History Main / NaziGrandpa

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* In Creator/JMichaelStraczynski's ''ComicBook/TheTwelve'' maxi-series, The Witness is kept in suspended animation from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII until being revived in the present day. Several weeks after being revived, he hunts down a very old man in New York, whom he knows was a guard at Auschwitz. [[spoiler:And he kills him.]]

* The '80s revival of the Peacemaker rewrote the lead character's backstory so that his ''father'' was a Nazi war criminal who escaped prosecution and lived for decades under an assumed name. He (the father) killed himself the moment his secret came to light, and his family changed their name from Schmidt to Smith to distance themselves from him.

[[folder:Film]]

* The German film ''Night of the Living Dorks'' has one of the main trio get a luger from his Nazi grandpa.
* ''Music Box'' is about a female lawyer successfully defending her own father against charges that he was a war criminal and fascist during World War II. She simply cannot believe that the kindly, friendly man she grew up loving could be a monster who systematically murdered Jews and Roma. At the end of the film, she finds previously unknown, but indisputable, proof that her father actually ''was'' a war criminal and fascist... [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone and she just helped him escape prosecution.]] She ends up sending the incriminating photos to the government prosecutor who she just defeated, who has them published in the newspaper. Scriptwriter Creator/JoeEszterhas loosely based this story on his own life, and on the shock he went through when he discovered that his own father had been an enthusiastic Nazi during World War II.

* Von Geisler in ''Film/{{Frontiers}}'' is the head of a family of Nazi [[ImAHumanitarian cannibals]].
* Dr. Mortner from the Film/JamesBond movie ''Film/AViewToAKill''. Ironically, Max Zorin, the (now-grown-up) Aryan test-tube baby he raised, is no racist (but still very, very evil).
** It's a bit more complicated as Doctor Mortner was experimenting with what he considered inferior bloodlines to make them super-soldiers. In the script, Zorin's AmazonBrigade is composed of his other experiments.

* Arthur Denker again in the film adaptation of ''Film/AptPupil''. Creator/IanMcKellen can play a pretty terrifying ex-Nazi in hiding. Admittedly he's trying to forget his past crimes, but the scene where he's forced to play dress-up for the bratty kid blackmailing him shows that the whole "blood and honor" devotion is still bubbling beneath the surface. Having to recount his past murders inspires Denker to start killing homeless men.
* ''{{Film/Remember}}'': Zev is hunting for one, the former SS blockfuhrer at Auschwitz who killed his and Max's families, Otto Wallisch. [[spoiler: Due to his dementia, he's forgotten that ''he'' is Wallisch. Kunibert Sturm, his former comrade, is another example. Both appear to hate what they did in Auschwitz though, subverting the usual portrayals.]]

* Spoofed in Website/TheOnion's ''Literature/OurDumbWorld''. Apparently, [[ArgentinaIsNaziland Argentina is]] ''[[ArgentinaIsNaziland filled]]'' with old Nazis who [[WhenIWasYourAge will not shut up about that one time they killed a little Jewish girl with the butt of their rifle]], much to their grandchildren's annoyance.
* Also spoofed in ''Literature/IAmAmericaAndSoCanYou'' in the chapter about family. The grandmother is identified as someone not to ask about, since "Grandpa brought her back from the war, and she might be a Nazi."
* Sort of happens in Creator/StephenFry's HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct novel ''Literature/MakingHistory''. The gentle old German scientist who wants to go back and prevent the Holocaust wasn't a Nazi himself, but we're led to believe he's a Jewish survivor until it turns out the reason ItsPersonal is that his father was in the SS and he feels guilty.
* Invoked in the ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'' trilogy, as George Dorn bumps into an old man in Ingolstadt who curses at him with all kinds of politically incorrect slurs, but he can't bring himself to be offended since the man feels like a relic of the past, rather than anyone to be taken seriously. [[spoiler:It's actually UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself, returned to Germany to receive his promised reward from the Illuminati.]]

* ''Literature/Area51'': Professor Werner Von Seeckt, who is pushing eighty in the first book and the {{only sane man}} at Majic-12. However, he also turns out to be a former SS member, forcefully recruited by US intelligence, and has worked for them ever since. Von Seeckt however claims he wasn't a true believer and didn't know of the atrocities (but also admits it was mostly willful ignorance), with no evidence of him participating in any. He shows no signs of retaining Nazi beliefs in any case and is largely heroic. Still, his past understandably disturbs most characters.
* The Man Who Ended History, a short story (framed as a documentary) by Ken Liu, discusses the use of a machine that allows people to relive history (only once). This machine is used to bring atrocities committed by Japanese medical researchers in WWII to public awareness. The beloved grandfather of one of the researchers was a senior doctor there.

