Comment on Satirical Hitler play prompts boycott calls

BERLIN — A theater in southern Germany is proceeding with plans to open a satirical play Friday about Adolf Hitler’s youth in which some patrons will be wearing swastika armbands, despite objections and legal complaints. The Konstanz Theater’s production of George Tabori’s “Mein Kampf” opens Friday night for a monthlong run. Though named after Hitler’s infamous anti-Semitic manifesto, the play tells a fictional story of how a young Hitler is befriended in Vienna by a Jewish man who takes pity on him for his futile pursuit of a career as an artist and puts him on his political path, as well as helping him with his hairstyle. Tabori, who was born into a Jewish family in Budapest in 1914, was known for his avant-garde works that confronted anti-Semitism.