Whoopi Goldberg returns to 'The View' after suspension

Whoopi Goldberg on the set of the daytime talk series 'The View.' (Jenny Anderson / ABC via AP)

NEW YORK — Whoopi Goldberg returned to "The View" on Monday after a two-week suspension for remarks about the Holocaust, expressing surprise at some people who had reached out to her during her absence.

Goldberg had been criticized for comments Jan. 31 on the daytime talk show where she said the Holocaust was not about race, but rather about man's inhumanity to others. She apologized, but ABC News President Kim Godwin told her to sit out two weeks.

"I want to thank everybody who reached out while I was away," Goldberg said at the opening of Monday's show. "I'm telling you, people reached out from places that made me go, 'wait, wait, what? Really? OK. I listened to what everybody was saying and I was grateful."

She did not specify any of the people who reached out to her.

Jewish leaders had criticized her initial statement, noting that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had referred to Jews as an inferior race. Goldberg apologized online the night she made the remark, and on the next day's show.

"Yes, I am back," Goldberg said as she took the stage with her co-hosts on Monday.

"There is something kind of marvelous about being on a show like this because we are 'The View' and this is what we do," she said. "Sometimes we don't do it as elegantly as we could. But it's five minutes to get in information about topics and that's what we try to do everyday."

She said the hosts will continue to have tough conversations.