** The original series went to this well a few times as well, in "Night and Fog" (where the culprit was actually a Jewish man who'd collaborated with the Nazis and killed his Holocaust victim wife when she found out) and "Evil Breeds" (where a Holocaust survivor is testifying in a federal war crimes investigation against a suspected Nazi war criminal but gets killed by the manager of a "hate rock" act who's trying to exploit the criminal's rep for sales).
* A similar thing happens in ''Series/{{CSINY}}''. An antique dealer with Nazi sympathies is murdered. It turns out his killer was a concentration camp guard who had escaped prosecution by pretending to be Jewish after the war was over (going as far as to put a fake "serial number" tattoo on his arm).
** The old concentration camp guard posing as a Jew also showed up in another Bruckheimer show, ''Series/ColdCase''. Both were likely [[RippedFromTheHeadlines inspired]] by the case of [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/sep/21/secondworldwar.germany Elfriede Rinkel]].

* Dr. Krieg in ''Series/ThePretender'' episode "Hazards".

* In the German SitCom ''Pastewka'', Bastian's brother acquires a foosball table on Website/EBay, and they have to drive out to the seller's house, in order to get it and take it home. Said seller is an old man who seems to be nostalgic for the Third Reich: His house is filled to the brim with war memorabilia, his most precious one being the handkerchief of the Führer himself.
* In ''Series/SonOfTheBeach'' German character Chip Rommel has an antique diamond ring. "It voz mein grandfather's. He collected jewellery during the war."
* In an episode of ''Series/FlashForward2009'', there is an old convicted Nazi in a prison in UsefulNotes/{{Munich}}, who claims to have important information about the Blackout, and offers it to the Mosaic Team in exchange for his release. Too late it turns out that they have been tricked by him, and this info isn't that important after all. Or is it?
* The grandpa in the sketch "Weihnachten bei Hoppenstedts" by German comedian Creator/{{Loriot}} may have ''traces'' of this, considering how he insists on playing his [[MusicToInvadePolandTo military marches]] on full volume - at Christmas Eve! Though to be fair, because this sketch is from 1978, it is quite possible that he is merely a ''Monarchist'' Grandpa, feeling nostalgia for the [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany good old times of the Kaiser's reign]], which were just 60 years ago, back then.
* An episode of ''Series/BarneyMiller'' has a [[UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} Romani]] man apparently harassing an elderly prank shop owner. Turns out the prank shop owner was a guard at a concentration camp who tormented him.
* In ''Series/ThirtyRock'', Jack once remembered that his kindly German teacher who was obsessed with classifying people got kidnapped by Israeli commandos.
* In ''Series/ElInternado'', there are several Nazi old men that managed to escape justice when UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ended by hiding in Spain. In fact, Iván's adoptive grandfather, as well as Marcos and Paula's grandfather [[spoiler:(who put his daughter Eva to the illness he developed, and then cloned her twice, which resulted in Irene/Sandra, whom he adopted when she was five, and Paula, who became Sandra's daughter)]] were two of those high-ranking Nazis.
* One of these is the AssholeVictim in a certain sketch of ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' ("Master E-Raced"). He was shot in the head and survived, but the bullet was stuck inside and located near a major artery. [[TheNineties Fifty years later]], the former Nazi (now living in New York City) accidentally bumps his head while getting milk from his refrigerator. [[DelayedReaction The bullet finally hits its target and the Kraut goes kaput.]]
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': One of the single-vilest villains of the anthology was the old Nazi known as Karl Rademacher from season 5's time-travel episode "Tribunal". Once a sadistic commander of a concentration camp, he murdered hundreds of people during the war before disappearing and living out the rest of his days in the United States as "Robert Greene". The protagonist, the son of a Holocaust survivor, tries to bring Rademacher to justice but eventually resolves to [[spoiler:have Rademacher killed by his own younger self.]]
* ''Series/{{Harrow}}'': In "Lex Talionis" ("The Law of Retaliation"), the VictimOfTheWeek, who was supposedly a Czech and a champion of migrant community, is revealed to have been an officer at Auschwitz. He was murdered by [[spoiler:one of his victims who recognised him and had herself admitted to the same nursing specifically to kill him]].

