predicament. He sees a group of Jewish children laughing at him from the other side of the camp, where the Jewish prisoners are being kept away from everyone else. Delighted to be appreciated again, Helmut performs for them and gains an audience for a while, until the new prison commandant orders that he stop. Helmut learns that fraternizing with Jewish prisoners is strictly forbidden. Unable to leave the children in a state of unhappiness, he continues to perform for them. The SS guards break up one of his performances; they knock him unconscious and warn the children away from the barbed-wire fence. Horrified, Keltner fights off one of the guards, but he is quickly cornered and beaten to death. Doork is placed in solitary confinement. Seeing a use for him, the commandant assigns him to help load Jewish children on trains leading out of the internment camp, with the promise his case will be reviewed. By a twist of fate, he ends up accidentally accompanying the children on a boxcar train to Auschwitz, and he is eventually used, in Pied Piper fashion, to help lead the Jewish children to their deaths in the gas chamber. Knowing the fear the children will feel, he begs to be allowed to spend the last few moments with them. Leading them to the "showers", he becomes increasingly dependent on a miracle, but there is none. He is so filled with remorse that he remains with them, taking a young girl's hand and walks with them into the chamber. Cast Jerry Lewis as Helmut Doork Harriet Andersson as Ada Doork Anton Diffring as Colonel Bestler Ulf Palme as Johann Keltner Pierre Étaix as Gustav the Great Tomas Bolme as Adolf Jonas Bergström as Franz Bo Brundin as Ludwig Lars Amble as Concentration camp guard Sven Lindberg, Fredrik Ohlsson as German officers Ulf Palme, John Elfström, Tor Isedal, Curt Broberg and Ulf von Zweigbergk as prisoners Heinz Hopf, Carl Billquist as Gestapo officers Nils Eklund as bartender Egil Holmsen as camp guard Production Development In 1971, while performing at the Olympia Theatre, Lewis met with producer Nat Wachsberger, who offered him the chance to star in and direct the film with complete financial backing from his production company and Europa Studios. Before he had been given the offer, several stars such as Bobby Darin, Milton Berle, and Dick Van Dyke were also approached, but declined. Lewis