IZMIR, Turkey — Netflix’s latest Turkish production, “The Club,” whose first season in November awakened the ghosts of Turkey’s minuscule Jewish community, has now turned its lens on another dark page of Turkish history. In the pogroms of Sept. 6-7, 1955, thousands of properties owned by non-Muslims in Istanbul were destroyed by nationalist mobs.
The pogroms, which some academics have dubbed Istanbul’s Kristallnacht and compare to the mobs that torched Jewish businesses, synagogues and homes in Germany in 1938, remain a touchy subject in Turkey. In 2005, a photography exhibit marking its 50th anniversary was raided by nationalists who tore down some of the photos that showed the faces of the rioters and the indifference of the local security forces.
