LAST EDITED ON 06-04-12 AT 04:49 PM (EST)

Robert Clary (LeBeau), also Jewish, survived three years in the concentration camps. Clary says in the recorded commentary on the DVD version of episode "Art for Hogan's Sake" that he spent three years in a concentration camp, that his parents and other family members were killed there, and that he has an identity tattoo from the camp on his arm ("A-5714"). Likewise John Banner had been held in a (pre-war) concentration camp and his family was exterminated during the war. Leon Askin was also in a pre-war French internment camp and his parents were killed at Treblinka.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogan%27s_Heroes

Banner attempted to sum up the paradox of his role by saying, "Who can play Nazis better than us Jews?" Ironically, although Klemperer, Banner, Caine, Gould, and Askin play typecast World War II German types, all had actually served in the US Armed Forces during World War II — Banner (Schultz) and Askin (Burkhalter) in the US Army Air Corps, Caine (Hochstetter) in the US Navy, Gould (General von Schlomm / General Von Lintzer / General von Scheider) with the US Army, and Klemperer (Klink) in a US Army Entertainment Unit.