It would have to be pretty bad to embarrass Jerry Lewis. Never heard of this, but it does have entries in IMDB and Wikipedia:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068451/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Clown_Cried
Helmut Doork, a once great and famous clown, is fired from the circus. Getting drunk at a local bar, he pokes fun at Hitler in front of some Gestapo agents, who arrest and send him to a prison camp. Helmut angers his fellow prisoners by refusing to perform for them, wanting to preserve his legend. As times passes, Jews are brought into the camp, with fraternizing between them and the other prisoners strictly prohibited. Eventually, Helmut is forced by the others to perform or be beaten. His act bombs and he leaves the barracks depressed, trying the routine out again alone in the prison yard. He hears laughter and sees a group of Jewish children watching him through a fence. Happy to be appreciated again, he makes a makeshift clown suit and begins to regularly perform. His audience grows, but a new prison Commandant orders Helmut to stop. When he refuses and continues to perform, he’s beaten and thrown in solitary confinement. But the Nazis soon come up with a use for Helmut, keeping the children quiet as they are loaded into a boxcar to be sent to another camp. Helmut complies, but is accidentally locked in with the children and arrives the next day at Auschwitz.
The first time I had heard of this film was through Michael Medved's (yes, the one and the same) 70s book The Golden Turkey Awards.
Sounds like the French would love him all the more for it, ridiculous though it may sound to our ears.
Not a bad story. A bad director, that’s for sure.
Helmut is forced by the others to perform
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ll1p6SPjr0