Neo-Nazis protest ahead of Broadway play about Leo Frank

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On Tuesday, a neo-Nazi group protested outside the Bernard B. Jacobs Theater in New York City, which hosted the Broadway musical Parade. The production tells the story of the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915 in Atlanta after being found guilty in a trial with anti-Semitic overtones for the murder of a teenage girl in 1913.

A video posted on Twitter shows demonstrators from the National Socialist Movement group standing outside a theater yelling anti-Semitic slurs at those in attendance. In the video, neo-Nazis gathered on the sidewalk harass the theatergoers, shouting at them: “Find out the truth about the ADL, brother. You want to know the truth about who you will see tonight. You pay three hundred bucks to worship a pedophile, so you better know what you're talking about. Another protester yells, “Romanticize pedophiles, wow, Leo Frank.”

In 1915, Leo Frank was lynched by an antisemitic mob after being falsely accused of murder.

Last night, neo-Nazi protesters gathered outside the preview of @ParadeBway, the musical about his life.

Everyone needs to raise their voice against this hate. https://t.co/ayYEqzsvUo

— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) February 22, 2023

According to the ADL, the National Socialist Movement is the largest neo-Nazi organization in the US and promotes “clearly anti-Semitic and racist ideology at rallies across the country.

The National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi hate group, is protesting outside of the Broadway revival of “Parade,” stating that Leo Frank, the subject of the musical, was a pedophile. pic.twitter.com/wbGMjRubZL

— Jake Wasserman (@jacobhwasserman) February 22, 2023

In “Parade” played by Ben Platt as Frank in a new version of the 1998 Broadway musical, The production depicts Frank's lynching in 1915 by a gang of Southern whites. Leo Frank was an Atlanta pencil factory manager who was tried and sentenced to death on falsified evidence for assault and murder teenage worker in 1913. The jury accepted the testimony of a man who identified Frank as the perpetrator and portrayed him as a sexual pervert. Numerous elements of the trial had anti-Semitic overtones, including the fact that one of the jurors said, “I will definitely hang that Jew.”

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