In response to criticism from Warsaw that a map featured in the recently released series showed Nazi German death camps within the borders of present-day Poland and could imply that the country shared responsibility for the atrocities committed there during the war, Netflix said in a Twitter post on Thursday that it stood by the filmmakers of The Devil Next Door series.
It added, however, that the some of the maps featured in the series would be provided with text to make it clearer that WWII-era death camps were built and run by the Nazi Germans, who occupied Poland at the time.
The Polish foreign ministry thanked the video provider in a Twitter message.
It said: “Thank you for your reaction! We appreciate that Netflix raises difficult and important topics. We are sure that historical accuracy will be essential in your future productions.”
Netflix said in its tweet on Thursday: “We stand by the filmmakers of The Devil Next Door, their research and their work.”
It added: “In order to provide more information to our members about the important issues raised in this documentary and to avoid any misunderstanding, in the coming days we will be adding text to some of the maps featured in the series. This will make it clearer that the extermination and concentration camps in Poland were built and operated by the German Nazi regime who invaded the country and occupied it from 1939-1945.”
The response from Netflix came after Poland’s prime minister several days ago urged it to make changes to a map shown in The Devil Next Door, saying the image was historically inaccurate and misled viewers about Poland’s role in World War II.
In a letter dated November 10 and sent to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the map depicted in the series “falsely placed several German Nazi concentration camps within modern-day Poland’s borders.”
“There is no comment or any explanation whatsoever that these sites were German-operated,” Morawiecki said in his letter.
He added: “Not only is the map incorrect, but it deceives viewers into believing that Poland was responsible for establishing and maintaining these camps, and for committing the crimes therein.”
Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller told public broadcaster Polish Radio on Friday that Morawiecki’s “quick reaction in the face of historical falsehoods in the Netflix series proved to be a good and effective step.”
The Devil Next Door tells the story of John Demjanjuk, a Ukrainian who died in Germany in 2012 at the age of 91, after decades-long efforts by prosecutors in multiple countries to prove that he was involved in Nazi crimes as a sadistic death camp guard known as “Ivan the Terrible.”
Meanwhile, an article posted on the polskieradio24.pl website slammed Netflix for “errors and lies” in more than one production.
A Netflix documentary entitled The Accountant of Auschwitz also failed to mention that Poland did not exist as an independent state during World War II and that death camps were set up and controlled by the Germans who occupied Poland at the time, the polskieradio24.pl website has reported.
The use of historically inaccurate terms by some international media and organisations has sparked numerous complaints from Poland in recent years, prompting some news agencies to change their style guidelines and eliminate misnomers such as "Polish" death camps.
Polish Radio last year launched a special educational website aimed at debunking misconceptions about Poland’s role in the Holocaust, at GermanDeathCamps.info.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR