Poland asks Netflix to make changes to documentary about Nazi death camp guard

[webfact]

Poland asks Netflix to make changes to documentary about Nazi death camp guard

 

FILE PHOTO: Convicted Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk leaves a courtroom after his the verdict in Munich on May 12, 2011. REUTERS/Michael Dalder/File Photo

 

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has pressed Netflix, the U.S. streaming and production company, to make changes to a documentary that includes a map showing Nazi death camps inside the borders of modern Poland.

 

The camps were built by the Nazis on Polish soil during their brutal occupation of Poland in World War Two, but the map used in the documentary, Morawiecki said, implied that Poland existed at that time as an independent nation within its postwar borders and thus could share responsibility for the atrocities.

 

The map appears in a Netflix documentary series entitled "The Devil Next Door" that chronicles the story of John Demjanjuk, a retired U.S. carworker convicted by a German court in 2011 of having been a Nazi death camp guard during the war.

 

"There is no comment or any explanation whatsoever that these sites (on the map) were German-operated," Morawiecki said in a letter to Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, dated Nov. 10 and published on the prime minister's Facebook page on Monday.

 

"As my country did not even exist at that time as an independent state, and millions of Poles were murdered at these sites, this element of "The Devil Next Door" is nothing short of rewriting history," he said.

 

Morawiecki said he believed the mistake was unintentional and that the company would swiftly correct it, either by modifying the map or providing further explanation to viewers.

 

Asked about the issue, a Netflix spokesperson told Reuters: "We are aware of the concerns regarding "The Devil Next Door" and are urgently looking into the matter."

 

Poland is very sensitive to suggestions that it might share any complicity in Nazi crimes committed on its territory.

 

The ruling nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) last year passed a law allowing courts to jail anybody who made such a suggestion, though it later watered down the legislation under U.S. pressure to remove the possibility of a prison term.

 

Poland was home to one of the world's biggest Jewish communities before it was almost wiped out by the Nazis.

 

During decades of Soviet-imposed communist rule after World War Two, Poles were taught to believe that, with a few exceptions, the nation had conducted itself honourably during a war that killed a fifth of the population.

 

Many Poles still refuse to accept research showing that thousands of Poles participated in the Holocaust in addition to the thousands who risked their lives to help the Jews.

 

A German court convicted Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk in 2011 pending appeal as an accessory to the murder of 27,000 Jews at the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. He died in 2012 in a German nursing home aged 91 before his appeal could be heard.

 

(Reporting by Anna Koper; Editing by Gareth Jones)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-12

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[phantomfiddler]

Sounds like a reasonable request, since the entire disgusting episode was orchestrated by the Germans, not the Poles.

[Tchooptip]

1 hour ago, phantomfiddler said:

Sounds like a reasonable request, since the entire disgusting episode was orchestrated by the Germans, not the Poles.

The politically correct (not me) would advise you nowadays to write,  by the Nazis not by the Germans ????????

[puipuitom]

I hope in that documentary also will be mentioned how little the Polish did to help their Jews. Not only in, but also before and after the war. The Nazi's did not built these camps for nothing in anti-semitic Poland ( and Belo-Russ), and not in... France, Denmark, etc.

 

With Anti-Semitism on the rise, can Poland come …

https://www.americamagazine.org/.../02/anti-semitism-rise-can-poland-come-terms-its-past

2-11-2018 · With Anti-Semitism on the rise, can Poland come to terms with its past? In coming to terms with a Holocaust that played out on its own soil, ...In the present context, the mounting anti-Semitic demonstrations in Poland can no longer be characterized as marginal

[Jingthing]

Poles were largely complicit. Netflix should tell them that the white nationalist denialist government of Poland can take a hike. Diplomatically of course! 

[puipuitom]

29 minutes ago, Tchooptip said:

The politically correct (not me) would advise you nowadays to write,  by the Nazis not by the Germans ????????

Bye-the-way: it was an invention by the British, during the Boer war in South Africa. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_concentration_camps

[Jingthing]

4 minutes ago, puipuitom said:

I hope in that documentary also will be mentioned how little the Polish did to help their Jews. Not only in, but also before and after the war. The Nazi's did not built these camps for nothing in anti-semitic Poland ( and Belo-Russ), and not in... France, Denmark, etc.

