‘The View’: Whoopi Goldberg Tries to Backtrack After Repeating Holocaust Comments

Whoopi Goldberg tried to clarify her position on what the Holocaust was about after she seemed to double down on her January remarks on The View. In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Goldberg stood by her stance that the Holocaust was not “about race,” but she said Tuesday it was never her intention to make it seem as though she still believed in comments she already apologized for once.

“Recently while doing press in London, I was asked about my comments from earlier this year. I tried to convey to the reporter what I had said and why, and attempted to recount that time,” Goldberg said in a statement to PEOPLE. “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.”

The Till star noted that she is “still learning a lot” and has “heard everything” people are saying about her. “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,” Goldberg continued. “My sincere apologies again, especially to everyone who thought this was a fresh rehash of the subject. I promise it was not. 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.”

During her interview with the Sunday Times, Goldberg said she did not understand why her remarks from January caused an uproar at the time, noting that even Jewish people debate over whether they are a race or religion. “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,’” she said.

The Times journalist told Goldberg that the Nazis considered Jewish people as a race. “Yes, but that’s the killer, isn’t it? The oppressor is telling you what you are,” Goldberg replied. “Why are you believing them? They’re Nazis. Why believe what they’re saying?”

Goldberg then stood by her position that the Holocaust “wasn’t originally” about race. The journalist asked Goldberg if race could be about more than just skin color. “It’s not in its official… when you look it up,” Goldberg said. The journalist then noted that Nazis measured Jewish people’s facial features.

“They did that to Black people too. But it doesn’t change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street,” Goldberg said. “You could find me. You couldn’t find them. That was the point I was making. But you would have thought that I’d taken a big old stinky dump on the table, butt naked.” The reporter then wrote that they did not believe Goldberg’s comments stemmed from anti-Semitism, but from “blinkered American incuriosity.”

In January 2022, Goldberg said the Holocaust “isn’t about race” but “was about the inhumanity to man.” Her co-hosts on The View, including Joy Behar and Sara Haines, reminded her that the Nazis did not see Jewish people as White. Behar also pointed out that Nazies persecuted Black people as well. Goldberg was suspended for two weeks and issued an on-air apology.

“I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention,” Goldberg said on a later episode of The View. “And I understand why now, and for that, I am deeply, deeply grateful because the information I got was really helpful and it helped me understand some different things.”