Netflix To Update ‘The Devil Next Door’ After Polish PM Sent Letter To Reed Hastings Over “Inaccurate” Map Reference

Tom Grater

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UPDATED: Netflix is amending its docuseries The Devil Next Door to update a map that was cited as inaccurate earlier this week by Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki.

On Tuesday, Morawiecki took the step of penning a letter to Netflix chief Reed Hastings in which he complained about the depiction of Nazi concentration camps inside modern-day Polish borders.

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In response, Netflix has now said it will be “adding text” to the map in “the coming days” to clarify its context. A spokesperson for the streamer sent Deadline the below statement.

“We are hugely proud of The Devil Next Door and stand by its filmmakers, their research and their work. 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.”

PREVIOUSLY: Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has sent a letter to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to ask the streamer to correct a “mistake” in its doc series The Devil Next Door.

The show, which premiered online last week, chronicles a Cleveland grandfather, John Demjanjuk, who is brought to trial in Israel, standing accused of being an infamous Nazi death camp guard.

In the letter, which was published on his official Facebook page, the Polish PM expressed his dissatisfaction at a map used that depicts historical Nazi concentration camps inside modern-day Polish borders.

“Certain works available through your network are hugely inaccurate – and to be an extent obfuscating historical facts and whitewashing actual perpetrators of these crimes,” he wrote. “It has come to my attention that a recently released documentary series The Devil Next Door involves a map that falsely places several German Nazi concentration camps within modern-day Poland’s borders. There is no comment or any explanation whatsoever that these sites are German-operated.”

“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. 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,” it read.

Morawiecki added that he believes the “mistake has been committed unintentionally” and that he was hoping Netflix would “correct it as soon as possible” by modifying the depicted map in the series. He also included an “accurate map” in his correspondence to Hastings.

The letter was followed by a tweet from Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs outlining the mistake.

A spokesperson for Netflix told Reuters that they were “aware of the concerns” and “urgently looking into the matter.” Deadline has contacted the streamer to see if the series will be updated.

Variety was first with the news that Netflix was updating the series.

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