Whoopi Goldberg suspended for two weeks over ‘hurtful’ Holocaust comments

Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from her role as presenter of US talk show The View for two weeks following her “wrong and hurtful comments” about the Holocaust.

Kim Godwin, president of ABC News, said she had asked Goldberg to take time to “reflect and learn about the impact of her comments”.

It follows a backlash after Goldberg said the historic atrocity was not “about race.”

She made the comments on an episode of The View during a discussion about a Tennessee school board’s decision to ban Pulitzer prize-winning Holocaust graphic novel Maus, later apologising for the remarks.

But in a statement posted online on Tuesday, Ms Godwin said: “Effective immediately I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks following her wrong and hurtful comments.

“While Whoopi has apologised, I have asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments.

“The entire ABC News organisation stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”

In the original discussion, Goldberg said: “Let’s be truthful, the Holocaust isn’t about race, it’s not.”

“It’s about man’s inhumanity to man, that’s what it’s about. These are two groups of white people.”

Her words drew heavy criticism online including from Anti-Defamation League (ADL) chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt and StopAntisemitism.org

In her apology Goldberg said: “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.

“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 (waver). I am sorry for the hurt I have caused.

“Written with my sincerest apologies. Whoopi Goldberg.”

Prior to her suspension, Mr Greenblatt had thanked the presenter for her apology.