Most Americans don't know even the most basic facts about the Holocaust

(the Nazis' systematic campaign to murder all the Jews they could get their hands on).

If they don't know what was so evil about Nazis, that is likely to make them more susceptible to recruitment by today's Nazi sympathizers and neo-Nazi organizations, including the Republican Party.

When Whoopi Goldberg said that the Holocaust "was not about race," she was using the modern American conception of race. By that conception, most Jews are white, although a few belong to other racial groups.

Those who rebuked her cited the Nazis' conception of race, which was different -- they described Jews collectively as a "race." Going by their definition of "race," the Holocaust was indeed about "race."

I don't think this disagreement was about morality, only the semantics of the word "race." Can we give Goldberg a break?

*Whoopi was Wrong [that is, mistaken] and Wronged [that is, unjustly punished].*