On The Bookshelf

Reflecting The Shoah

A roundup of new books with Holocaust themes.

SUZANNE CHESSLER
Special to the Jewish News

In From the Holocaust to Hogan's
Heroes, Robert Clary tells about fam-
celebrity autobiog-
ily life during his early years in Paris,
the horrors of the camps and the
raphy that recalls
joys of finding career success in
life during the
America.
Holocaust, a col-
"I always thought that I have a
story
that is quite remarkable
lection of young people's diaries
because I had a lot of highs and a lot
rooted in the same time period
of lows," says the 76-year-old Clary.
and a mixed group of factual
"All the comments from the people
I have written about have been
and fictional essays written
absolutely positive. My friend,
much later by survivors' grown
Richard Dawson, who was with me
in Hogan's Heroes, wrote me the most
children. Each is a highly per-
beautiful
e-mail after he read the
sonal book that confronts some
book.
of the darkest days — and
"They all say that it's written in
beyond — encountered by Jews the way that I talk, which was my
purpose. I didn't want to write a
around the world.
long book because I read a lot and
Robert Clary, who outlasted
get very weary when I [go through]
500 pages. I decided that I'm not
internment in a concentration
going
to linger on with little
camp to become a noted singer
details."
and actor, brings his experiences
Clary, whose late wife was the
daughter of comedian Eddie Cantor,
to the public through a text with
references Detroit in his book.
pictures, From the Holocaust to
"I went to Detroit in February
Hogan's Heroes (Madison Books;
1950 to the London Chop House, a
first-class restaurant and nightclub,"
$26.95).
writes Clary, who also appeared in
Alexandra Zapruder, an educa-
La Plume de Ma Tante at the Fisher
tor who has been an exhibit
Theatre in its first year of operation.
"The customers enjoyed my act,
researcher at the U.S. Holocaust
and
my confidence was restored. The
Memorial Museum in
reviews gave me hope."
Washington, D.C., found per-
The entertainer, who still releases a
new
CD each year and paints, also
sonal journals written in Europe
has visited Detroit as a Holocaust
and shares them with the publi-
speaker for the Simon Wiesenthal
cation of Salvaged Pages (Yale
Center in California. He used that
experience to become an interviewer
University Press; $35).
for the Shoah Foundation.
Melvin Jules Bukiet, a novelist
The Nazis encountered by Clary
who teaches writing at Sarah
during World War II Europe were
Lawrence College, compiled very very different from the ones charac-
terized in his 1960s' TV series,
contemporary stories by people
Hogan's Heroes. In the sitcom, he
who learned of the Holocaust
played a prisoner of war among a
group
bent on ridiculing the
from their parents, and he put
German officers they met.
them together in Nothing Makes
"I never felt uncomfortable play-
You Free (Norton; $27.95).
ing Louis Lebeau," he writes. "Every

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4/5

2002

70

Prisoner Of War

week we made fools of our captors."
Clary, whose stage credits include
Sugar and Cabaret and whose TV
history includes three soaps, has
filmed a segment for Resistance, a
survivor film being made by the
Wiesenthal Center.
"The book signings have been
going
to
b well, and I wish I was going
b
Detroit," Clary says. "Right now,
I'm scheduled for Reno, Las Vegas
and New York."

Microscopes On History

Unlike Clary's book, Salvaged Pages
does not contain wide reporting of
upbeat times. The diaries unlock
lives turned upside down by cruelty
and loss.
Readers learn of Klaus Langer, a
14-year-old whose life in Germany
goes into upheaval after
Kristallnacht. Then there's Elisabeth
Kaufman, whose privileged child-
hood in Austria succumbs to teen
years as a refugee in France. In a dif-
ferent setting, Alice Ehrmann's
entries give a view into the last days
of the Terezin ghetto and the corn-

plexities of liberation.
In history, there's much to be
learned in details," says Alexandra
Zapruder, 32, about to. travel for
speaking engagements about her
book. "A sentence or a phrase can
open a world of consideration and
have a deep effect. Diaries are like
microscopes on history."
Zapruder came upon young peo-
ple's diaries as she was preparing an
exhibit, "Remember the Children:

Below left: Robert Clary:
"I never felt uncomfortable
playing Louis Lebeau."

Below right:
Alexandra Zapruder:
"The existence of a diary
speaks not only for its
writer but for the millions
of young people who
perished"

Opposite page:
Melvin Jules Bukiet:
"Truth interests me in
whatever form it takes.

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