The documentary recaps the legal battles of Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker in Cleveland accused of being a German-Nazi prison camp guard known as "Ivan the Terrible." Arrested, denaturalized as a U.S. citizen, and extradited to Israel in 1981, Demjanjuk was tried as a war criminal in a highly-publicized trial. Several survivors questioned at trial identified Demjanjuk as Ivan the Terrible. He was convicted in 1988 and sentenced to death, but his conviction was overturned by reasonable doubt, based in part on post-Cold War documents identifying a different guard as Ivan the Terrible. Although there was not enough evidence to identify Demjanjuk as Ivan the Terrible, Demjanjuk was identified as a Nazi guard at the Sobibor extermination camp as well as several other camps. He was deported from the United States to Germany in 2009 and was charged with over 27,900 counts of accessory to murder. He was again found guilty in May 2011 and sentenced to five years in prison. Demjanjuk died in prison while his case was on appeal, meaning the German legal system will no longer seek a determination on his guilt or innocence. The documentary interviews several figures from the trial, including Demjanjuk's attorney and family members, Israeli and American prosecutors, journalists, and academics. It contains extensive footage from his first trial, including testimony from Holocaust survivors, as well as historical footage from concentration camps.
Polish map clarification
Poland's prime ministerMateusz Morawiecki criticized the documentary for including a modern-day map of Poland, with the location of Nazi death camps marked on it. Morawiecki considered this to imply that Poland was responsible for the death camps instead of Nazi Germany. The map was shown as part of a segment from a 1985 TV report that first detailed the allegations against Demjanjuk. The map was shown "repeatedly in various versions of the series", with no explanation that the camps were run by Germans. Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki sent a letter to Netflix about the map, which is from a British press report in 1985. In response, in November 2019, Netflix agreed to "provide more information" onscreen to clearly show the camps were operated by Nazis. Netflix was thanked by Morawiecki. Vanity Fair on November 15, 2019 noted that it was "unclear" when the tweaks would be made by Netflix.
