Eric Braeden, the actor who plays Victor Newman on “The Young and the Restless,” has come out with a memoir, in which he talks about trying to right the wrongs of his Nazi father.
Something which included playing for a predominantly Israeli soccer team, and visiting Israel numerous times.
Eric Braeden, who plays complex billionaire Victor Newman on “The Young and the Restless,” has written a memoir detailing his fascinating life. Born in Germany in 1941, Braeden writes of coming over to America as a young man and falling into acting.
Through it all, he writes of trying to right the wrongs of his Nazi father by playing for a Jewish soccer team in Los Angeles to visiting concentration camps in Poland. The grandfather of three spoke to Fox News about his extraordinary life.
Fox News: Did you ever imagine that Victor Newman would make you an international star?
Eric Braeden: I didn’t have a clue. It has been a big surprise for [me].Fox News: Who surprised you by telling you they were fans of the show?
Braeden: That goes from Muhammed Ali to George Foreman to the President of Israel to the President of Tunisia to the New York Yankees to the Raiders to the Lakers, it runs the gamut. It is absolutely stunning and mind boggling sometimes.Fox News: You were born in Germany and you write that your father was a member of the Nazi party.
Braeden: I didn’t know about any of that really, nor about the terrible things that happened during the Second World War until I came to Los Angeles and saw a documentary. Because the atrocities were talked about in Germany only in the 60s, not before because everyone was very concerned with rebuilding the country. That is why there was a delayed reaction and then it hit with a vengeance.It caused a lot of Germans from my generation to be shocked, you’re deeply ashamed, you’re deeply angry, all kinds of things. I discovered feelings that I don’t wish on anyone. So there you are but eventually you deal with it and I did by creating the German-American Cultural Society where I was mostly interested in German-Jewish dialogue. In order to confront these issues one [by] one.
Fox News: Your father died when you were 12. Would you have liked to discuss this with him?
Braeden: I would have loved to discuss it with him and I discussed it with a neighbor who knew my father and told me my father began to have his doubts in early 1941 and my eldest brother remembers my father taking him and my mother into his office and looking at a map and saying, “This is the biggest mistake Germany will ever make.” That was in ’39 when Germany invaded Poland.Fox News: You played for a predominately Israeli soccer team in Los Angeles.
Braeden: I played for a team called The Maccabees. We had seven Israelis on the team and two Germans and two Ethiopians and players from Argentina and Brazil but most of my friends were the seven Israelis and we’re still friends. That was when I was invited to go to Israel. I went several times, enjoyed it a great deal.
Naturally, I Googled ‘Eric Braeden Israel’ and found some other articles about his pro-Israel proclivities. Like this:
His connection with Israel goes back about 40 years when he played soccer with the Los Angeles Maccabees in the 1970s, a team that won the US National Soccer Championship in 1973.
“I like Israelis, I have always gotten along well with them,” said Braeden. “I feel a kind of closeness with Israel and Israelis.”
In 2004, Braeden’s connection to Israel was solidified when he received a humanitarian award from the Israeli government, and met with former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon and Israeli President Shimon Peres during the tourism conference.
The following year, Braeden joined Sharon and Noble Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel on the March Of The Living.
He said that he has been an outspoken supporter of Israel because “Israel is the result, in part, of the Holocaust caused by Nazi Germany. It gave the moral imprimatur to the establishment of Israel, and I feel that as a German of my generation or any generation that we have an obligation to support that country.”
He said he decided to visit Israel because he was “curious” about it.
“Historically, it is one of the most interesting countries. Jerusalem gives one goose bumps. You become aware of the history of that city… I remember standing at the Wailing Wall and, wow, it was such an extraordinary feeling,” he said with a whisper.
And this about his soccer playing days.
Not to mention this rather old looking (70s/80s?) photo of him in Israel.