* One of the victim in ''Series/{{Bones}}'' was a Nazi war criminal who fled with part of NaziGold to Argentina.
* An episode of ''Series/{{ER}}'' had an old man attack another old man (described as a kindly grandfather) at a bus stop. When the two men are brought to the hospital, the assailant reveals that the victim sold him and his family out to the Nazis during World War II.

* In ''VideoGame/DoNotFeedTheMonkeys'', one of the storylines has an Expy of Hitler as a retired old man in an old folks' home.

* In a ''Webcomic/BiterComics'' strip, A prospective job candidate learns his new boss may at the very least be a [[http://www.bitercomics.com/comic/camp-councilors/ Nazi sympathizer]].

* Grandpa Nazi is a recurring sketch in ''WesternAnimation/MonkeyDust''.
* "German Guy," an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' dealt with this subject, featuring a kindly old German man named Franz Gutentag who befriends Chris before pedophile neighbor Herbert recognizes Franz as a Nazi who put him in a concentration camp for [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday not being gay]]. Herbert and Franz face off in a SlowMotion fight of GreyAndGrayMorality (is the audience supposed to root for the pedophile or the Nazi)?

* In the first series satirical UK puppet show ''Series/SpittingImage'' Mrs Thatcher's elderly neighbour, Herr Jeremy Von Wilcox, who lived at No. 9 Downing Street, was actually Adolf Hitler.

* Sebastian Shaw in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', although his mutant powers ensure he doesn't ''look'' like anybody's grandpa. He was already visibly in his mid-40s during the war before the roughly 20-year TimeSkip. Magneto also hunts down two of Shaw's former SS buddies to Argentina before killing them. However, since it's set in TheSixties, they are closer to middle-aged than truly "grandpa" material.

* Sebastian Shaw in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', although his mutant powers ensure he doesn't ''look'' like anybody's grandpa. He was already visibly in his mid-40s during the war before the roughly 20-year TimeSkip.

* In the Israeli film ''Film/WalkOnWater'', the UsefulNotes/{{Mossad}} agent Eyal must find Alfred Himmelman, an aging Nazi war criminal and get him "before God does". In order to track down the old man, Eyal poses as a tour guide and befriends the Nazi's adult grandchildren, Axel and Pia.

-->I don't like to talk about the war because my father died in a concentration camp. He fell from a watch tower. [[OverlyLongGag While trying to escape. From rioting prisoners.]]

* A French boy was upstairs playing on his computer when his granddad came into the room and sat down on the bed. "What are you doing?" asked the granddad. "You're 18 years old and wasting your life! When I was 18 I went to Paris, I went to the Moulin Rouge, drank all night, had my way with the dancers, pissed on the barman and left without paying! Now that is how to have a good time!" A week later, the grandfather comes to visit again. He finds the boy still in his room, but with a broken arm in plaster, 2 black eyes and missing all his front teeth. "What happened?", he asked. "Oh granddad!", replied the boy. "I did what you did! I went to Paris, went to the Moulin Rouge, drank all night, had my way with the dancers, pissed all over the barman, and he beat the crap out of me!" "Oh dear!", replied the granddad. "Who did you go with?" "Just some friends, why? Who did you go with?" "Oh!" replied the granddad. "The Third Panzer Division."

* ''Literature/Area51'': Professor Werner Von Seeckt, who is pushing eighty in the first book and the {{only sane man}} at Majic-12. However, he also turns out to be a former SS member, forcefully recruited by US intelligence and has worked for them ever since. Von Seeckt however claims he wasn't a true believer, and didn't know of the atrocities (but also admits it was mostly willful ignorance), with no evidence of him participating in any. He shows no signs of retaining Nazi beliefs in any case, and is largely heroic. Still, his past understandably disturbs most characters.

** The original series went to this well a few times as well, in "Night and Fog" (where the culprit was actually a Jewish man who'd collaborated with the Nazis and killed his Holocaust victim wife when she found out) and "Evil Breeds" (where a Holocaust survivor is testifying in a federal war crimes investigation against a suspected Nazi war criminal, but gets killed by the manager of a "hate rock" act who's trying to exploit the criminal's rep for sales).

