My grandfather was a WWII vet, fought against Rommel in North Africa, and LOVED Hogan’s heroes. It was his favorite show.
It wasn’t disrespectful at all. The entire point of the show is that the Nazis looked like clowns, the prisoners were smarter than them, and they didn’t want to escape because they were helping the resistance from inside the prison. The prisoners never wanted Klink to be reassigned, because he was so clueless that he allowed the prisoners to run a huge resistance operation right under his nose.
Klemperer only agreed to do the show because the producers promised that the Nazis would look like buffoons and would never be allowed to seem victorious at the end of any episode.
And yes, the show was based on Stalag 17, though the producers always denied this in court for legal reasons. But it was.
Stalag 17? Now THAT’S a great movie...