History Main / NaziZombies

So why are World War II-era Germans so often depicted as shambling corpses? Well, this fantastical association between Nazis and zombies presumably flows forth from the Nazis' rather comprehensive FinalSolution policies in regards to racial and ideological enemies. There is also the ObviouslyEvil use of [[SkeletonMotif skull imagery]] on uniforms, and a history of occult societies in Germany that were supported by some members of the Nazi Party. If there's any faction in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII who are believable as undead monsters in fiction, it's the Nazis.

* ''Film/{{War of the Dead}}'' involves a group of soldiers fighting for their lives against undead Germans.

** ''VideoGame/ReturnToCastleWolfenstein'' has waves of ancient undead instead, but the mutant Proto-Soldiers and Super-Soldiers are very much Nazi-engineered zombies.

* In ''Film/{{Suckerpunch}}'', the undead GasMaskMooks are explicitly UsefulNotes/WorldWarI [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany Imperial German]] soldiers, not Nazis. However, they still invoke a lot of the familiar imagery.

** ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheOldBlood'': After SS troops disinter an ancient undead monster, the village of Wulfburg is flooded with a gas which causes anyone who dies to rise from the dead as a flaming zombie. Being a ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' game, there is an ample supply of dead National Socialists to battle poor ol' Blazko. Additionally, some of the living Nazis that Blazkowicz kills can immediately turn into zombies, making things slightly harder for him.

* In ''Literature/TheKeep'', Rasalom resurrects the corpses of the German soldiers he kills to be his SlaveMooks. [[spoiler:After he is defeated, they drop dead again.]]

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''

* ''VideoGame/GunsGoreAndCannoli'': In ''2'', zombified Nazi soldiers can be encountered just outside and within the premises of [[BigBad the Dark Don's]] ElaborateUndergroundBase, presumably as a side effect of the zombie poison.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyZombies'' is the TropeNamer. It was originally titled "Nazi Zombies", and involved the players surviving hordes of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Nazi zombies]]; but the Nazis stopped appearing starting in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'', and the game mode was renamed "Zombie Mode".
* ''Owl's Nest'' by Pastel Games has you explore a secret bunker containing several of these, the results of failed attempts at SuperSoldier bioengineering.

** ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheOldBlood'': After SS troops disinter an ancient undead monster, the village of Wulfburg is flooded with a gas which causes anyone who dies to rise from the dead as a flaming zombie. Being a ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' game, there is an ample supply of dead National Socialists to battle poor ol' Blazko. Additionally some of the living Nazis that Blazkowicz kills can immediately turn into zombies, making things slightly harder for him.

So why are World War II-era Germans so often depicted as shambling corpses? Well, this fantastical association between Nazis and zombies presumably flows forth from the Nazis' rather comprehensive KillEmAll policies in regards to racial and ideological enemies. There is also the ObviouslyEvil use of [[SkeletonMotif skull imagery]] on uniforms, and a history of occult societies in Germany that were supported by some members of the Nazi Party. If there's any faction in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII who are believable as undead monsters in fiction, it's the Nazis.

** One episode in Season 8 dealt with surviving members of the Thule Society (widely referenced in popular culture for codifying the {{Ghostapo}} trope), who naturally use zombies.

* In ''ComicBook/DCComicsBombshells'', the Nazis do a very ill-advised deal with an EldritchAbomination to have all their dead soldiers rise as zombies and continue fighting - their demonic partners very quickly turn on them to threaten a ZombieApocalypse.

* ''ComicBook/FiendsOfTheEasternFront''. During the Stalingrad story, Constanza is running short on men, so he just resurrects some of Richter's squad as zombies to use as CannonFodder.

* a zombie/demon Imperial German soldier with a stahlhelm is seen in ''Film/DemonKnight''. Like all the demons in the film, he has clawed fingers and GlowingEyesOfDoom.

* * The rather oddly-titled ''Film/PanzerChocolate'' (or simply ''Panzer'' on DVD) involves a zombie SS officer killing off a group of archaeologists one by one, SlasherMovie style.

* One of ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' series, the 2012's ''Marvel Zombies Destroy!'' is about one of the Alternate Earths infected by the PlagueZombie, Earth-12591, in which Nazis won the WWII... by converting into zombies. Most of the known heroes were infected and zombified so they become part of the Nazi Zombies army. As part of the eradication plan of [[FunWithAcronyms A.R.M.O.R.]], ComicBook/HowardTheDuck, Ducky Dozen and Dum-Dum Dugan went to this AlternateUniverse to stop zombies, but went trapped by them and a zombie version of ''ComicBook/TheInvadersMarvel'', later being saved by ''The Suffragists'', a bunch of Golden Age heroines that stands as the last chance to this Earth, leadered by Miss America (the original one that fought with ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and were part of the Invaders), which has Cap's shield from the deceased version of this Earth.

* ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheOldBlood'': After SS troops disinter an ancient undead monster, the village of Wulfburg is flooded with a gas which causes anyone who dies to rise from the dead as a flaming zombie. Being a ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' game, there is an ample supply of dead National Socialists to battle BJ Blazkowitz.

->''Nazi zombies don't wanna eat ya just 'cause they're craving the protein! They do it 'cause...they do it 'cause they hate Americans! Talibans, they're the Talibans of the zombie world!''

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* The resurrected (and very [[TheNapoleon short]]) AdolfHitlarious type dictator in ''Anime/DragonBallZFusionReborn'' leads an army of undead, nearly skeletal soldiers in Nazi-inspired uniforms.

