Criticized during its run and today for being a comedy set in a German prisoner of war camp, the cast actually included several actors who survived real-life internment in Nazi concentration camps (Clary, Banner, Askin). In fact, all four major ongoing German roles in this series were played by Jewish actors.
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GimmeVinyl 24th Dec 2019
| | Hey.. what about the absolutely gorgeous Arlene Martel who played the French contact Tiger? You may also remember her as Spock's bride T'Pring on Star Trek, a Russian cosmonaut on I Dream Of Jeannie that almost made off with Jeannie and her bottle, and a female spy on The Monkees that was trying to recover spy film.... |
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Record Collector 12th Oct 2015
| | oops sorry that was from sigfreid from get smart haha |
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Neil Forbes 26th Sep 2015
| | Donkof? Ahhh vieleicht meinst du "Dummkopf", Ja?... They're coming to take me away, ha-haaaa....! |
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Record Collector 26th Sep 2015
| | You stupid donkof haha |
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Neil Forbes 26th Sep 2015
| | Ach.... I know nussssink... NUSSSSSSINK! (Oh it's all so nice in the nuthouse....) |
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23skidoo 10th Jul 2015
| | @Neil "The fact that the four main German characters are played by German or Austrian Jews, may well be them having the "last laugh" on their tormentors!"
That's the thing. Modern-day PC critics are quick to condemn this show for just existing, without researching the fact that most of its cast lived through this in real life. None of them would have taken the job if they weren't sure of how the show was going to portray Germans. And the fact Hogan and Klinck actually become friends is not unrealistic and there are many cases of Germans and Allies becoming friends and remaining so after the war. And the prison camp depicted in this show was run by the Luftwaffe meaning it was very likely inspired by the real-life Stalag Luft III camp where the real-life Great Escape occurred and it's an historical fact that, relatively speaking, Luftwaffe-run POW camps generally had better conditions than other camps. So while I would never call Hogan's Heroes a "documentary" at the same time it's not as widely unrealistic as some might make it out to be (notwithstanding the "secret base" and "tunnel network" aspects, of course. The Great Escape demonstrated that maintaining and creating such a tunnel network as depicted in HH was probably impossible without outside help). And I think the (likely 100% intentional) casting of Jewish actors as the Germans also had to have been cathartic in some way. I mean, John Banner lost his family to them and as I mentioned Askin's parents died at Treblinka. Their rationale for getting involved in this show is something I take far more seriously than someone trying to do Monday morning quarterbacking 50 years later. |
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Neil Forbes 10th Jul 2015
| | I said I'm crackin' up here, I see I'm not the only one, ay, RC? |
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Record Collector 10th Jul 2015
| | gut Sie Aint Pfeifen Dixie Bruder haha |
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Neil Forbes 10th Jul 2015
| | RC, Aaah zo, vee need to teach zee translator how to speak zee proper German, ay?(I'm definitely crackin' up, here!) |
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Record Collector 10th Jul 2015
| | Neil that's what I feed in the translator and that's the way it came out |
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Neil Forbes 10th Jul 2015
| | Woa, RC Wee need to get zee German right, here! Ya?(we need to get the German right here, yes? Ooooh why am I doing this?) Okay, repeat after me: Du Dummer Idiot! Kannst du nichcts richtig tun?" Okay, now you.....(now I'm getting hit by those keyboard gremlins). |
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Record Collector 10th Jul 2015
| | du dummer Idiot kann Sie nichts tun Recht Haha |
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Neil Forbes 10th Jul 2015
| | The fact that the four main German characters are played by German or Austrian Jews, may well be them having the "last laugh" on their tormentors! Leon Askin is no stranger to TV viewers, having played the "Landburger Gessler" in William Tell and he also appeared in an unused "extra" segment of Young Frankentein. |
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Neil Forbes 10th Jul 2015
| | Zooo you know nusssink about zis show at all?(So, you know nothing about this show at all? - I'm obliged to give an English translation here, ha-ha!) |
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zabadak 10th Jul 2015
| | I have no memory of this show except that we watched it... :sad: |
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