‘Hogan’s Heroes’ Star Robert Clary Dies At 96

Robert Clary died yesterday at his home in Los Angeles. The man was 96 years old.

After the end of World War II, Hogan's Heroes was set in a German POW camp, where a group of Allied prisoners were trying to liberate the camp and defeat the Nazis. Clary was deported to a Nazi concentration camp but was able to survive by singing and dancing. He used to sing with an accordionist to an audience of solders.

Clary once said that singing, entertaining and being in good health was the reason he survived.

Clary was one of the original cast members.

Clary was the youngest of 14 children in a strict Orthodox Jewish family that would die in the Holocaust.

We were not real people. Clary said that when they arrived at Buchenwald, they were forced into a shower room to stay the night. There were rumors that the shower heads were made of gas. I knew this was it. It was just a place to rest. We were kept without a crumb for the first eight days. We were sleeping on top of each other and waking up to find another corpse next to you. The whole experience was a nightmare and we had to do a lot to survive. We were not as big of a deal as animals. I sometimes dream about those days. I wake up scared that I'm going to be sent to a concentration camp, but I don't hold a grudge because that's a waste of time. There is a dark place in the human soul. Humans are not very nice for the majority of the time. When you find those who are, you care about them.

The liberation of Clary from Buchenwald took place in 1945.

Although I did not want to diminish what soldiers went through during their internments, it was like night and day from what people endure in concentration camps, he wrote.

Clary recorded his first songs in 1948. Capitol Records issued them on disk after they arrived in the US.

Clary's first on camera appearance was in a French-language comedy skit. He appeared in more television guest spots as well as in films such as Ten Tall Men and Thief of Damascus. Clary was cast in the Broadway musical "New Faces of 1952" after being taken to New York by Cantor.

Clary was a guest star in a number of sitcoms. He was a recurring character in the NBC daytime drama "days of our lives" for 15 seasons.

He appeared in a number of soaps.

He was married to Natalie for over 30 years. In 1997 she passed away.