Yeah they should add a section to the doc all about Polish complicity and antisemitism. Also about the how current Polish government is denialist about that complicity. 

[Scot123]

3 hours ago, puipuitom said:

Bye-the-way: it was an invention by the British, during the Boer war in South Africa. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_concentration_camps

Oh here we go again. Can you really not help yourself, are you so filled with hate for the people who liberated you? This is about Nazi extermination camps that butchered millions in industrialised ethnic cleansing not the Boar War. Again trying to compare the two just shows your bitter twisted mind. Read history and not quote garbage. The camps of the boar war were holding the enemy fighters families not gassing or executing them. Yes some died of deseass but none from gas, shooting or bayoneted to death. America also had camps in ww2 for Japanese in America. How dare you inply a connection. 

[bristolboy]

3 hours ago, puipuitom said:

I hope in that documentary also will be mentioned how little the Polish did to help their Jews. Not only in, but also before and after the war. The Nazi's did not built these camps for nothing in anti-semitic Poland ( and Belo-Russ), and not in... France, Denmark, etc.

 

 

Nonsense. They built them there because that's where there was a huge concentration of Jews. It would have been logistically impossible to transport millions of people to the west. Especially once the war got underway in earnest.

[Thomas J]

28 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

I hope in that documentary also will be mentioned how little the Polish did to help their Jews.

 puipuitom What were they suppose to do?  Throw Kielbasa at them?  The French had a modern, army, navy, and air force.  On June 5, 1940 the German offensive against France began. On June 25, the French formally surrendered. 

[racket]

5 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

Sounds like a reasonable request, since the entire disgusting episode was orchestrated by the Germans, not the Poles.

The reason why Nazi germany invaded Poland was because the poles massacres thousands of Germans. Sounds like an action sometimes leads to a reaction. 

[jany123]

15 minutes ago, racket said:

The reason why Nazi germany invaded Poland was because the poles massacres thousands of Germans. Sounds like an action sometimes leads to a reaction. 

Goebells propaganda... my, but some do like the cool aid supplied by these flamboyant dictator types

[Chomper Higgot]

When last in Edinburgh I took time out to visit this:

 

Let’s keep in mind the sacrifice many Polish made for the freedoms we enjoy.

[Jingthing]

Here is an objective source about these issues. The trouble is that the far right wing white nationalist government of Poland is promoting holocaust denial in their enthusiasm in pushing ultra-nationalist narratives about the holocaust. That is why I hope that Netflix doesn't cave to such dark forces. But wouldn't be surprised if they do.

 

Quote

Why Poland Punishes Those Who Accuse It of the Holocaust

 

https://www.history.com/news/poland-holocaust-law-death-camps

[elliss]

6 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

Sounds like a reasonable request, since the entire disgusting episode was orchestrated by the Germans, not the Poles.

 

 This documentary is very popular on Netfix , in its present format .

  No changes expected .

 

[Scott]

A Post from a questionable source and reply removed.  

[Jingthing]

8 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

Sounds like a reasonable request, since the entire disgusting episode was orchestrated by the Germans, not the Poles.

Incorrect.

Based on this book:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbors:_The_Destruction_of_the_Jewish_Community_in_Jedwabne,_Poland

 

[WillyPlatt]

Bickering on an internet site.

I have been to Dachau, Austchwitz and the River Kwai.

We visited Austchwitz on a trip to Krakow.

Standing on the railway line where people arrived. 

The fit lived, the others went to the chambers.

Photos lined the walls. Jews, gypsies, homosexuals.

No birds sang walking round on the camp tour.

The Jews have been disliked in many countries. There is an undercurrent, muttered under the breath.

 

[Harveyg]

9 hours ago, Tchooptip said:

The politically correct (not me) would advise you nowadays to write,  by the Nazis not by the Germans ????????

Well you’ve got a kettle of fish now.  There were Polish nazis as well

[Harveyg]

3 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Incorrect.

Based on this book:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbors:_The_Destruction_of_the_Jewish_Community_in_Jedwabne,_Poland

 

And this is but one official account of Polish complicity or Polish opportunism-whatever you call it. 
And there are no photos of the unofficial killings, the incidental ones, done by individuals or small groups not only during the war but AFTER also.  Actually this clip seems to want to soften some Polish behavior - attributing it to some sort of brainwashing.  That’s another story. 