* In ''ComicBook/{{The Legend of Wonder Woman|2016}}'' The Duke of Deception makes a deal with the Nazis and starts slaughtering small bands of allied troops using reanimated Nazi soldiers. Franchise/WonderWoman makes her debut rescuing allied soldiers from him and defeating him and saving lives is her main goal outside of finding a way to return home and rescue her mentor and mother.

* The UrExample is 1941's ''Film/KingOfTheZombies'', about a German spy using voodoo rituals to extract state secrets from an American general.

* ''Zombie Lake'', which involves a squad of Wehrmacht soldiers murdered by LaResistance, then dumped into a local lake, coming back from the dead for revenge. This low-budget movie is known for having some of the cheesiest visual effects ever. (For example, instead of actually filming a zombie walking back into the lake after it killed someone, they just copied and reversed the shot of it emerging from the lake, so it walks backwards and water drips upwards.)
* The undead Nazi {{Mooks}} in the {{Mockbuster}} ''Nazis at the Center of the Earth'', although they're [[TechnicallyLivingZombie Technically Living Zombies]]. To stay alive, they harvest organs and body parts from victims they capture. Included among their number are a slowly rotting [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Josef Mengele]] and UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's severed head attached to a ''[[VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D Wolfenstein]]''-like [[StupidJetpackHitler robotic body]].
* ''Oasis of the Zombies'' (also known as ''The Treasure of the Living Dead'') involves a group of people fighting off a group of undead Afrika Korps soldiers guarding a treasure. It uses a lot of stock footage from the war movie ''Overrun!'' It was re-edited into the later film "''Grave of the Living Dead''."

* The first two films in the ''Film/{{Outpost}}'' series are pretty straightforward {{Ghostapo}}, with Götz and co. being metaphysical "ghost" beings. Then there's ''[[Film/{{Outpost}} Outpost III: Rise of the Spetsnaz]]'', which shows us the early work of the Lazarus Project. ''These'' undead German soldiers are actually zombies. At least one, a zombified SS corporal, is used as a human AngryGuardDog led around on a leash by his living companions.

* ''War of the Dead'' involves a group of soldiers fighting for their lives against undead Germans.
* The rather oddly-titled "''Panzer Chocolate''" (or simply "''Panzer''" on DVD) involves a zombie SS officer killing off a group of archaeologists one by one, SlasherMovie style.
* The Jewish main character in ''Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon'' has a nightmare where zombie Nazi soldiers burst into his home and massacre his family.
* In ''Film/{{Suckerpunch}}'', the undead GasMaskMooks are explicitly UsefulNotes/WorldWarI [[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany Imperial German]] soldiers, not Nazis. However, they still invoke a lot of the familiar imagery.
* Similarly, a zombie/demon Imperial German soldier with a stahlhelm is seen in ''Film/DemonKnight''. Like all the demons in the film, he has clawed fingers and GlowingEyesOfDoom.
* ''Film/{{Overlord|2018}}'' is about a group of paratroopers sent in to bring down a radio tower before D-Day, only to uncover a secret Nazi lab creating zombie {{super soldier}}s.

* In "Literature/TheEndOfThePierShow", the skinhead gang that Fred was originally supposed to infiltrate is killed by the evil forces at the pier and reanimated as zombies, with each one dressed in a different sort of Nazi uniform.

* ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheOldBlood'': After SS troops disinter an ancient undead monster, the village of Wulfburg is flooded with a gas which causes anyone who dies to rise from the dead as a flaming zombie. Being a ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' game, there is an ample supply of dead National Socialists to battle BJ Blazkowitz.

-->"I hate Nazi Zombies! They're so cliché!"

* One of ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' series, the 2012's ''Marvel Zombies Destroy!'' is about one of the Alternate Earths infected by the PlagueZombie, Earth-12591, in which Nazis won the WWII... by converting into zombies. Most of the known heroes were infected and zombified so they become part of the Nazi Zombies army. As part of the eradication plan of [[FunWithAcronyms A.R.M.O.R.]], ComicBook/HowardTheDuck, Ducky Dozen and Dum-Dum Dugan went to this AlternateUniverse to stop zombies, but went trapped by them and a zombie version of ''ComicBook/TheInvadersComicBook'', later being saved by ''The Suffragists'', a bunch of Golden Age heroines that stands as the last chance to this Earth, leadered by Miss America (the original one that fought with ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and were part of the Invaders), which has Cap's shield from the deceased version of this Earth.

* One of ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'' series, the 2012's ''Marvel Zombies Destroy!'' is about one of the Alternate Earths infected by the PlagueZombie, Earth-12591, in which Nazis won the WWII... by converting into zombies. Most of the known heroes were infected and zombified so they become part of the Nazi Zombies army. As part of the eradication plan of [[FunWithAcronyms A.R.M.O.R.]], ComicBook/HowardTheDuck, Ducky Dozen and Dum-Dum Dugan went to this AlternateUniverse to stop zombies, but went trapped by them and a zombie version of ''ComicBook/TheInvaders'', later being saved by ''The Suffragists'', a bunch of Golden Age heroines that stands as the last chance to this Earth, leadered by Miss America (the original one that fought with ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and were part of the Invaders), which has Cap's shield from the deceased version of this Earth.

* ''VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune'': Towards the third act, Drake discovers [[spoiler:that the lost treasure of El Dorado left a curse that turns people into zombies.]] Not too long after, him and Elena stumble upon a secret Nazi submarine base where [[spoiler:he discovers a film reel that reveals one officer transforming into a zombie.]]

* ''VideoGame/UnchartedDrakesFortune'': Towards the third act, Drake discovers [[spoiler:that the lost treasure of El Dorado left a curse that turns people into zombies.]] Not too long after, him and Elena stumble upon a secret Nazi submarine base where [[spoiler:he discovers footage of the lost treasure turning one officer into a zombie.]]