Professor Bernhardi

Banned in Europe and rarely performed in the US, Professor Bernhardi is by Arthur Schnitzer, the first German author to confront head-on the anti-Semitism of the time.

In Vienna, 1900, a young woman is dying of septic poisoning from a backstreet abortion. But she’s in a state of euphoria — completely unaware of her impending doom — because she has been given a camphor injection. Her doctor, Professor Bernhardi, a highly respected surgeon and a Jew, decides to spare her the knowledge that she is dying. When the priest arrives to give the girl her last rites, Bernhardi refuses him admittance to her room. While the two clash, the girl dies, setting off a witch hunt that exposes the violent prejudices lurking beneath the city’s glittering surface.