A Holocaust survivor’s message to Whoopi Goldberg
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CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — Holocaust survivor Lucy Lipiner is tossing her hat in the ring to be a guest on “The View.”
Her request comes after co-host Whoopi Goldberg was suspended from the show Tuesday following her remarks about the genocide.
“I felt that I could probably help her learn a few things about Jewish people and (the) Jewish race,” Lipiner told NewsNation’s Marni Hughes.
The 88-year-old author of “Long Journey Home: A Young Girl’s Memoir of Surviving the Holocaust” pitched the idea of hopping on the daytime talk series via Twitter on Monday, a day before Goldberg was suspended.
In her first tweet, she wrote: “Hi @WhoopiGoldberg. My family was killed for not being white. Hitler & Nazis NEEDED to exterminate Jews because we weren’t ‘white enough’ for them. I’m happy to meet and educate you about what really happened in the Holocaust.”
About an hour later, Lipiner followed up with another tweet to the show.
“I am a Holocaust survivor in NYC,” she said. “I might be 88-years-old but I have the energy to come on your show and talk to @WhoopiGoldberg and all the girls about the Holocaust. I think we can have a meaningful conversation together and heal wounds. DM me! Love, Lucy.”
Lipiner’s tweets have since gone viral with more than 40,000 likes collectively. Lipiner said she was very disappointed when she heard Goldberg’s opinion about the Holocaust.
“What was very hurtful to me is to hear her say that it was white people fighting white people. Yes, Jewish people in most parts of Europe are white. But Jewish people are not all white. We are also black Jews and … Chinese Jews, Indian Jews. But we are a race.”
She continued, “And when she mentioned that, it was all about white people fighting white people … Jewish people and not fighting the Nazis. Nazis were trying and they were quite successful in exterminating Jewish people.”
On Tuesday’s show, Goldberg did apologize for her comment. She said, “Words matter and mine are no exception. I regret my comments, as I said, and I stand corrected.” She also tweeted an apology.
Lipiner was born in Poland and fled with her family at the outbreak of World War II when she was six years old. She recalled the moment when her mother told her to pack their things.
“My mom came into our room, and she told us that we were going on a little vacation,” said Lipiner. “And she said, all your clothes are laid out here. And you must wear layers. It was still summer, September 1. She told us we have to wear two dresses, a pair of slacks, a sweater, a scarf, and a coat. I couldn’t understand why we needed to wear so much clothes.”
She said that was the last day she saw her home.
Lipiner’s said her father convinced the rest of her family to run away. Her aunts, uncles, and cousins traveled in a horse-drawn wagon for weeks before they reached the Soviet Union, on the eastern border of Poland.
“It was very difficult because we were always on the dirt roads,” she said. “They were tiny dirt roads because the Nazis were on major roads.”
Lipiner said she would like to join the show to offer her perspective about the Holocust. She said she would treat her appearance as a “teaching moment” so that she could correct the misconceptions about what happened during that time period.
An estimated 6 million Jews were killed by Nazis over the course of the Holocaust.
