Whoopi Goldberg suspended from The View for two weeks over 'hurtful' Holocaust comments

Whoopi Goldberg prompted anger after she said the Holocaust was "not about race" Credit: AP

Actor and presenter of US talk show The View, Whoopi Goldberg, has been suspended from her role for two weeks following anger over “wrong and hurtful comments” she made about the Holocaust.

Ms Goldberg had been asked to take time to “reflect and learn about the impact of her comments,” Kim Godwin, president of ABC News, said.

The move comes after Ms Goldberg said the historic atrocity was not “about race" during a discussion about a Tennessee school board’s decision to ban Pulitzer prize-winning Holocaust graphic novel Maus.

Following a backlash to her remarks online, Ms Goldberg, 66, apologised, saying Jewish people around the world have “always had my support” in a statement.

But in a statement posted online on Tuesday, Ms Godwin said: “Effective immediately I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks following her wrong and hurtful comments.

“While Whoopi has apologised, I have asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments.

“The entire ABC News organisation stands in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues, friends, family and communities.”

In the original discussion, Goldberg said: “Let’s be truthful, the Holocaust isn’t about race, it’s not.”

“It’s about man’s inhumanity to man, that’s what it’s about. These are two groups of white people.”

Her words drew heavy criticism online from Jewish groups and others.

In her apology Goldberg said: “On today’s show I said the Holocaust ‘is not about race, but about man’s inhumanity to man’. I should have said it is about both.

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“As Jonathan Greenblatt from of the Anti-Defamation League shared, ‘The Holocaust was about the Nazi’s systematic annihilation of the Jewish people – who they deemed to be an inferior race’. I stand corrected.

“The Jewish people around the world have always had my support and that will never (waver). I am sorry for the hurt I have caused.

“Written with my sincerest apologies. Whoopi Goldberg.”

Prior to her suspension, Mr Greenblatt had thanked the presenter for her apology.