Netflix has been criticized for using a Nazi-era prison to film Stranger Things, but fans have dismissed the complaint as “canceling the culture.”
Netflix has been criticized for filming Stranger Things on a Holocaust-related site.
Jewish advocates have criticized the streaming giant for seeking inspiration and shooting on sets associated with the dark period of history for the fourth season of the hit series.
The season was filmed in several locations, two of which were more controversial than others due to its sinister past.
The show’s fictional mental hospital, Pennhurst, was inspired by a famous American asylum that shared a similar name.
Meanwhile, Russian prison scenes were filmed in a former Lithuanian prison, known as Lukiškės, which was used by the Nazis in 1941.
A number of Jews died in the infamous prison, while 350 more were imprisoned before being later murdered in the Ponary massacre.
Peter Werthweim, of the Australian Jewish Executive Council, has called on Netflix to apologize and “take responsibility” for the way sad memories have resurfaced for Jews and gypsies who suffer.
“Whether conscious or not, his work has trivialized the enormity of the Holocaust, desensitized the public to the horror of genocide, and therefore helped lay the groundwork for future acts of cruelty and carnage.” , said Werthweim. ABC News.
But fans of the fictional drama series have been hitting back online ever since, defending the producers’ choice of location and calling the sets “educational” and “giving the show some reality.” .
“They used the site in Lithuania for [filming] certain scenes, but they also built the interior of the prison themselves. They don’t promote the place as a Holocaust setting on the show; it is used exclusively as a piece of construction, posing as a Russian prison, ”a fan of the show wrote on Facebook.
“In my house the show has been educational … [Netflix] has reflected on the dark side of humanity that promotes conversation and personal reflection, ”another viewer said.
Meanwhile, other supporters of the supernatural drama series said “cancel culture.”
“It is time to cancel Strange things! Or maybe you stop trying to find a problem with everything and everyone in life and look at the reason for the action, ”one Facebook user wrote.
“Absurd. Following this logic, no one should visit old battlefields or any places where tragedies take place … which would include London, Paris, New York as well as Auschwitz, the Normandy beaches of Gallipoli, ”said another.
Lukiškės Prison was open for a century until it closed in 2019. Netflix had plans to turn the venue into a Strange things-Thematic tourist attraction in collaboration with Go Vilnius Tourism, with cells for rent on Airbnb.
However, these plans were closed after a petition against the project obtained more than 53,000 signatures, ABC News reported.
The decision to reject the idea was one that some fans agreed with, but others argued that the situation was no different from museums and memorial sites dedicated to educating visitors about the past.
“Fucking in places and taking inspo from those places isn’t horrible. No one gets scared when a war movie does … But [turning it into] an Airbnb and making it look like a prison cell is too far away and creepy, ”one fan wrote.
“I guess if you’re going to question the Netflix series you’ll also have to question the tourism associated with these places,” another said.
Although the fourth season of the hit show is over, there is still more to come, after the creators, the Duffer Brothers, announce a fifth season that is expected to close the series.
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