It gets stranger. Virtually every actor who played a nazi on the series was jewish. Some, like John Banner and Werner Klemperer, escaped Europe along with their families as the nazis rose to power. Howard Caine, who played Major Hochstetter throughout the series, (while inexplicably wearing an SS Colonel's uniform the entire time) was a very kind and gentle man. He ad libed the original "WHO IS THIS MAN?!?!" line and it was so well received it became a staple. They belonged to a generation who had lived WW2 and were learning to cope with it. The series could never be made today, thanks to PC Liberals.
Robert Clary actually spent time in a nazi concentration camp, (this is why you occasionally hear the character speak pretty good German). Richard Dawson signed on expecting to have the lead role in the series, a fact that caused tention with Bob Crane throughout the series. There are many back stories to this series. I still enjoy watching it.
Another strange fact is that Leon Askin, who played General Burkhalter, (and who was also arrested and interned by the nazis), and who you would have expected to die before most of the cast, in fact outlived many of them, passing away in 2005 at 97. His family also escaped Europe and Askin served in the US Air Corps in WW2 as an information specialist!
Speaking of HH characters, I caught an old episode of The Man From Uncle a couple of nights ago, (The Project Strigas Affair, aired November, 1964) and was shocked to see Werner Klemperer as the bad East Block Embassador, Leonard Nimoy as his sidekick and William Shatner as a chemist helping UNCLE!!
Amazing that just a few years later they all became TV icons! One wonders if this is where Nimoy and Shatner met, to later go on to TV immortality as the Star Trek crew.
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