Melbourne survivor takes Whoopi to task

Melbourne Holocaust survivor Annetta Able has received worldwide support for her heartfelt rebuke of American TV and movie star Whoopi Goldberg, who last week insisted the Shoah was “not about race”.

The 98-year-old, who with her late twin sister Stephanie Heller, was experimented on by Dr Josef Mengele in Auschwitz, recorded a video after The View host sparked international outrage with her remarks.

Goldberg, who subsequently apologised for the offence she caused, was suspended from presenting the show for two weeks “for her wrong and hurtful comments … to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments”.

Annetta’s video, in which she urged Goldberg to “Be careful with the words you choose. Be careful with the effect they have,” has been shared internationally and watched thousands of times online.

“I have received messages of support from people in Israel and America and lots of comments on Facebook,” she told The AJN this week.

“After my daughter Daphne showed me Whoopi’s comments, I was really angry and we decided to record a video – I wanted to set the record right about the Holocaust, especially as I have first-hand knowledge as one of the survivors still alive.”

Born in Czechoslovakia in 1924, Annetta and Stephanie – who passed away in 2019 – were transported to Theresienstadt in 1942. The following year, they were sent to Auschwitz, where Mengele, known as “the angel of death”, immediately started his experiments on them.

At the end of the war, the pair returned to Czechoslovakia where they learned their entire family had perished. They subsequently moved to Israel, before Annetta relocated to Melbourne in the early 1960s.

In the video, Annetta, who celebrated her birthday last Friday with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, said, “It was about race. It was about my race and that of my sister and parents and all who can’t speak today.

“Today, I am the oldest surviving twin of the murderous Dr Mengele. I shudder to call him doctor. My sister and I were part of his experiments and no one can claim this did not happen. We lived to tell of the horrors we went through.

“My sister would say more and better, and I’m sure she would be proud of me for speaking out today. It is not easy for me to do this. She was stronger than me. I always cry when I think of our family and their terrible end.

“Whoopi Goldberg and all others, be careful with the words you choose and use. Be careful with the effect they have.

“In a world of fake news, be careful not to bring back the horrors of the past. The Holocaust was about the Nazis’ policy to rid the world of the Jews in the cruellest-possible way. The Jewish race.

“It is popular to forgive our tormentor. I cannot forgive and I cannot forget. I ask for you too, do not forget.”

As well as making the video, Annetta was interviewed by 3AW’s Neil Mitchell last week.

Commending Annetta’s “courage and eloquence in calling out Whoopi Goldberg’s stupid, obscene and offensive Holocaust distortion,” the Anti-Defamation Commission’s Dvir Abramovich said, “The Holocaust was all about race. Hitler called the Germans a ‘Master race’, and six million Jews were targeted and singled out for destruction because the Nazis’ genocidal campaign was about ridding the world of this ‘inferior’, ‘subhuman’ race.

“This troubling episode speaks volumes to the increasing ignorance about the Holocaust.”