User Reviews

In the mid-1970s, the renowned newspaper "De Telegraaf" publishes a seemingly casual article: the millionaire Pieter Menten is going to auction some artworks from his vast collection. The article reaches Israel quickly and calls the attention of Chaviv Kaanan. Kaanan, a senior journalist from the Haaretz, reads the news perplexed. The man responsible for the massacre of his family during WW2 lives well-off and at large in a 40-room mansion, famous worldwide as a art collector and philanthropist.

The journalist contacts a Haaretz correspondent in the Netherlands, the murderer's home country. Henrietta Boas, the correspondent, knows someone able to bring the story to light. Hans Knoop, editor-in- chief of The Accent, a relatively small weekly, is Boas' friend and may help exposing the case.

Pieter Menten was a very successful businessman in the interbellum period. He was Dutch, but made his wealth in Poland. Menten kept good relations with the Polish elite, trading expensive artworks and exploiting the forest. As wartime approached, however, he acquired a strong aversion to the Jews and Slavs as a whole. He engaged in disputes with Isaac Pistiner, a Jewish landowner, and suffered a heavy blow when the Bolshevicks seized his country house and a large portion of his collection.

Menten barely escaped alive when the Bolshevicks came. He moved to Krakow, a German-held city, and there befriended with SS- Brigadeführer Eberhard Schöngarth. Menten became a precious Nazi collaborator, serving as interpreter and administering Jewish properties. By 1941, when he conducted a mass killing in Galicia, he was already a SS officer. Through flashbacks, the mini-series recreates the horror: Menten dressed impeccably, sat in a comfortable chair, coordinating the shots of the machine gun, which launches into the mass grave a few at a time. Menten took this as a revenge against his old rivals, Jews and Bolshevicks alike, catching the opportunity to grab some valuable paintings.

Hans Knoop, a Jew himself, agrees to investigate the matter and speaks with Menten personally. When Menten offers some hush money, Knoop understands the severity of the question. Despite threats from Menten and opposition inside "De Telegraaf", Knoop proceeds with investigations. A bit apprehensive, he travels to the Soviet Union and collects testimonies from survivors. Shocking photographs of the bodies and skulls attract national interest in The Netherlands. All front pages feature Menten and political outcry arises in favor of tough measures. Menten tries to flee, but he is arrested and brought to trial. Gradually, powerful witnesses appear on both sides and the case takes several twists. New trials are scheduled and unexpected elements surprise both Menten and Knoop.

I won't spoiler the end, given there are few reviews here in IMDb. Although I gave this show 7, I must admit I was impressed with it. It is very well paced, charmingly shot, and masterfully acted. The soundtrack is rather immersive, featuring classics from the 70s (Sammy Davis as opening theme couldn't be more appropriate). The artificial footages supposed to look like seventish work quite well. The observance of the historical order of events gives the show a captivating realistic tone; the go and forth of the trials, the battles of Knoop with the editorial board, the marital problems, Knoop's resignation, everything seems pretty accurate.

Strangely, this bothered me at the same time. The strict observance of the real life story damaged the imaginative potential of the show. It lacked emotion, haste, thrill. The trial scenes were too conventional and could have been much more appealing. Menten's threats never left the drawing board; at most, he bribed some people and contributed to Knoop's workplace issues. Knoop's family, the obvious target of any retaliation, wasn't really harmed. To be honest, Menten's life became much more infernal than Knoop's.

In the end, I was also left wondering why exactly the Menten affair ruined Knoop's career.

For thousands of years, trembling people have told each other stories about a Minotaur living in a dark and formidable labyrinth. But there exists a more frightful kind of man-eating monster yet : the kind of monster that walks the sun-drenched streets quite openly, as a rich entrepreneur with a reputation for philanthropy.

"De Zaak Menten" tells the story of the hunt for one of these model citizen monsters, to wit Pieter Menten. During World War II Menten had amassed great wealth, mainly through the theft of paintings, in Poland, where he had grown very pally with the Nazis. This was awful enough, but Menten - who was not even a regular member of the German armed forces - liked to condemn Polish citizens to death, while wearing a well-pressed SS uniform. His murderous activities seem to have been aimed primarily at former business associates, although he was just as happy to order the execution of hapless people who looked as though they might have known vague acquaintances of the said business associates. Many of the victims were Jews. After World War II Menten returned to the Netherlands, where his vast wealth and wide-ranging influence allowed him to escape more or less unscathed. Armed with a crack team of lawyers, he even attacked national or regional authorities, demanding - and obtaining - reparation for imaginary wrongs done to HIM. For decades he walked the streets quite openly, amassing fame as a great and cultured entrepreneur, until a surprise tip-off from an Israeli reporter allowed a Dutch investigative reporter to sink his teeth into the case.

"De Zaak Menten" is quite a good series, well-made and well-written. Part of the story is told by way of flashback. The viewer meets both the young and the (very) old Menten - some outstanding acting here - and they're both hideous. We're clearly dealing with the worst type of person imaginable : a man who, like a silkworm, gets born into luxury ; who is blessed with natural qualities like intelligence, enterprise and the gift of tongues ; who evolves against a background of high culture and art ; and who reacts with a ferocious, unreasoning anger the very first time Fate deals him a blow. And it's all money, money, money with him. He never has enough, there is always a new painting to steal, a new victim to kill or defraud. By the end the spoils could fill a warehouse...

I liked the series a lot. Still, some minor points of criticism : as a Fleming I watched the series in Dutch, which is my mother language. Every now and then a little title appeared, for instance in order to indicate the time period or location involved. Strangely enough these titles were in English, which caused a series of mini-crashes to my suspension of disbelief. Moreover, the musical score seemed too cheerful and slight for such a dreadful tale of genocide, corruption and greed.

In the Netherlands, "De Zaak Menten" seems to have revived a number of questions regarding the real-life affair. One of the most important questions concerns the three post-War decades during which Menten lived in the Netherlands without being noticeably bothered by authorities. Doubtlessly this must have involved some most unsavoury deals...