Those of you who were sentient in the 1960s or had access at a later date to the TV Land network are no doubt familiar with the sophisticated recounting of events in a WWII German POW camp in the TV comedy series Hogan's Heroes. A key ingredient to the success of the show was the outstanding portrayal by Werner Klemperer (see photo below) of the fatuous and incompetent camp Kommadant Col. Wilhelm Klink.
Klemperer was a Jewish refugee whose family had fled to the United States prior to World War II, and he served in the US Army during that conflict. At first blush, he would not appear to be the type of person who would embrace participation in a TV series featuring the lighter side of the Third Reich.
Klemperer, however, made it quite clear that he would only take the role on the condition that his character remained a complete buffoon. He informed the producers that he would leave the show immediately if there ever was an episode where Klink was portrayed as a hero. Klemperer never had to carry out this threat, and after the series, he continued with a distinguished and respected acting career as well as working as a narrator for orchestras.
Anti-Semitism would not have fared well on the set of Hogan's Heroes. The bumbling Sergeant Schultz ("I know nothing") was portrayed by John Banner, who was Jewish. He lost most of his family in the Holocaust. The role of the French corporal Louis LeBeau was done by Robert Clary, a Buchenwald survivor who had immediate family members murdered at Auschwitz. Leon Askin, who played General Burkhalter, was a Jewish refugee from Vienna. Howard Caine, another Jewish World War II veteran (US Navy), did a brilliant job portraying Major Hochstetter of the Gestapo.
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