Welcome back to our weekly series, True Crime Tuesday! This week, we're taking a look at the subject of a brand new Netflix original crime series, called The Devil Next Door. John Demjanjuk is that man; an alleged Nazi war criminal who was accused of being Ivan the Terrible. Potentially one of the most notorious guards at concentration camps during the Holocaust, he's somebody that the people of Ohio wanted behind bars when they heard what he was being accused of.
What the series will actually focus on however, aside from the crimes, is actually whether or not Demjanjuk really was the guard of Treblinka. It goes from the initial accusations from survivors of the Holocaust, to his extradition to Israel and trial, as well as the media attention the case got.
The description of the series reads: "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."
Check out the trailer below:
Demjanjuk passed away on March 17th, 2012 in Bad Feilnbach, Germany. He did however see justice before his death, and was formally charged with over 27,900 counts of acting as an accessory to murder, and was put to trial in Germany.
On May 12th, 2011, he was convicted pending appeal by a criminal court, and sentenced to five years in prison. Despite the conviction, Demjanjuk was released pending trial and final verdict by the German Appellate Court. He lived at a German nursing home, which would be where he would live out the last of his days. An interim conviction was annulled, as Demjanjuk died before his trial could be heard.
The Devil Next Door is made up of five episodes, all of which will be available exclusively on Netflix from November 4th, 2019.
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