Netflix has made a name for itself as the preeminent platform for quality true-crime documentaries. Whether it’s for the series “Making a Murderer” or the recent Ted Bundy show, the streaming service regularly sets aside time to highlight some of the most high-profile criminal cases the world has ever seen. Well, for “The Devil Next Door,” Netflix turns its focus on someone who could be one of the biggest monsters to ever grace a true-crime doc…or one of the most wrongfully accused.
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“The Devil Next Door” tells the story of John Demjanjuk, a Ukranian-American man that is living out his peaceful retirement in Cleveland, Ohio in the ‘80s. However, when it is revealed that Demjanjuk might have been one of the death camp guards during the Holocaust, infamously named “Ivan the Terrible,” the man’s family and life are completely thrown into chaos as the world watches the high-profile case. \
But what if all those Holocaust survivors who claim that Demjanjuk is the guard are all wrong? What if the retired man is just a victim of wrongful identity?
Viewers will find out when “The Devil Next Door” debuts on Netflix on November 4.
Here’s the synopsis:
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. 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.