Netflix's 'The Devil Next Door' Review
If you Google "John Demjanjuk" and read the two sentence biography that appears in the upper right-hand corner, you’ll glean the narrative peaks and valleys that guide Netflix's latest true crime docu-series, The Devil Next Door: before becoming the “retired autoworker” who immigrated from Ukraine to the U.S., John Demjanjuk was a guard at a Nazi death camp.
The Devil Next Door follows Demjanjuk’s case from start to resonant finish. The Cleveland father of three and grandfather of tenwas put on trial in the 1970s, 1980s, and 2000s to determine his identity. In particular, the investigations aimed to confirm that John Demjanjuk, nee Ivan, was Ivan the Terrible (actually named Ivan Marchenko), a Nazi guard who slaughtered countless Jewish prisoners at Treblinka, an extermination camp outside Warsaw, Poland.
The docu-seriesis full of twists and turns, and even if you’re familiar with the trial proceedings and verdicts that determined Demjanjuk’s true identity, The Devil Next Dooris a comprehensive, empathetic retelling. In addition to telling a story with such gravity, the seriesis fascinating and thought-provoking.
For context, in 1988, an Israeli court decided that Demjanjuk was, in fact, Ivan Marchenko, indicted Demjanjuk with all the crimes Marchenko had committed, and sentenced Demjanjuk to death. In 1993, that same court overturned its previous decision because newly discovered evidence explained Demjanjuk was not Ivan Marchenko.
Notably, the aforementioned 1993 trial confirmed that John Demjanjuk served as a Nazi guard at Sobibor extermination camp in the 1940s -- and it’s Demjanjuk’s lingering, proven culpability that makes The Devil Next Door’s final batch of episodes particularly compelling.
Demjanjuk has a sudden outburst during while on trial in 1988 in Jerusalem.Credit: Yaakov Sa''ar/GPO/Getty ImagesIf the convictions, appeals, and overrulings of Demjanjuk’s case still leave you confused, The Devil Next Dooroffers a practical, comprehensive explanation. The docu-series, which was directed and produced by Daniel Sivan and Yossi Bloch, proves authoritative with commentary and perspectives from true-crime narrative staples like reporters, experts, and professors, and primary accounts from both Demjanjuk’s defense attorneys and the Israeli prosecutors and judges involved in the 1988 and 1993 trials.
The series's cast of eccentric commentators also keeps viewers hooked. Demjanjuk’s defense attorneys, Mark O’Connor of the U.S. and Sheftel Yoram of Israel, speak with such conviction about the case — all while their accounts are underscored by the widespread disbelief that surrounded their integrity and motivations for representing Demjanjuk.
Additionally, Ed Nishnic, Demjanjuk’s son-in-law shares why he pursued proving his father-in-law’s innocence through a media campaign even after Demjanjuk’s own children had abandoned hope in 1989. On the flip side, former director of the Office of Special Investigations Eli Rosenbaum acts as an unequivocal voice of reason and morality.
The Devil Next Door does right by audiences in masterfully contextualizing and reframing Demjanjuk’s 1988 and 1993 trials. As explained in the series, both proceedings were disputes over Demjanjuk’s identity and the credibility of damning evidence, not disputes over whether the crimes Ivan the Terrible committed were permissible or not.
The Devil Next Door is dexterous as it proceeds with caution and empathy.
Such a distinction might seem obvious to the outside observer, but after eleven Holocaust survivors testified that Demjanjuk was Ivan the Terrible during the 1988 trial, the proceedings took on a new significance: Juxtaposed with clear evidence, Israeli judges were forced to, in effect, overturn the words and emotional accounts of survivors.
The Devil Next Door is dexterous as it proceeds with caution and empathy when examining the essential tension that surrounded clearing Demjanjuk’s name and respecting the brave survivors that aided in his due process.
The gravity of Demjanjuk’s case inherently contributes to the docu-series’s power, but The Devil Next Door shines its brightest when it reminds audiences that the outcome of the trials and credibility of evidence were the least important facets of Demjanjuk’s proceedings.
Demjanjuk after being sentenced to five years in prison in Munich, Germany in 2011.Credit: Johannes Simon/Getty ImagesThroughout each development, creators Sivan and Block bravely continue to elaborate on the ethical dilemmas such a story presents. They relentlessly explore the harrowing question of what responsibility humanity has in prosecuting those involved with the Nazi regime, and the vital symbolism in doing so. Furthermore, The Devil Next Door appeals to audiences in making its true-crime narrative personal by specifically asking what responsibility U.S. forces bear if the crimes in question didn’t occur on American soil or directly harm American lives.
Crucially, Sivan and Block's deep dive into Demjanjuk's story in 2019 is a dutiful reminder that we must never forget the Holocaust, and should engage with docu-series like The Devil Next Door to keep the collective memory of such atrocities alive.
The Devil Next Dooris now streaming on Netflix.
(责任编辑:关于我们)
- Cyrix: Gone But Not Forgotten
- How to Open .HEIC iPhone Photos in Windows
- Subway station staff busted for filming women’s toilet
- Axelsen beats Momota in Malaysia final
- Apple iPod: The First 10 Years of the Ubiquitous Media Player
- PS5 Pro: It looks like a sketch of the design just leaked
- 石棉县工商局:全面查处无照经营构建公平竞争环境
- Marseille name Igor Tudor as new coach
- 符师傅的年货故事:快递一箱连州菜心,回家做一桌粤菜
- Europe now has a huge AI gap, for better or for worse
- Pakistan, India players may line up together for Afro
- Donald Trump’s election was a 'traumatic experience' for many
- Credit card information of Delta and Sears customers has been hacked
-
We Bought the Cheapest DDR5 RAM Modules We Could Find, Are They Any Good?
For this article we're doing something simple: find the cheapest DDR5 RAM we could get our hands on, ...[详细] -
North Korea to resume foreign tourism in December: Beijing
Visitors look at Cheonji Lake, the crater lake at the top of Mount Paektu in North Korea, from the C ...[详细] -
Foreign Ministry denies speculation over resignations of GGGI, GCF chiefs
The Foreign Ministry denied speculation Friday that the heads of two South Korea-based international ...[详细] -
空调、取暖器、电热毯、暖手宝、燃气热水器……寒冷的冬天已经到来,诸如此类的取暖设备是许多家庭的必备防寒用品。但是,在使用这些用品时市民需要多份小心谨慎,如果电器使用不当,就有可能带来较大的安全隐患。有 ...[详细]
-
'Please find her': Man dies amid 25
Song Gil-yong speaks during a public campaign dedicated to finding his missing daughter, Hye-hee, in ...[详细] -
Apple is getting serious flak this year from diehard Mac fans for losing sight of what its "real" us ...[详细]
-
Facebook Spaces VR avatars kind of look like real people now
Facebook Spaces is finally redesigning its avatars to look more like you, and less like a corny cart ...[详细] -
Murky law school admission system comes under fire
Criticism has been sparked over the law school admission system after the government’s nationwide su ...[详细] -
If aliens harnessed solar power, could we detect them? NASA investigated.
Somewhere in the galaxy, an advanced alien civilization might harness energy from its star. And NASA ...[详细] -
Marseille name Igor Tudor as new coach
MARSEILLE:French Ligue 1 giants Marseille on Monday named ex-Croatia international Igor Tudor as the ...[详细]