While theatergoers sat during intermission of a performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” in Baltimore, a man in the balcony began shouting “Heil Hitler, Heil Trump.”
Rich Scherr, a contributing sportswriter for The Baltimore Sun, shared a video on Twitter of the aftermath of the incident on Wednesday night people at the Hippodrome Theatre stood up and shouted for the man to “get out!” Meanwhile, some headed for the exit.
The video has close to 1 million views.
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
The man who made the salute was identified as 59-year-old Anthony Derlunas, attending the show with his girlfriend.
“The final scene before intermission reminded him of his hatred for [President] Donald Trump, which caused him to stand up and yell ‘Heil Hitler, Heil Trump,'” Derlunas told an officer,
according to a police report.
His girlfriend said he didn’t take his medication and that he was drinking heavily that night. Derlunas was banned from the theater and removed from the building without incident.
“Fiddler on the Roof” is a musical that tells the story of a Jewish family persecuted in tsarist Russia.
Only weeks ago, 11 people were gunned down at Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh by domestic terrorist Robert Bowers. Just hours before the shootings, Bowers
used the social network Gab.com to post malicious anti-Semitic messages and conspiracy theories.
According to a report published by the Anti-Defamation League last month, there’s been an alarming increase in the amount of anti-Semitic content on social media leading up to the midterm elections.
“Prior to the election of President Donald Trump, anti-Semitic harassment and attacks were rare and unexpected, even for Jewish Americans who were prominently situated in the public eye,” wrote Samuel Woolley and Katie Joseff, authors of
the report.
“Following his election, anti-Semitism has become normalized and harassment is a daily occurrence. The harassment, deeply rooted in age-old conspiracies such as the New World Order, which alleges that an evil cabal of Jewish people have taken autocratic control of the globe, and Holocaust imagery faces placed inside Nazi concentration camp ovens or stretched on lampshades shows no signs of abating.”
In regard to Wednesday’s incident, the Hippodrome Theatre said, in a statement, on Thursday, that they do not tolerate Derlunas’ behavior:
We do not tolerate behavior like we saw last night during intermission at Fiddler.” Security handled the situation swiftly. Our venue has a proud tradition of providing shared experiences to people from all walks of life and we will continue that tradition.
Hippodrome Theatre (@HippodromeBway) November 15, 2018
