The American ABC network announced tonight (Wednesday) that it has suspended actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg from presenting the show “The View” for two weeks. This, following her controversial statement regarding the Holocaust, which caused a stir, after claiming that the Holocaust “is not related to race.”
Goldberg, 66, has been a presenter on ABC’s talk show since 2007. “I made the decision to suspend Whoopi from The View for two weeks immediately because of her erroneous and hurtful comments,” ABC network president Kim Goodwin said in a statement. “These decisions are never easy, but necessary.”
“While Whoopi apologized, I asked her to take time and ponder and learn about the impact of her comments,” Goodwin said. “The entire ABC network stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”
As you may recall, Goldberg caused a stir last night when during a panel that dealt with the subject of the Holocaust, a discussion erupted and claimed that the Holocaust was “not related to race.” Although already on the panel members tried to correct her, she insisted and claimed that since these are “two groups of white people”, it has nothing to do with race.
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Even when it was explained to her that the Nazi Germans believed they were a “superior race” and persecuted the Jews because they saw them as an “inferior race” she did not give up. “It has to do with a person’s inhumanity towards one person, that’s all it is,” she argued.
— Whoopi Goldberg (@WhoopiGoldberg) February 1, 2022
However, since then the actress has apologized and written in a statement on her Twitter account that she was wrong. “In today’s program, I said that ‘the Holocaust is not about race, but about a person’s inhumanity towards another person,'” she wrote. “I should have said it had to do with both things. As Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League put it, ‘The Holocaust dealt with the systematic extermination of Jews by the Nazis – who saw them as an inferior race.’
She added: “I have always supported Jews around the world and that will never change. I am sorry for the pain I have caused.” She signed the tweet with the words “written from my most sincere apology, Whoopi Goldberg”.
Yad Vashem chairman Danny Dayan referred to Goldberg’s apology and said in a video he released that it was “not enough.” He invited the actress to visit Yad Vashem to learn and correct.
“In her words, Goldberg demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding, and probably also a lack of knowledge, about what anti-Semitism in general and the Holocaust in particular is,” he said. “Nazi Germany under Hitler’s rule persecuted and destroyed the Jews because they saw us as an inferior and dangerous race. Whether we are a race or not, it is irrelevant. They saw us as a race. It was a racist persecution.”
He added: “I saw Goldberg’s apology and clarification, it is important and educational but it is not enough. I invite her and other influencers to visit Yad Vashem and educate themselves thoroughly about the Holocaust. They did not leave the same person who entered,” he promised.