Robert Clary, who played a feisty prisoner of war in the 1960s sitcom "Hogan's Heroes," has died. The man was 96 years old.
Clary died of natural causes at his home in the LA area.
Clary didn't let the horrors of the war defeat him as a child. He kept the joy in his life. He tried to spread joy by singing and dancing.
He told students not to hate when he talked to them. The beauty in this world was not conquered by hate.
The war was played for laughs in the movie "Hogan's Heroes", which starred Allied soldiers in a POW camp. Clary wore a beret and smiled as LeBeau.
The last original star of the sitcom was Clary, who played the prisoner. European Jews who fled Nazi persecution before the war were the ones who played their captives.
Clary's TV work after "Hogan's Heroes" included the soap operas "The Young and the Restless" and "Days of Our Lives."
Musical theater was one of the highlights of his career. He said in an interview that he loved going to the theater and putting on makeup.
Clary said he was provoked to speak out by those who denied or diminished the effort by Nazi Germany to kill Jews.
In 1985 a documentary about Robert Clary was released. Clary has a lifelong mark on the forearms of concentration camp prisoners.
He told The Associated Press in 1985 that denying the Holocaust was a mockery of the 6 million Jews who died in the gas chambers and ovens.
Clary wrote in his biography that his family was killed by the Nazis.
He was one of many Holocaust survivors whose portraits and stories were included in a book.
Clary begged the next generation not to hate others because of their skin, eyes, or religion.
Clary was retired from acting and still painting. His book, "From the Holocaust to Hogan's Heroes: The Autobiography of Robert Clary" was published in 2001.
One of Clary's sisters, Nicole Holland, was written about in a biography. One of Holland's sisters survived the war. Clary and Holland's lives are recounted in the second book of the series.
Clary was the youngest of 14 children in the Jewish family. The Nazis took most of his family when he was 16.
Clary recalled a happy childhood until he and his family were forced from their Paris apartment and put into a cattle car.
Clary didn't know where they were going. We were no longer humans.
He was liberated from the Buchenwald death camp by American troops. Clary said that his youth and ability to work helped keep him alive.
Clary worked as a singer and recorded songs in America after returning to Paris.
He moved from club dates and recording to Broadway musicals, including "New Faces of 1952," after coming to the US in 1949. He appeared in a number of films in the 1960's and 70's.
Clary recorded jazz versions of songs by Ira Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim and other greats, according to his nephew.
Gari said that Clary was happy with the results and that he received a letter from Sondheim. Gari said that the man hung that on the wall.
Clary wasn't worried about the comedy on "Hogan's Heroes" despite his family's devastating war experience.
It wasn't the same. Compared to concentration camps and gas chambers, it was like a holiday for the POWs.
Clary was married to the daughter of a famous singer. In 1997 she passed away.
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