Masked men unfurl Nazi flags outside ‘Diary of Anne Frank’ theatre play

This is the distressing moment Nazis brandished flags with swastikas outside the community theater performance of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ in the US.

Footage shows the masked men who are wearing white supremacist symbols on their clothing marching outside the American Legion post in Howell, Michigan, in a rampant display of antisemitism.

This is where the Fowlerville Community Theater troupe staged the play about a Jewish girl who chronicled her family’s two years in hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II.

Bobby Brite, a former commander of the American Legion post in Howell, about 55 miles (90 km) northwest of Detroit, recorded the video of the protest.

Standing just metres from where the self-identified Nazis were marching, he said this is the kind of ‘cr*p you have to put up with’ if you want to stage a play about the Holocaust.

He told The Detroit News that the group chanted slurs including ‘Anne Frank was a wh*re’ during their antisemitic rally.

‘People were shocked. They were appalled,’ Brite later told ABC affiliate WXYZ TV.

‘We had 75 people downstairs that watched the play and out of the 75, there were 50 or 60 of them that were afraid to leave this building.

‘We had to escort them to their cars. No one in America should feel like that.’

The Fowlerville Community Theatre was hosting the play when they were told of ‘the presence of self-identified Nazi protesters’.

The theatre group informed the audience of the situation during the intermission.

Despite the incident, they said they endeavored to tell the story of ‘real people who lost their lives in the Holocaust.’

‘The presence of protesters outside gave us a small glimpse of the fear and uncertainty felt by those in hiding’ from Nazis during World War II, the group said.

It was reported that there were no physical confrontations during the protest, but that some of the American Legion veterans exchanged words with the protesters.

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