Nazi demonstrators seen outside Anne Frank play

FOWLERVILLE, Mich. (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Demonstrators were seen waving Nazi flags in Michigan on November 9, as a stage adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank was being performed locally.

Footage captured by Alex Sutliff shows several masked men with swastika flags in Fowlerville on the night. That same evening, a short distance away in Howell, a local theater group said they were staging The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.

Sutliff told CNN that he heard the men saying "awful antisemitic things" and chanting, "Heil Hitler, Heil Trump."

Footage livestreamed on the Facebook page of the American Legion's Post 141, where the play was being staged, showed others with Nazi flags gathered outside.

A representative of the group said, in the livestream, "The downside of hosting something like this is you bring out extremists."

The Fowlerville Community Theatre said, "while we were performing the first act of The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, we became aware of the presence of self-identified Nazi protesters outside the American Legion Post #141, where we were performing."

Some actors were "understandably shaken, [but] they pulled together and finished the performance with strength and professionalism," the theater group said. "This production centers on real people who lost their lives in the Holocaust, and we have endeavored to tell their story with as much realism as possible."

"On Saturday evening, things became more real than we expected. The presence of protesters outside gave us a small glimpse of the fear and uncertainty felt by those in hiding," the theatre group said.