My 8th grade science teacher was in the U.S. Army and served time in a German prison camp during WW2. He wasn’t amused by the show. Don’t know if he was Jewish or not.
I remember watching Robert Clery on a talk show back when I was in high school. He said that, after the war, when he went back to the multi-story apartment building in which his family had lived, he was one of only 6 survivors. It made a big impression on me. He told the story in response to the talk show host asking about whether it was okay to make a comedy about such a serious subject.
I thought the problem with the show was that it portrayed the Germans of the time as buffoons, and they were anything but.
I'm not surprised at the involvement of Jewish actors in the show, because I think Jewish actors may have been the only ones who could get away with putting up a show that could depict the Germans in this manner; anyone else might risk the accusation of downplaying them.
My father’s regiment oversaw administration of liberated concentration camps at the end of the war (he never discusses it). He also attended the Nuremberg trials.
In 1962 I was a 7th grader at Altus AFB. Some of the SAC crewmembers at the time, B-52s and KC-135s, were former POWs. There was NO appreciation for that show.
My neighbor was in Army/AirForce and spent over a year in a Stalag when his B16 was shot down. Carried the steel from his plane in his body till he died. When captured they made him walk naked ( it was winter) until he reached a camp. Wasn’t a fun time for him. Even with that he laughter at the show but it wasn’t a funny laugh if you get what I mean.
As a boy, I always thought Hogan’s Heros (HH for Heil-you-know-Hoo?) was making Nazis out to be lovable fat boys and ridiculous colonels with their monocles, but I must say that I was mistaken. It’s of a piece with Mel Brooks’ The Producer (the original, not the crappy remake) although growing up I never appreciated that aspect of it.