Whoopi Goldberg apologizes for saying the Holocaust was “not necessarily about race”

Talk show host Whoopi Goldberg apologized after she claimed earlier on Monday that the Holocaust “was not about race” as it involved “two groups of white people.” She said the horrific historical event was instead an example of “man’s inhumanity to man.” 

Goldberg’s comments, which she made on ABC show “The View,” stunned her colleagues and sparked anger from viewers. She later issued an apology.

“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 said. “As Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League shared, “The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race.” 

“I stand corrected,” Goldberg noted. “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. Written with my sincerest apologies, Whoopi Goldberg.”

Goldberg later appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where she added that she was disappointed that she had offended as many people as she did. “It upset a lot of people, which was never ever ever my intention,” she said. 

Goldberg went on to attempt to justify her remarks. “I feel, being black, when we talk about race it’s a very different thing to me. So I said I thought the Holocaust wasn’t about race,” she said. “And it made people very angry. I’m getting a lot of mail from folks and a lot of anger. But I thought it was a salient discussion because as a black person I think of race as being something that I can see.”

She noted that if the Ku Klux Klan were approaching, she would have to run but a Jewish friend would be safe. She continued to insist that Nazis were not racist, they were evil.

“When you talk about being a racist, you can’t call this racism,” Goldberg said. “This was evil. This wasn’t based on skin. You couldn’t tell who was Jewish. You had to delve deeply to figure it out. My point is: they had to do the work.”