* in ''Series/SonOfTheBeach'' german character Chip Rommel has an antique diamond ring. "It voz mein grandfather's. He collected jewellery during the war."

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': One of the single-vilest villains of the anthology was the old Nazi known as Karl Rademacher from season 5's time-travel episode "Tribunal". Once a sadistic commander of a concentration camp, he murdered hundreds of people during the war before disappearing and living out the rest of his days in the United States as "Robert Greene". The protagonist, the son of a Holocaust survivor, tries to bring Rademacher to justice, but eventually resolves to [[spoiler:have Rademacher killed by his own younger self.]]

* ''{{TabletopGame/Cyberpunk}}'': Saburo Arasaka is Imperial Japanese, rather than Third Reich, but otherwise fits the trope to a T. Arasaka fought in the war, founded the Arasaka corporation in an attempt to restore Japan's place as a world superpower, put his children through TrainingFromHell to ensure they would be as tough and hate Americans as much as he did, and eventually push the Arasaka corporation into all out war to try to settle the grudge that started at Midway.

* In ''VideoGame/DoNotFeedTheMonkeys'', one of the storylines has an Expy of Hitler as a retired old man in an old folks home.

* In ''Webcomic/ScaryGoRound'', the professor who accompanies Shelley, Amy and Desmond during their journey to {{Atlantis}} is implied to be one.

** Gudrun Burwitz, born in 1929 as Gudrun Himmler and daughter of Heinrich Himmler, and mother of two, had been a leading figure in German neo-Nazi movements her entire adult life until her death on 2018.

** The Netherlands had a similar example to Gudrun in Florentine Rost van Tonningen, known as "the Black Widow", who continued to espouse her late husband's national socialist ideology decades after he was executed for collaboration, until her death on 2007.
* After the war, many Nazis did hide in [[ArgentinaIsNaziland Argentina]] for many years, the most notorious case being Adolf Eichmann, kidnapped by the UsefulNotes/{{Mossad}} in 1960, who became the only person so far executed by Israel (not counting a wrongly accused man). He was only fifty six at the time however, so not the stereotype.

-->--'''Bad joke'''

* After the destruction of the Poseidon Oil Rig in ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', the remnants of [[ANaziByAnyOtherName The Enclave]] have been trying to integrate silently to society, with varying successes; some were found out and executed. In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', there are 6 known Enclave Remnants whom you can convince to aid the final battle at Hoover Dam.
* In VideoGame/DoNotFeedTheMonkeys one of the storylines has an Expy of Hitler as a retired old man in an old folks home.

* ''{{TabletopGame/Cyberpunk}}'': Saburo Arasaka is Imperial Japanese, rather than Third Reich, but otherwise fits the trope to a T. Arasaka fought in the war, founded the Arasaka corporation in an attempt to restore Japan's place as a world superpower, put his children through TrainingFromHell to ensure they would be as tough and hate Americans as much as he did, and eventually push the Arasaka corporation into all out war to try to settle the grudge that started at Iwo Jima.

A very specific SubTrope of GrumpyOldMan. Often married to a RacistGrandma. Related to RetiredMonster.

* In April 2013, now deceased German actor Horst Tappert, who played the title character in the popular long-running detective series ''Derrick'', was discovered to have been a member of the Waffen-SS in World War II. In his lifetime, he had always claimed to have served as a medic in the Wehrmacht. Reruns of the series were promptly pulled off the German and Dutch public channels.

** Gudrun Burwitz, born in 1929 as Gudrun Himmler and daughter of Heinrich Himmler, and mother of two, has been a leading figure in German neo-Nazi movements her entire life until her death on 2018.
** A mild example applies to children who were members of the Hitler Youth or the Band of German Maidens. Because membership was compulsory, that meant that nearly all Germans who came of age in the 50s and 60s had been a part of those organizations, with many high-profile names from Chancellor Helmut Kohl to Pope Benedict XVI. Naturally, there was no attempt to blacklist child members, as it would have left Germany without young people to assume roles in politics and business.
*** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Oredsson Vera Oredsson]], leading member of the neo-Nazi Nordic Resistance Movement, used to belong to the ''Bund Deutscher Mädel'' before emigrating to Sweden after 1945.

