Whoopi Goldberg has apologised for saying the Holocaust “isn’t about race” on US panel show, The View.
The Sister Act star issued a statement after she came under fire for her remarks made on Monday’s programme during a discussion about a Tennessee school board’s decision to ban Pulitzer prize-winning Holocaust graphic novel Maus.
The actor, who co-hosts The View, had said the historic atrocity was “about man’s inhumanity to man”.
“Let’s be truthful, the Holocaust isn’t about race, it’s not,” she said.
“It’s about man’s inhumanity to man, that’s what it’s about. These are two groups of white people.”
She continued: “You’re missing the point… let’s talk about it for what it really is. It’s about how people treat each other.
“It’s a problem. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, Jews…everybody eats each other.”
Amid a growing backlash, the actor apologised in a statement shared on Twitter.
“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,” she wrote.
“As Jonathan Greenblatt from of 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.
“The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never waiver. I am sorry for the hurt I have caused.
“Written with my sincerest apologies. Whoopi Goldberg.”
The 66-year-old star’s comments were condemned by activists online as “dangerous” following the show’s broadcast.
But responding to her apology, Mr Gleenblatt thanked the actor for “acknowledging the Holocaust for what it was”.
“Thanks @WhoopiGoldberg for correcting your prior statement and acknowledging the #Holocaust for what it was,” he wrote on Twitter.
“As #antisemitism surges to historic levels, I hope we can work together to combat ignorance of that horrific crime and the hate that threatens all.”
StopAntisemitism.org said Whoopi’s comments had “minimised” the trauma and suffering caused by the atrocity.
“Newsflash @WhoopiGoldberg 6 million of us were gassed, starved and massacred because we were deemed an inferior race by the Nazis,” the organisation wrote.
“How dare you minimise our trauma and suffering!”