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RIP Robert Max Widerman

You may also know him by his professional name Robert Clary, or Corporal Lebeau, on the 1960s comedy Hogan's Heroes. He was the last surviving member of the primary cast. Passed away from natural causes, on Nov 17, at his LA home.

He was born in Paris, one of 14 siblings. His parents and 10 of his siblings perished at Auschwitz. He started singing professionally at age 12, but when the Nazis invaded, he was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he survived by entertaining the SS troops. He was a talented singer, and when the camp was liberated, he went back to Paris, where he discovered that 3 of his siblings escaped deportation, and managed to hide the war out, in Paris.

His singing career brought him to the US in 1949. He started out recording successful songs, and eventually started acting. After Hogan's Heroes, he moved on to soap operas. RIP.
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Ynotisay · M
I had no idea he was in a camp. Wow. Art imitating life.
Northwest · M
@Ynotisay He did not go public with it, until 1985. A5714, that's his concentration camp number. He wrote a book about his experience, that was published in 2001, and spent years touring the US and Canada, speaking about the holocaust. He was a painter as well.

Werner Klemperer (Colonel Klink) and John Banner (Sgt. Schultz), also fled the Nazis, before they were sent to concentration camps.
Ynotisay · M
@Northwest Thanks for that. I got curious and looked up his story. Amazing. The fact that he was able to get on with his life and succeed, as a 5' 1" singer and actor, is an amazing story of resilience. And that he passed at 96 years of age? Incredible.
@Ynotisay Leon Askin General Burkhalter also survived the camps.
Northwest · M
TheDisciplinarian · 61-69, M
@Ynotisay quite amazing indeed..i was Clueless