The Devil Next Door (mini series) : Unreal story that actually happened

This series is a mere 5 hours long and goes into great detail about the trial of John Demjanjuk in the mid 80's. Don't know who that is? Well neither did I until a few days ago and I was actually alive when the trial was going on - so don't feel bad.

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I suppose a big part of whether or not you would enjoy this series would depend pretty heavily on whether or not you are interested in the following things:

• Are you are interested in World War 2 history?
• Are you interested in courtroom dramas?
• Do you enjoy factual shows based on real people and events?
• Do you enjoy an "unsolved mystery"

I would say if you can answer yes to at least 2 of those, there is a good chance that The Devil Next Door would appeal to you.

The series focuses on a big story, that I am disappointed in myself for not knowing about already, surrounding a Ukrainian immigrant living in Cleveland, Ohio. John Demjanjuk had worked at a Ford manufacturing plant for many years, had a family, was involved in his community and had never caused any problems during his life in the USA. Everyone thought he was just this harmless pensioner until some documents were discovered in Soviet archives.

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Now all of a sudden this harmless, law-abiding neighbor has to answer to the FBI and the international community because they are stating that he is not John Demjanjuk at all, instead, he is "Ivan the Terrible," a ruthless member of Nazi Germany's executioners at one of their most efficient concentration camps in Poland.

Obviously John claims complete innocence as he faces his citizenship being revoked and also extradition to Israel where he will face a criminal trial for war crimes that if found guilty will certainly result in his death. The film focuses primarily on the trial in Israel because since that was such a high-profile event at the time and every aspect of it was televised (and consequently, why I am disappointed that i have zero recollection of this event despite being alive then.)

It is clear that the footage is genuine because a lot of it has those blemishes that was so consistent with VHS and Betamax cassettes that you would have to be alive during the 80's to be familiar with (someone adjust the tracking!)

It is an unusual trial because at no point during any of it does John give even an inkling of indication that he actually is this Ivan.

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Throughout the entire thing we see a lot of people getting really emotional on both sides of the fence, especially those who were touched by the Holocaust in some way or another. Of course there are also a bunch of idiots that come out of the woodwork (in the USA portion) to screw up John's suburban neighborhood such as the KKK and also the early stages of over-the-top SJW's. I find this part of the film to be embarrassing because the SJW's are jumping the gun on his guilt (hadn't gone to trial yet) and the KKK are there to protect him because if he is Ivan he must hate Jews just like they do.

It had been 40 years since World War 2 and very few witnesses were still alive from these camps that Ivan / John was meant to have been an overseer at. The trial, therefore seemed to be a little lopsided in their presentation of evidence because the people who were called as witnesses were overcome (reasonably so) with emotion and all seemed to simply presume that John was Ivan the Terrible despite the fact that there was very small amounts of evidence to suggest that he actually was.

John remains "stone-faced" and agreeable during testimony against and for him and was even smiling and polite to everyone that he encounters during his 7 years of forced vacation in Jerusalem.

_{from the official Netflix channel}

The makers of this series don't pick sides and don't paint anyone in a favorable light. They are truly neutral presenters of the facts that currently exist - you know, like how journalists are supposed to be - and that is what makes this so watchable.

They aren't trying to convince the audience of anything and by the end of it all viewers have to digest what they have seen and make their own choices. This is nice and also extremely unusual in today's time where almost anything we watch, including and perhaps especially on Netflix, has some sort of agenda in their programming.

I sat down last night at 11pm to watch one episode and then got to bed after. I ended up watching all of them and didn't get to bed until nearly 4am. When this happens, i am dealing with something that for me at least, is definitely worth watching.

My overall rating?