goldberg would be suspended from “The View” for two weeks immediately for “her erroneous and hurtful comments,” in a statement shared with USA TODAY on Feb. 2.
“While Whoopi apologized, I asked her to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,” added Godwin. “The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”
Previous:Whoopi Goldberg returns to ‘The View’ after suspension
Goldberg posted a now deleted statement expressing it “sincere apologies” on Twitter on Jan. 31 after the episode aired, also echoing a statement by Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt who wrote that the Holocaust “was about the systematic annihilation of the Jewish people by the Nazis – that they considered an inferior race.”
“On today’s show, I said that the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man.’ I should have said it’s about the two of them,” she wrote. “I’m corrected. The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and will never give up. I’m sorry for the pain I caused.”
On the following day’s program, she addressed the controversy again, saying that she “spoken badly”.
“My words upset so many people, which was never my intention,” she said. “I understand why now, and for that I am deeply grateful, because the information I got was really helpful and helped me understand some different things.”
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What did Whoopi Goldberg say about the Holocaust?
Goldberg made his opening remarks during a discussion about a Tennessee school board banning the “Maus” book from the eighth-grade English and language arts curriculum.
The comic, written by comic artist Art Spiegelman, tells the story of his Jewish parents living in 1940s Poland and follows them through their internment in Auschwitz. Nazis are depicted as cats, while Jews are depicted as mice.
“If you’re going to do this, let’s be upfront about it, because the Holocaust is not about race,” Goldberg said at the time. “It’s about man’s inhumanity to man. That’s what it’s about.”
Co-host Joy Behar chimed in, saying, “Well, they considered Jews a different race,” in reference to the Nazis. Anna Navarro also backtracked, saying, “But it’s about white supremacy.”
Goldberg doubled.
“But those are two groups of white people,” she said. “You’re missing the point. The minute you turn this 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’s an issue. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, because black, white, jew… they all eat each other.”
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Contributors: Charles Trepany, USA TODAY and The Associated Press
