Jonathan Greenblatt explains why Whoopi Goldberg's Holocaust comments were wrong
The Anti-Defamation League's Jonathan Greenblatt appears on 'The View' to address Whoopi Goldberg's widely panned remarks that the Holocaust wasn't about race.
CEO of the Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt joined the cast of ABC's "The View" Tuesday to correct co-host Whoopi Goldberg following her heavily scrutinized claim that the Holocaust was "not about race."
Goldberg made the claim on Monday's episode and argued that, rather than race, the Holocaust was actually about "man's inhumanity to man," despite the systematic killing of an estimated six million Jews that the Nazis viewed as racially inferior.
CEO of the Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt and "The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg (Getty Images) (Getty Images)
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"These are two White groups of people," Goldberg pointedly said as her co-hosts pushed back on her claims.
Goldberg was pilloried online for her take, as German leader at the time Adolf Hitler believed in a "master race" and attempted the complete elimination of the Jewish race in Europe.
"So yesterday on our show, I misspoke, and I tweeted about it last night, but I kind of want you to hear it from me directly," Goldberg said to open the show. "I said something that I feel a responsibility for not leaving unexamined because my words upset so many people, which was never my intention … I said that the Holocaust wasn’t about race, and it was instead about man’s inhumanity to man."
"But it is indeed about race because Hitler and the Nazis considered Jews to be an inferior race. Now words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments, as I said, and I stand corrected. I also stand with the Jewish people as they know and y’all know because I’ve always done that," she added.
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler watch a Nazi parade staged for the Italian dictator's visit to Germany. (Getty Images) (Getty Images)
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Goldberg then asked Greenblatt to explain why the Holocaust was, indeed, about race.
"Well, Whoopi, there’s no question that the Holocaust was about race. That’s how the Nazis saw it as they perpetrated the systematic annihilation of the Jewish people across continents, across countries with deliberate and ruthless cruelty," Greenblatt said. "You see, Hitler’s ideology, the Third Reich, was predicated on the idea that the Aryans, the Germans, were a ‘master race,’ and the Jews were a subhuman race. It was racialized anti-Semitism."
"Your platform, Whoopi, is so important, using it now to educate people to realize that anti-Semitism remains a clear and present danger," Greenblatt added. "I mean, it’s a real issue, and we’ve got to confront it, and the racism, at the core."
A pathway leading to an observation and security tower between what were electric barbed wire fences inside the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz I in Oswiecim, Poland, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) ((AP Photo/Markus Schreiber))
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In response to a question from co-host Sunny Hostin about a study showing a surprising number of young Americans were unaware that six million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, Greenblatt suggested Jewish representation on "The View" would help fix that issue. The show is still looking for a permanent replacement in the token conservative chair after Meghan McCain left last year.
"I would dare say shows like yours are so important, and I know you guys believe in representation, and I know you guys work to bring all points of view, and I know you’re considering, you know, a new host for the show. A permanent host," he said. "Think about having a Jewish host on this show who can bring these issues of anti-Semitism, who can bring these issues of representation to 'The View' every single day."
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
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