Did you know one of the most iconic James Bond villains was both a Nazi Party member and saved Jews?

James Bond films have a long tradition of colorful, memorable villains, but sometimes the actor behind the role is even more interesting than the character. That is certainly the case with Gert Fröbe, who played gold magnate Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger, the third-ever James Bond film. Fröbe, who played in close to a hundred films, including the classic war movie The Longest Day, was both a Nazi Party member and the savior of Jews.

Like many other Germans, Fröbe honestly believed that Adolf Hitler would revitalize the country, and joined the Nazi Party in 1929 at the age of 16. He became disillusioned with the Nazi regime after Hitler seized power (Read our earlier article), and left the party in 1937. He worked in theater until 1944, when the theaters were closed down and he was drafted into the German army.

In 1964, during an interview after the release of Goldfinger, he said: “During the Third Reich, I had the luck to be able to help two Jewish people, although I was a member of the Nazi party.” An unscrupulous reporter shortened the quote to "I was a member of the Nazi party," which got the film banned in Israel. Eight weeks later, a Jewish survivor named Mario Blumenau stepped forward and stated that Fröbe saved his and his mother's lives when he hid them from the Gestapo in his cellar.

Being a German actor with a filmography of close to a hundred titles, it's not surprising that Fröbe also played in several World War II films. One of his small but memorable appearances was in The Longest Day, wherein he played "Sgt. Kaffekanne" ("Sgt. Coffee Can"), the comical German soldier who's the first to spot the Normandy invasion fleet while riding a horse and carrying some large cans. A larger and more dignified appearance was in Is Paris Burning?, a star-studded 1966 film about the liberation of Paris (Read our earlier article). In that film, he played a real historical person, General Dietrich von Choltitz, the German military governor of Paris who refused the order of the Führer to destroy the city.

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