I find it quite interesting that all three men, Werner Klemperer, John Banner and Robert Clary (aka Col. Klink, Sargeant Schultz, and Corporal Louis LeBeau) are all Jewish and had no objections to singing Christmas carols.
Wow!!
All of the “Germans” on Hogan’s Heroes were played by Jewish actors.
I read that John Banner was born in Austria but moved to America when Hitler rose to power.
Mr. Banner joined the American Armed Forces and was a Supply Sergeant before becoming an actor. It said his last appearance was on an episode of “The Partridge Family”
I guess that’s an E-6 designation above an E-5 Sergeant? (one result shows it as E-6)
Been too long since I worked for the Marine Corps - IIRC E-6 was Staff Sergeant, E-5 Sergeant, E-7 Gunnery Sergeant
Clary was in a Nazi concentration camp in WW2.
Early years
Banner was born January 28, 1910[2] to Jewish parents in Stanislau, Austria-Hungary (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). He studied for a law degree at the University of Vienna, but decided instead to become an actor.[3] In 1938, when he was performing with an acting troupe in Switzerland, Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to Nazi Germany. Banner emigrated to the United States, where he rapidly learned English.
World War II
In 1942, Banner enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps, underwent basic training in Atlantic City and became a supply sergeant.[3][4] He even posed for a recruiting poster.[4] He served until 1945.[1]
According to fellow Hogan’s Heroes actor Robert Clary, who was a Holocaust survivor himself, “John lost a lot of his family” to the Holocaust.[5]