* After the war, many Nazis did hide in [[ArgentinaIsNaziland Argentina]] for many years, the most notorious case being Adolf Eichmann, kidnapped by the UsefulNotes/{{Mossad}} in 1960, who became the only person so far executed by Israel (not counting a wrongly accused man).

* In April 2013, now deceased German actor Horst Tappert, who played the title character in the popular long-running detective series ''Derrick'', was discovered to have been a member the Waffen-SS in World War II. In his lifetime, he had always claimed to have served as a medic in the Wehrmacht. Reruns of the series were promptly pulled of the German and Dutch public channels.

* Arthur Denker again in the film adaptation of ''Film/AptPupil''. Creator/IanMcKellen can play a pretty terrifying ex-Nazi in hiding. Admittedly he's trying to forget his past crimes, but the scene where he's forced to play dress-up for the bratty kid blackmailing him shows that the whole "blood and honor" devotion is still bubbling beneath the surface.

* There is a whole genre of {{Russian|Humor}}/Soviet jokes where the premise is the following: a boy accidentally discovers that his grandpa was a Nazi collaborator [[note]]well, [[DontExplainTheJoke more specifically]], the boy discovers ''evidence'' of his grandpa being a Nazi collaborator, and due to [[ChildrenAreInnocent childish naivete]], fails to put two and two together[[/note]], and HilarityEnsues. For example:

-->'''Boy:''' "No, but I found his helmet with two lightning bolts[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke the SS symbol]][[/note]] that he'd hidden in the attic!"

** A older non-Nazi variant involves a boy proudly saying his grandfather once met a hero of the Soviet revolution. His teacher asks for the grandfather to speak to the class about it, and the grandfather confirms that he did indeed see the hero once. And immediately shot at him, because the grandfather was in the ''Tsarist'' army.

* ''Music Box'' is about a female lawyer successfully defending her own father against charges that he was a war criminal and a Nazi during World War II. She simply cannot believe that the kindly, friendly man she grew up loving could be a monster who systematically murdered Jews and Gypsies. At the end of the film, she finds previously unknown, but indisputable, proof that her father actually ''was'' a war criminal and a Nazi... [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone and she just helped him escape prosecution.]] She ends up sending the incriminating photos to the government prosecutor who she just defeated, who has them published in the newspaper. Scriptwriter Creator/JoeEszterhas loosely based this story on his own life, and on the shock he went through when he discovered that his own father had been an enthusiastic Nazi during World War II.

* Arthur Denker in Creator/StephenKing's ''[[Literature/DifferentSeasons Apt Pupil]]'' (real name Kurt Dussander). He pretends to be a German emigrant who fought in the army during the war; he was actually the commander of a minor concentration camp.

* Sort of happens in Creator/StephenFry's HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct novel ''Literature/MakingHistory''. The gentle old German scientist who wants to go back and prevent the Holocaust wasn't a Nazi himself, but we're led to believe he's a Jewish survivor until it turns out the reason ItsPersonal is that his father was in the S.S. and he feels guilty.

** Gudrun Burwitz, born in 1929 as Gudrun Himmler and daughter of Heinrich Himmler, and mother of two, has been a leading figure in German neo-Nazi movements her entire life.

** The Netherlands had a similar example to Gudrun in Florentine Rost van Tonningen (d. 2007), known as "the Black Widow", who continued to espouse her late husband's national socialist ideology decades after he was executed for collaboration.

A very specific SubTrope of GrumpyOldMan. Married to the RacistGrandma. Related to RetiredMonster.

* Sebastian Shaw in ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', although his mutant powers ensure he doesn't ''look'' like anybody's grandpa.

* In VideoGame/Don'tFeedTheMonkeys one of the storylines has an Expy of Hitler as a retired old man in an old folks home.

* In VideoGame/DontFeedTheMonkeys one of the storylines has an Expy of Hitler as a retired old man in an old folks home.

* ''Series/{{Harrow}}'': In "Lex Talionis" ("The Law of Retaliation"), the VictimOfTheWeek, who was supposedly a Czech and a champion of migrant community, is revealed to have been an officer at Auschwitz. He was murdered by [[spoiler:one of his victims who recognised him and had herself admitted to the same nursing specifically to kill him]].

* In a ''Webcomic/BiterComics'' strip, A prospective job candidate learns his new boss may at the very least be a [[http://www.bitercomics.com/comic/camp-councilors/ nazi sympathizer]].