Sister Act star Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from The View for two weeks over her 'dangerous' Holocaust comments.
Whoopi, 66, made the 'wrong and hurtful' comments during a chat about a Tennessee school board’s decision to ban Maus - a graphic novel about the experiences of a Holocaust survivor.
Whoopi, who co-hosts the panel show which is like an American version of Loose Women, claimed that the Holocaust 'was not about race ' because it involved 'two groups of white people'.
The Holocaust was the genocide of European Jews during World War Two which took place from 1941 to 1945 and saw Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murder some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe - around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.
Whoopi's opinion on the matter upset people around the world as she said: “Let’s be truthful – the Holocaust isn’t about race. It’s about man’s inhumanity to man – that’s what it’s about.”
And when her co-host insisted the Holocaust was 'about white supremacy', Whoopi responded: "But these are two white groups of people. You’re missing the point."
“The minute you turn it into race, it goes down this alley. Let’s talk about it for what it is – it’s how people treat each other. It’s a problem. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, because black, white, Jews - everybody eats each other.”
Piers Morgan was amongst those to call her view dangerous and Michael Rapaport also condemned her.
ABC News President Kim Godwin announced Whoopi's suspension on Tuesday night, adding that it was 'effective immediately'.
He said: "While Whoopi has apologised, I've asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,' Godwin said in a tweet.
"The entire ABC News organisation stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities."
Whoopi, who is said to becoming to Edinburgh in coming months, apologised a number of hours following the show though seemed to backtrack in her views, which aggravated people further.
Everyone from the Israeli Consular General in New York to the Auschwitz Memorial and Anti-Defamation League was furious with her.
Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, corrected her saying: “The Holocaust was about the Nazis’ systemic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race.”
“They dehumanised them and used their racist propaganda to justify slaughtering six million Jews. Holocaust distortion is dangerous.”
Whoopi apologised on Twitter saying: "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 the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) 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."
