Whoopi Goldberg Slammed For Offensive Holocaust Misrepresentation, Claims Holocaust Not Originally About Race

Whoopi Goldberg is facing backlash after comments she made in a recent interview misrepresented the Holocaust by minimizing the influence the Jewish race had on the Nazi's actions.

The comments mark the second time this year Goldberg, 67, has come under fire after she first did so in January when she said the Holocaust wasn't "about race."

Goldberg's latest remarks came out in an interview published Saturday to promote her role in the new film "Till," in which she plays civil rights activist Mamie Till-Mobley's mother.

When prompted with "Nazis saw Jews as a race," Goldberg told The Sunday Times, "Yes, but that's the killer, isn't it? 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]," Goldberg continued. "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."

When the reporter told Goldberg that "the Nazis measured the heads and noses of Jews to 'prove' they were a distinct race," Goldberg replied: "They did that to Black people too. But it doesn't change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street. 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."

Goldberg's comments have ignited a firestorm of backlash for the award-winning actor, including from the chief of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt.

"Whoopi Goldberg's comments about the Holocaust and race are deeply offensive and incredibly disappointing, especially given that this is not the first time she had made remarks like this," Greenblatt said in a statement. "In a moment when antisemitic incidents have surged across the US, she should realize that making such ignorant statements can have real consequences."

Goldberg's previous comments in January led to a two-week suspension from her role as host on ABC's "The View."

"It's not about race. It's about man's inhumanity to man. That's what it's about," she said in January.

Goldberg has also received corrections and criticism from current and former Jewish leaders, including the former president of the American Jewish Committee, David Harris.

Retweeting a Hitler passage first posted by the Auschwitz Memorial account, Harris called out Goldberg by name, saying: "Stop claiming the Holocaust wasn't about race. It was all about race."

Goldberg apologized quickly after her comments earlier in the year, and expressed remorse upon her return to "The View." However, it remains unclear if she will face punishment from ABC following her latest controversial claims.