With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Whoopi Goldberg's Holocaust History Latest "The View" Flap

In an awkward exchange with her co-hosts on “The View,” actress and producer Whoopi Goldberg claimed that “the Holocaust isn’t about race,” but rather about “man’s inhumanity to man.”

The panel was discussing a Tennessee school board’s removal of the Holocaust book “Maus” from its curriculum earlier this month. All five co-hosts opposed the board’s decision, saying that the acclaimed graphic memoir should be taught in classrooms; but Goldberg differed strongly from her colleagues on the question of exactly why the Holocaust should be taught to students.

“If you’re going to do this, then let’s be truthful about it,” Goldberg said, before elaborating that “these [Jews and Nazis] are two white groups of people.”

Co-host Joy Behar objected, arguing that Nazis “considered Jews a different race.” Guest co-host Ana Navarro asserted that “it’s about white supremacy, it’s about going after Jews and Gypsies.” But Goldberg continued to speak.

“The minute you turn it into race, you go down this alley,” she continued, as the show’s producers began playing music as a cue to cut to commercials.

Later in the show, the hosts interviewed Mayim Bialik about her upcoming gig hosting the college competition on “Jeopardy.” Bialik, the granddaughter of two Holocaust survivors, wrote her Harvard undergraduate entrance essay on “Maus” and said she agreed with Goldberg’s take on the book.

“As Whoopi said, it’s not just about Jews and it’s not about race, it is about the things that humans do to each other and we continue to do those things to each other,” Bialik said. She did not, however, respond to Goldberg’s characterization of the Holocaust, however, as about “two white groups fighting.”

Read entire article at Forward