Whoopi Goldberg is talking again about whether the Holocaust, which involvedthe murder of 6 million Jewish people, was racially motivated.
In a new interview with The Sunday Times of London, shared during Hanukkah,Goldberg suggested Jews are divided about whether they are a race, religion orboth.
“My best friend said, ‘Not for nothing is there no box on the census for theJewish race. So that leads me to believe that we’re probably not a race,'” sherecalled.
When The Times journalist Janice Turner mentioned racially divisive laws setby Nazis aimed at Jews, “The View” cohost insisted that the Holocaust “wasn’toriginally” about “racial” or “physical” attributes.
“They were killing people they considered to be mentally defective. And thenthey made this decision,” she said.
Whoopi Goldberg said the Holocaust wasn’t initially about race.
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Turner continued to push back, telling Goldberg, “Nazis saw Jews as a race.”
“Yes, but that’s the killer, isn’t it? The oppressor is telling you what youare. Why are you believing them? They’re Nazis. Why believe what they’resaying?” the “Till” actress responded.
Goldberg added, “It doesn’t change the fact that you couldn’t tell a Jew on astreet. You could find me. You couldn’t find them.”
The actress was previously suspended from “The View” in January for similarremarks. Addressing those comments, she said, “That was the point I wasmaking. But you would have thought that I’d taken a big old stinky dump on thetable, butt naked.”
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Goldberg’s comments to The Times of London are being met with backlash. “Thisis one of the times where I think someone should force Whoopi Goldberg to goto a Holocaust museum and learn about the Nuremberg laws,” video game directorLuc Bernard wroteon Twitter.
“Someone tell Whoopi her remarks are still abhorrent and ignorant even whenspoken to a British paper,” Boundless Israel founder Aviva Klompaswrote.
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USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Goldberg, the Anti-DefamationLeague and “The View” for comment.
Whoopi Goldberg was previously suspended from ‘The View’ over her remarksabout the Holocaust
Goldberg’s new comments echo remarks she made about the Holocaust on “TheView,” which led to a suspension in February.
ABC News president Kim Godwin said that Goldberg would be suspended from “TheView” for two weeks effective immediately for “her wrong and hurtfulcomments,” in a statement shared with USA TODAY on Feb. 2.
“While Whoopi has apologized, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learnabout the impact of her comments,” Godwin added. “The entire ABC Newsorganization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, familyand communities.”
Previous: Whoopi Goldberg returns to ‘The View’ after suspension
Goldberg posted a now-deleted **** statement expressing her”sincerestapologies” onTwitter on Jan. 31, after the episode aired, also echoing a statement fromAnti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt who wrote that the Holocaust”was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who theydeemed to be an inferior race .”
“On today’s show, I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’sinhumanity to man.’ I should have said it is about both,” she wrote. “I standcorrected. The Jewish people around the world have always had my support andthat will never waiver. I’m sorry for the hurt I have caused.”
On the show the following day, she addressed the controversy again, saying she”misspoke.”
“My words upset so many people, which was never my intention,” she said. “Iunderstand why now, and for that I am deeply, deeply grateful, because theinformation I got was really helpful and helped me understand some differentthings.”
Whoopi Goldberg previously was suspended from
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What did Whoopi Goldberg say about the Holocaust?
Goldberg made her initial comments during a discussion about a Tennesseeschool board banning the book “Maus” from the eighth-grade English andlanguage arts curriculum.
The graphic novel, written by comic artist Art Spiegelman, tells the story ofhis Jewish parents living in 1940s Poland and follows them through theirinternment in Auschwitz. Nazis are portrayed as cats, while Jewish people areshown as mice.
“If you’re going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it, because theHolocaust isn’t about race,” Goldberg said at the time. “It’s about man’sinhumanity to man. That’s what it’s about.”
Co-host Joy Behar chimed in, saying, “Well, they considered Jews a differentrace,” in reference to the Nazis. Anna Navarro also pushed back, saying, “Butit’s about white supremacy.”
Goldberg doubled down.
“But these are two white groups of people,” she said. “You’re missing thepoint. The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. Let’s talkabout it for what it is. It’s how people treat each other. It’s a problem. Itdoesn’t matter if you’ re Black or white, ’cause Black, white, Jews …everybody eats each other.”
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Contributing: Charles Trepany, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Whoopi Goldberg Holocaustcomments cause backlash after new interview