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Shocking Netflix Crime Documentary The Devil Next Door Drops Next Month

Shocking Netflix Crime Documentary The Devil Next Door Drops Next Month

The docu-series follows the trial of John Demjanjuk, a man accused of crimes of humanity after his time as a WWII death camp guard

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Good news for fans of horrific true crime shows - Netflix is about to drop a new one and it looks like it will be one of the darkest ones yet. The show is called The Devil Next Door and it tells the story of a man believed to be a Nazi war criminal living under an assumed name in the USA.

John Demjanjuk was - or so his friends and family thought - just an ordinary guy. He worked in a car parts factory in Ohio, and largely kept himself to himself.

That could be because he was hiding from his horrendous and shocking past.

Demjanjuk was identified by a group of Holocaust survivors as 'Ivan the Terrible', one of the most vicious, callous, and feared guards at the Treblinka Nazi extermination camp.

Netflix

During the Second World War, between 700,000 and 900,000 people were killed in the gas chambers at the Ukrainian death camp.

Demjanjuk was accused of crimes against humanity, including the torture and murder of (largely Jewish) camp detainees. According to witnesses, Demjanjuk would taunt victims before gassing them, he cut off workers' ears, whipped them, and even stabbed some with a sword as they were sent to their death.

He was tried in both Israel and Germany, and found guilty on both occasions. In the latter, he was convicted as an accessory to the murder of 27,900 people.

Netflix

The trial generated a massive amount of interest. It was known as 'the trial of the century' and some of the testimonies and evidence presented were harrowing and shocking.

However, Demjanjuk always maintained his innocence. That means that the possibility still remains that he was never who he was made out to be.

In Israel he was sentenced to death by hanging. That sentence never came to pass as the conviction was overturned due to the presence of 'reasonable doubt' as to whether he actually was 'Ivan the Terrible'.

The official Netflix synopsis reads: "The Devil Next Door is the true story of John Demjanjuk, a retired Ukrainian-American autoworker living a peaceful life with his family in Cleveland, Ohio suburbs in the 1980s.

Netflix

"When a group of Holocaust survivors identify Demjanjuk's photograph as 'Ivan the Terrible' - a notoriously cruel Nazi death camp guard who tortured and killed nearly one million Jewish prisoners during World War II - Demjanjuk's American dream is shattered and he is extradited to Israel to stand trial for crimes against humanity.

"Israel is transfixed as a media frenzy erupts around the trial in Jerusalem, the nation plunged into trauma and fascination by 'the trial of the century'.

"As the case uncovers dark corners of memory and the horrors of war, the Demjanjuk case becomes a race against time for the defendant and his alleged victims."

The five-part series will be available from 4 November 2019.

Featured Image Credit: Netflix

Topics: TV and Film, Interesting, UK Entertainment, US Entertainment