He was trying to qualify his words, but the statements by Whoopi Goldberg (New York, 67 years old) have only fueled the controversy.
The actress and presenter she said last January on the television program
The View
, that “the Holocaust has nothing to do with race.
It is about man's inhumanity to man.
They were whites killing whites.”
Then a great controversy was formed that is still kicking.
For her they asked him in an interview this week in the British newspaper
The Times
.
Goldberg tried to justify what she said in January by reflecting on the concept of race.
"My best friend told me: 'There is no box in the census for the Jewish race,'" the artist explained to the publication, adding that some Jews were divided on whether they are a race or a religion.
Her words were meant to contextualize her hurtful comments from her past, but they only succeeded in galvanizing a languishing controversy.
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On Monday, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum posted on Twitter a letter from Adolf Hitler calling Jews an "alien race unable and unwilling to sacrifice its distinctive racial character."
Different associations have pointed out, citing historical documents, the racist component that Nazism had.
For her part, the actress and presenter, who already apologized profusely at the beginning of the year, has published a statement that has been commissioned to spread the American magazine
Variety
.
In it, she again apologizes for her words.
“Recently, while doing interviews in London, I was asked about my comments from earlier this year.
I tried to convey to the reporter what he had said and why.
It was never my intention to give the impression that I was responding to hurtful comments, especially after speaking with and listening to people like rabbis and friends old and new.
I'm still learning a lot and believe me, I listened to everything they told me.
The Holocaust was all about race, and I still regret having upset, hurt, and angered people," the statement said.
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Actress Whoopi Goldberg claims the Holocaust was not a racial issue
Following the January statements, the actress and host of
The View
program was suspended for two weeks from appearing on screen.
The president of ABC News -channel in which the controversial program was broadcast-, Kim Godwin, explained through a statement that the apologies were not enough: "With immediate effect, I suspend Whoopi Goldber for her wrong and hurtful comments. .
Although Whoopi apologized, I asked her to take some time to reflect and realize the impact of her comments."
It all started when the actress, who has starred in films that have denounced anti-black racism like
The Color Purple
, spoke on the show about a Tennessee school's ban on the 1986 graphic novel
Maus: A Survivor's Story
.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning book deals with
about life in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz and depicts the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats.
It is considered a powerful and accurate description of the Nazi murder of millions of Jews during World War II.