Whoopi Goldberg apologizes again for claiming Holocaust was 'not about race'

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Whoopi Goldberg, cohost of "The View," was forced to apologize again for comments in which she claimed the Holocaust was "not about race."

Her latest apology comes after she reiterated in a recent interview the same remarks that resulted in her receiving a two-week suspension from "The View" earlier this year.

"My best friend said, ‘Not for nothing is there no box on the census for the Jewish race. So that leads me to believe that we’re probably not a race,’" Goldberg told The Sunday Times of London in an interview published last week.

She purported in her apology statement that she was referencing her initial remarks from 10 months ago and that she was not "doubling down."

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Whoopi Goldberg, cohost of "The View," was forced to apologize again for comments in which she claimed the Holocaust was "not about race." (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)

"Recently while doing press in London, I was asked about my comments from earlier this year," Goldberg said. "I tried to convey to the reporter what I had said and why, and attempted to recount that time. It was never my intention to appear as if I was doubling down on hurtful comments, especially after talking with and hearing people like rabbis and old and new friends weighing in."

"I'm still learning a lot and believe me, I heard everything everyone said to me," she continued. "I believe that the Holocaust was about race, and I am still as sorry now as I was then that I upset, hurt and angered people. My sincere apologies again, especially to everyone who thought this was a fresh rehash of the subject. I promise it was not."

Goldberg added, "In this time of rising antisemitism, I want to be very clear when I say that I always stood with the Jewish people and always will. My support for them has not wavered and never will."

Goldberg was interviewed by The Sunday Times to promote her upcoming film, "Till." In the movie, she plays Alma Carthan, the mother of civil rights activist Mamie Till-Mobley, whose 14-year-old son Emmett Till was tortured and lynched in 1955. 

The actress suggested in the interview that there is a debate about whether Jews are a race or a religious group, but the interviewer pointed out that Nazis "saw Jews as a race."

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Whoopi Goldberg's latest apology comes after she reiterated in a recent interview the same remarks that resulted in her receiving a two-week suspension from "The View" earlier this year. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for FLC)

"Yes, but that’s the killer, isn’t it?" Goldberg responded. "The oppressor is telling you what you are. Why are you believing them? They’re Nazis. Why believe what they’re saying? It wasn’t originally [about race]. Remember who they were killing first. They were not killing racial, they were killing physical. They were killing people they considered to be mentally defective. And then they made this decision."

These comments mirror the remarks she made at the beginning of the year on an episode of "The View" and subsequently during an appearance that night on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," when she attempted to clarify her original statements.

She also posted a statement on Twitter that same night saying she is "sorry for the hurt I have caused."

ABC News President Kim Godwin announced the following night Goldberg's two-week suspension "for her wrong and hurtful comments."

"While Whoopi has apologized, I've asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments. The entire ABC News organization stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends and communities," Godwin said in a statement at the time.

Goldberg said in her apology statement that she was referencing her initial remarks from 10 months ago and that she was not "doubling down." (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)

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Goldberg's original comments on "The View" came during a segment in which the panelists were discussing a Tennessee school board banning "Maus," a graphic novel about the experiences of a Holocaust survivor.

She said on the show that the Holocaust "isn't about race," and when pressed by cohost Joy Behar on what it is about, Goldberg replied that "It's about man's inhumanity to man."

Cohost Ana Navarro then said, "But it's about white supremacy. It's about going after Jews and Gypsies and Romas."

"But these are two white groups of people," Goldberg responded.