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Klemperer's Paradox:
Flees Germany, Plays Nazi
ALL ABOVE INCLUDES: SOUP, COLE SLAW, CHOICE OF POI, ROLLS
MICHAEL ELKIN
iheAt'new
Lemon Peel
The Best Place to Dine is
Also the Best Place to Unwind
WISHES ITS FRIENDS AND CUSTOMERS
A VERY HEALTHY & HAPPY
PASSOVER
leococ Rel
HOURS: Monday - Saturday 11-2 a.m., Closed Sunday
575 S. Hunter (Woodward) • Birmingham • 644-0588
WE TAKE EXCEPTION
TO WHAT YOUR
MOTHER TAUGHT
YOU.
YOU SHOULDN'T EAT
EVERYTHING PUT IN
FRONT OF YOU.
You should avoid foods high in
cholesterol. It's a fact, a high
blood cholesterol level sub-
stantially increases your
chances of developing heart
disease. By cutting down on
fatty, rich foods, you can do
yourself a big favor. You could
lower your blood cholesterol
level and reduce your risk of
heart disease.
For more information about a
planned and balanced diet,
contact your American Heart
Associatiqn. We'll give you
some free advice on how to
plan a diet good for life.
Harriet & Jack Goldberg and Family
of
STAGE
fr Co.
On The Boardwalk, Orchard Lake Rd.; S. of Maple
855-6622
very warmly extends
to our Customers, Friends and Relatives
We will close Friday, April 1 at 3 p.m.
And reopen Sunday, April 10 at 9 a.m.
80
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1988
Special to The Jewish News
ortraying a German
Jew victimized by
Nazism stirs dramatic
images in the mind of Werner
Klemperer — and not just
those he creates as Herr
Schultz on stage nightly in a
revival of Cabaret. Klemperer
knows all too well that Ger-
many under the Nazis was no
cabaret, that anti-Semitic
slogans and slurs hurled like
moral grenades exploded a
myth that civilization had
come so far from the
barbarians.
While Herr Schultz thought
that the thugs who had
smashed the window of his
produce store were mere boys
out for a night of innocent
rowdyism, the Klemperer
family knew that those '30s
salutes to Hitler were a
tribute to a dark and ominous
future.
The Klemperers — father
Otto was a prominent conduc-
tor — lived in Berlin during
the 1930s; Werner recalls
streets filled with SS soldiers
inflicting damage on Jews
unlucky enough to cross their
paths.
"In the last scene I am in,"
says Klemperer, "I mention a
square in Berlin. Well, I knew
that square; I lived 200 yards
from it. When I have to say
that line, it does something to
me. It rips open vivid images
of childhood."
Those images are not
playground pretty. "I
remember storm troopers
running around," says
Klemperer. "I feel, I .just feel,
that something happened in-
side of ma"
Whatever it was left its
residue. "My last line in the
play, when I say, Mazel,
that's what we all need' —
well, thats a line that has
meaning today."
The Klemperers did have
mazel. With Hitler's rise in
power, Otto Klemperer's
resolve to leave Germany
strengthened. While away in
Switzerland, he contacted his
family, telling them to leave
Germany immediately. They
were on a train within 24
hours — all this despite the
fact that Otto Klemperer was
a Jew converted to Roman
Catholicism.
"My father converted when
he was a younger man," says
Klemperer. "What is much
more important to realize is
that six years before his
death, he went back to the
Jewish faith.
p
"I was brought up a
Catholic," also his mother's
faith, "although I'm not a
practicing Catholic. I have
always felt a great deal of
loyalty and affinity for being
Jewish:'
He also has an affinity for
the message put forth by
Cabaret, a message stronger
in the show's restaging than
in its original production 21
years ago. "This play is about
avoidance," says Klemperer,
"something we practice daily.
We avoid serious controver-
sial issues if we can. We wear
blinders and just look where
we are."
Klemperer is in the midst of
a pre-Broadway run for a
musical that is as conceptual-
ly stunning as it is moving.
The intertwined stories of the
relationship between a
dissolute cabaret singer
(Alyson Reed) and a less-than-
innocent American reporter
(Gregg Edelman) and that of
Herr Schultz and his lonely
landlady, Fraulein Schneider
(Regina Resnik), are set
against the morally turgid
environs of pre-war Berlin.
It is a story of anything goes
without fear of what will
Where else could a
young man
escaping Nazism
snare a major role
as a Nazi?
come — a shameful decadence
exampled by the cabaret
master of ceremonies (Joel
Grey).
"That attitude of looking in
the other direction is
prevalent today," says
Klemperer, who laments the
passing of the revolution of
ideas and ideals of the '60s.
Klemperer has no cause for
regrets in a career that has
spanned all major media.
After arriving in Vienna from
Berlin, the Klemperers, dis-
heartened by the sweep of
Nazism they saw overtaking
their new country, fled for Los
Angeles,
It was here that Werner
discovered a country of
unlimited possibilities. After
all, where else could a
youngman escaping Nazism
snare a major role as — a
Nazi?
That was in the movie
Operation Eichmann, with
Klemperer playing Adolf
Eichmann, a role that was
"one of the most fascinating
challenges I had," says
Klemperer.
Other villainous parts