Man shouts 'Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!' in Baltimore theater during 'Fiddler on the Roof'
Amid a growing number of lethal anti-Jewish hate attacks, including a gun massacre at a synagogue that left 13 dead, a man shouts "Heil Trump" in a crowded theater. Audience members told a reporter they believed they were about to die in a mass shooting.
On Wednesday night during a performance of "Fiddler on the Roof" at Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre, an unidentified man stood up and shouted pro-Nazi and pro-Trump salutes.
The classic play is about Jewish themes.
The man's outburst made some people in the theater believe they were witnessing the beginning of another deadly attack.
In the video below taken by a theater audience member, the audience reacts after the unidentified man interrupts the "Fiddler on the Roof" performance at the Hippodrome Theatre.
Sick, sad world. A man stands at intermission of tonight's performance of Fiddler in Baltimore and yells, "Heil Hitler," along with pro-Trump references. pic.twitter.com/slDcPwF7re
- Rich Scherr (@writerguyRich) November 15, 2018
From the Baltimore Sun:
Audience member Rich Scherr said the outburst happened during intermission. The man, who had been seated in the balcony, began shouting "Heil Hitler, Heil Trump." Immediately after that, "People started running," Scherr said. "I'll be honest, I was waiting to hear a gunshot. I thought, 'Here we go.' "
The man was escorted out a few minutes later and the show continued. But Scherr, 49, said it was hard to focus on the play after that. "My heart was just racing. I didn't even really pay attention to the second act."
"Fiddler" tells the story of a Jewish family as it faces persecution in tsarist Russia. It's based on "Tevye the Dairyman," a fictional story originally written in Yiddish. The play opened Tuesday and runs through Sunday in Baltimore. A spokesman for the Hippodrome could not be reached late Wednesday.
'Man shouts 'Heil Hitler, Heil Trump' during intermission of Baltimore performance of 'Fiddler on the Roof' [Baltimore Sun]
Other than that, how was the play?