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I Page 8 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE November 28, 1986 Actor brings Holocaust issues to ‘Days’ by Marlene Goldman JT A —ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. French-born entertainer Robert Clary has drawn on his Holocaust past for his role in, of all television shows, the NBC daytime serial “Days of Our Lives.” This fall. Clary resumed play ing the affable Robert LeClair, who recognizes on the staff of a hospital a Nazi officer who con ducted medical experiments in a death camp and killed LeClair’s mother. LeClair helps see to it that the ex-Nazi is captured and impri soned and, in an emotional scene, tells reporters of his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. As LeClair, Clary combines two main aspects of his life: per forming and his recollections of his Holocaust experiences to audiences throughout the United States. In both roles, energy bursts from his small frame. His close- cropped silver hair is undercut with a dark, youthful streak that seems to extend past his scalp. Off stage he wears a pair of wire- rimmed glasses, adding a touch of respectability to his cherubic face. He spoke frankly during a recent interview, leaning back comfortably in a chair in his hotel suite here, home since the beginning of October. He is in the midst of a twice-a-night, three-month run in the show “Irma La Deuce” at the Claridge Hotel, and is on temporary leave from “Days” and his home in California. He has played LeClair on and off since 1972, he said, hoping always to expand the scope of the role. In 1980, Clary suggested to producer A1 Rabin that LeClair reveal that he is Jewish and sur vived a concentration camp. His previous silence would be attrib uted to fear of how others would react. NOW OPEN CHU’S DYNASTY Contemporary Chinese Cuisine Elegant Dining in the “Heart” of Dunwoody Full Bar Service-Fast Takeout-Reservations Accepted LUNCH: Tues.'Friday 11:30a.m. 2:30 p.m. DINNER: Tues.-Thurs. 2:30-10:00 p.m. Sat. 4:30-10:30 p.m. FRIDAY: 2:30-10:30 p.m. SUNDAY: 12:00-10:00 p.m. 5554 Chamblee-Dunwoody Rd. Dunwoody Hall Shopping Center 395-7676 Robert Clary The idea was rejected, and Clary quit the soap three years ago because LeClair seemed to be on a permanent back-burner. Also in 1980, inspired by the PBS documentary “Kitty—Re turn to Auschwitz,” Clary broke his own 36-year silence and began the painful process of exposing his Holocaust experience. “When she (Kitty) said, ‘Thirty or 40 years from now, most survivors will be dead,’ it made me realize aslongas I’m alive and can talk, I better do it,” Clary explained. Clary subsequently asked to discuss his experiences on the show of his friend Merv Griffin. “1 just talked dispassionately," Clary recalled. “I probably wasn’t as glib as 1 am now and 1 wasn’t as knowledgeable.” In search of hard data on “revisionists” who deny the existence of the Holocaust, he found the Simon Weisenthal Center. He has been a member of the center’s speakers bureau since 1981, appearing, when he has time, before groups of all ages. He said his celebrity status — Many One-Of-A-Kind and Boo-Boos Vases Lamps Artwork Antiques Accessories 25%-50% OFF EVERYTHING VAN TOSH & ASSOCIATES corner of Spring @ 19th December 4th - 7th 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. 881-6074 imHiRututi lUUtttl nvmmtivvnvtti i-»— based primarily on his role as French prisoner of war Louis LeBeau on the popularTV situa tion comedy “Hogan’s Heroes”— helps him in his lectures. “People listen more,” he explained. Clary’s message is to learn trom the past and to stop hating. He compares the second-rate citizen ship of Jews in pre-war Europe to the treatment of blacks in America, and urges instead tol erance and understanding. This proclivity to accept oth ers is shared by LeClair. LeClair reappeared on the soap earlier this year with an Orthodox brother who survived the camp with him. The brother's daughter, a sur geon, falls in love with a non- Jewish doctor on the staff of her hospital. LeClair favors his niece marry ing the non-Jew. Although in real life Clary debates the inter marriage because he feels tradi tion is important, he is moved by what he called “my liberal mind” to be concerned with the happi ness of the spouses. Just before Clary was to tem porarily leave the show, the ex- Nazi appeared and was arrested. Clary was consulted by the pro ducer and writers on certain details, and he said he ensured that the story was as authentic as possible. LeClair’s story parallels Clary’s own story fairly closely, he noted. Like his character, Clary comes from a religious Parisian family, but is not religious. Clary was not in a camp with a brother, however, he lost 12 close family members. Clary also never has come in contact with a Nazi from his past. If -he ever does. Clary said that he would try to bring him to justice just as LeClair did. Moreover, Clary finds his Holocaust lecturing to be a grati fying and necessary purge of his memories. “It never left me,” he explained. “It has always been there, way in the back. 1 had nightmares. The memory will al ways be very vivid.” The youngest of 16 children, Clary was deported with his fam ily in 1942. At his first Nazi camp, he was forced into slave labor, while his family was sent on to Auschwitz and gassed. He was liberated from Buchenwald in 1945. Upon his return to Paris, he was surprised to meet his sister. With her help, he quickly was reacclimated into French society. That story is told in the docu mentary “Robert Clary A5714: A Memoir of Liberation.” He soon found work as a per former, and in 1947 was discov ered in a Paris nightclub. A hit song led him to move to the U.S. in 1949. He has since worked in nightclubs, movies and television, including playing himself in the 1982 television movie, “Remem brance of Love,” with Kirk Dou glas, about the World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors in Jeru salem. Clary often has been pressed to explain how he could work in “Hogan’s Heroes,” a situation comedy that parodied the Nazis. Clary responds that POWs were not treated as badly as were con centration camp prisoners and that not all Germans were cruel Nazis. And as an actor, he feels obli gated not to limit himself to characters who are good people. “I’d play a Nazi,” Clary said. “II I could show a Nazi is a terrible person, of course I’m going to play it. That’s what actors are for, so you can hate me for spit ting on a Jew if you don’t like it.” IF YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO FOLLOW IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS BE VERY CAREFUL WHERE YOU PLACE THEIR FEET. At The Hebrew Academy of Atlanta they’ll get started on the right foot! EXCELLENCE.. .TRADITION.. .CREATIVITY OPEN HOUSE Wednesday, December 3 10:00 A.M. -11:30 A.M. Wednesday, December 10 7:30 P.M. - 9:00 P.M. Meet Hebrew Academy Faculty and Parents At the home of Victor and Saba Silverman 185 Zeblin Drive, Northeast 257-0470 — 634-7388 JOIN US AND LEARN WHAT THE HEBREW ACADEMY CAN OFFER YOUR CHILDREN The Hebrew Academy of Atlanta Recognized by the U.S. Department of Education's Elementary School Recognition Program