Piggybacking on Hitler

A villain joins the Nazis during World War II, impresses Adolf Hitler enough to get his own squadron/unit, then uses these resources for his own gain. This villain often sees Hitler as just another obstacle to overcome later. This trope also works if you substitute Hitler/Nazis with any other historical dictator (Joseph Stalin, Kim Jong-Il, Pol Pot, etc.), but those examples are less prevalent.

It happened multiple times in Real Life:


 * SS Sturmbrigade RONA had been made up from rebellious Soviet people from the Lokot area after the German invasion of 1941 and led by the Russo-Pole Bronislav Kaminski. Their cruelty, looting and total lack of military competency during the Warsaw Uprising enraged the Führer enough to execute Kaminski and disband the unit.
 * XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps had been formed by the German high command from anti-Soviet Cossacks to fight partisans under the command of General Helmuth von Pannwitz. They were later forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union by the Western Allies and faced execution as traitors.

However, the dozens of Waffen-SS non-German volunteer units don't play this trope straight; since they were nominally a part of the German armed forces and subject to German military laws and regulations, they did not use the Reich for their own gain.

Compare/contrast with Dragon with an Agenda; here you don't need to be The Dragon, and with this trope you get an instantly recognizable yardstick of evil for the villain to compare himself to and to rob of funds.

Comic Books

 * In the mainstream Marvel Universe Mister Sinister, the X-Men villain, was a doctor in Auschwitz performing unethical human experiments and looking out for mutants. He used his real named, Nathan Essex, but was nicknamed Nosferatu and he scared even the Nazis. Magneto remembers him and recalled that he used to give candy to kids in exchange for blood samples.
 * That's a real detail based on Josef Mengele, who would hand out sweets to the children he was about to kill and dissect.
 * Batman: Ra's Al Ghul allied with the Nazi's to further his goal of wiping out 90% of the human race to stave off overpopulation, so taking part in the Holocaust. One of the victims was his own daughter and her family - she survived, they did not; needless to say, she was mightly upset with him.
 * Herr Kleiser in The Ultimates. He was Captain America (comics)'s chief nemesis during World War II, but was actually.
 * In the Red5 comic book series Atomic Robo, Robo's (arguably) arch nemesis, Baron Von Helsingard, uses this trope to seek ultimate power, and gains quite a following in the process.
 * And later in the series, two leading members of Hitler's Weird Science division are revealed to be secretly working for the cloned brain of Helsingard all along.
 * The Red Skull was personally trained by Adolf Hitler and, having Gone Horribly Right in that regard, made no secret to the Fuehrer that he had ambitions of his own, but was willing to bide his time.

Fan Works

 * Harry Potter fanfiction frequently makes out Grindlewald to be an explicit partner of (or mastermind to) Hitler, with the European theater of World War 2 being just an extension or reflection of a Wizarding conflict.

Literature

 * Dean Koontz's Frankenstein novels have this as part of Victor Helios' (aka Victor Frankenstein's) Backstory.
 * In the Doctor Who "New Adventures" novel Timewyrm: Exodus the War Lords do this. This results in an alternate timeline where the Nazis win the war.

Film
"Donovan: The Nazis want to write themselves into the Grail legend, take on the world. Well, they're welcome to it. But I want the Grail itself, the cup that gives everlasting life. Hitler can have the world, but he can't take it with him. I'm going to be drinking my own health after he's gone the way of the dodo."
 * Indiana Jones films like this trope. First was Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark, then Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
 * Donovan may be a subversion. His death scene revealed he was a card-carrying Nazi all along. He possibly meant to supplant Hitler, not just piggyback.
 * No, Donovan is more of a collaborator than an out-and-out Nazi and he doesn't want to overthrow Hitler:


 * Belloq, on the other hand, doesn't like the Nazis any more than Indy does; in a novelization, he claims they aren't any more civilized than the Hovitos natives.
 * Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has Mac teaming with the Soviet Union, albeit with a fair less grandiose goal: money.
 * In Captain America: The First Avenger, the Red Skull (Johann Schmidt) sets up HYDRA like this.
 * More of an inversion; Schmidt is an actual member of the Nazi party, but turns against them both when he gains the super-soldier serum and, much later, when he gains the Cosmic Cube and turns HYDRA, hithertofore a Nazi science division, into his own personal war faction.
 * Sebastian Shaw (Klaus Schmidt) in X-Men: First Class. He was just there to experiment on captive mutants.
 * Rasputin in the Hellboy film.

Live Action TV

 * In the Star Trek: Enterprise two-part episode "Storm Front", a race from the 29th century find themselves back in time on 20th-century Earth, during World War II. They side with the Nazis, offering to build advanced weapons in exchange for the resources they need to build a time machine. When the Nazis complain that the Aliens aren't helping them enough, the alien leader lampshades the trope by bluntly stating that the Nazis conquer countries; they conquer planets.

Video Games

 * In BloodRayne 2, this applies to Big Bad vampire Evil Overlord Kagan. He thinks of Hitler as an idiot, but works with him to learn how to build an army. Kagan's Elite Mooks even have Putting on the Reich uniforms in the present day.

Western Animation

 * In the Justice League three-part episode "The Savage Time", the immortal Vandal Savage in the present builds a time machine and sends a laptop back to himself during World War II, containing future history and schematics for technology. Vandal then joins the Nazis and rapidly rises through the ranks until he usurps Hitler himself, becoming the new Führer. Vandal Savage didn't really care about Nazi ideals; he just wanted to use them to conquer the world for himself.

Examples Involving Other Dictators

 * In the alternate history timeline of Command And Conquer: Red Alert, Kane and his Brotherhood of Nod are using Stalin's Soviet Union to get to power.