Robert Clary, an actor, is most well-known for his role in Cpl. Louis LeBeau. An actor best known for Cpl. Clary’s role as Cpl. Clary, was a talented performer, the last member of the original cast, and a Holocaust survivor.
The New York Post published a story about Clary’s extraordinary life. His parents died in the gas chambers.
“‘My mother said the most remarkable thing,’ Clary told the Reporter in 2015 about that day. ‘She said, ‘Behave.’ She probably knew me as a brat. She said, ‘Behave. Do what they tell you to do.’”
And Clary survived — in fact, he was the only member of his family to survive. He was later imprisoned for 31 months at the Nazis’ Buchenwald concentration camp, where the identification number A-5714 was tattooed on his left forearm and he worked in a factory making wooden shoe heels. Clary recalled that his performing abilities helped him survive. He said he used to sing with an accordionist every other Sunday at Buchenwald for Schutzstaffel (SS) soldiers. “Singing, entertaining, and being in kind of good health at my age, that’s why I survived,” Clary said.
Clary was able to return to France in May 1945. Clary sang in French dance halls. In May 1945, he was able to return to France. Clary is most well-known for his role in Hogan’s Heroes on CBS, which ran from September 1965 to April 1971.
The TV series followed U.S. Colonel Robert Hogan’s adventures with his British, American, and British WWII POWs. They carried out critical missions for the war effort constantly under the watchful eye of the inept Nazis who managed their prisoner-of-war camp. Clary, John Banner, and another cast member (who ironically played Nazi Sergeant Schultz) were both Jewish refugees who lost families during the Holocaust.
The New York Post points to the fact that Clary did not speak publicly for 36 years about his Holocaust experiences. Clary wrote that although he did not want to minimize what suffering soldiers went through during internment, it was very different from what they experienced in concentration camps.
Hogan’s Heroes remains a charming, funny if sometimes cheesy, show. Clary was a key part of the humor and charm of Hogan’s Heroes.