[Harveyg]

5 hours ago, Thomas J said:

 puipuitom What were they suppose to do?  Throw Kielbasa at them?

Well let’s start with kielbasa.  

That would have been much appreciated in ‘42-‘45. 
Some, very few, risked their lives to hide Jews in barns and concealed rooms.  ok that’s a lot to ask.

 

One I know of brought food to those hiding in the woods, though it came with a promise of gifts of the home properties of the hiders after the war.

 
How about speaking up in their families or communities about killings and injustices they knew about?
How about deciding not to participate?

 

[tlandtday]

They really need to investigate the role of the Poles and Russians in mass killings by the Russian and Polish police prior to and during WW2 as well as Nazi Germany. 

[ezzra]

Until today, Poland is adamantly refusing to admit culpability in the extinguishing of millions of Jews and others on it's land, much less pay restitution or compensation for billions of assets left behind by the fleeing and murdered polish jews...

[marqus12]

I see that brainwashing goes very smoothly.
ignorant people write posts and they are sure that they know

and understand.

 

There was no cooperation with Germany. Poles were slaughtered 

on par with Jews by Germans and Soviets.

 

For helping Jews only in the Polish territories occupied by the Germans

there was a bullet to the head. This was the law introduced by the Germans

only in the occupied Polish territories. In other European countries there was

at most a prison.

 

Snitches are in every society, AK partisans often killed people who reported

to the Germans.

 

20% of the population of the country died within 5 years
mainly from German hands, but they cooperated 555555 .

 

Ignorant , children of the American education system.

[Bluespunk]

13 hours ago, racket said:

The reason why Nazi germany invaded Poland was because the poles massacres thousands of Germans. Sounds like an action sometimes leads to a reaction. 

Nonsense.

[marqus12]

13 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Incorrect.

Based on this book:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbors:_The_Destruction_of_the_Jewish_Community_in_Jedwabne,_Poland

 

This case is unchecked because research and exhumation was suspended

when German cartridges began to be excavated.
German cartridges and shells in this place do not really suit the theses

that are circulating.

 

Poles are in favor of resuming exhumation and examining the case to the end,

without that many books describing this event are not worth the paper

on which they are printed.

[Chomper Higgot]

10 hours ago, Harveyg said:

Well you’ve got a kettle of fish now.  There were Polish nazis as well

People joined the Nazi party and their armies in every nation the Nazis occupied.

 

They are known as collaborators and many met the end they deserved.

[Jingthing]

53 minutes ago, marqus12 said:

This case is unchecked because research and exhumation was suspended

when German cartridges began to be excavated.
German cartridges and shells in this place do not really suit the theses

that are circulating.

 

Poles are in favor of resuming exhumation and examining the case to the end,

without that many books describing this event are not worth the paper

on which they are printed.

Linked source please. 

[marqus12]

48 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Linked source please. 

http://www.currenteventspoland.com/analysis/framed_as_perpetrators.html

[marqus12]

43 minutes ago, marqus12 said:

http://www.currenteventspoland.com/analysis/framed_as_perpetrators.html

"The determination of the number of victims was done be by so-called approximation. There were supposed to be 1600, or 3800 of them. In the end, that was incorrect, as evidenced by a study carried out by Professor Andrzej Kola, a Polish forensic expert, the most outstanding expert in this field. He carried out exhumations in Katyn, Kharkov, other places out there in the East, all the time. Never questioned. And in Jedwabne he did the same. As soon as he started, immediately the exhumation was blocked, because things that were completely contrary to the official narrative started to come to light. Whether we take the number of victims, or the cause of death, or the robbery and desecration of the corpses, because all this gold, including gold teeth, all those things were found with the corpses. So nothing corresponded with the official version. Thus the exhumation was discontinued."

 

"

Someone was very keen to stop it.
The exhumation was stopped and discontinued. But based on what has been done, Prof. Andrzej Kola estimated that there were about 150 human remains. This is an estimate, of course, imprecise. And this was done by a professional, a man who at first glance not only explores but also evaluates and knows, because he carried out many such exhumations and conducted a variety of forensic analyses."