In recent years, a remarkable popularity of counterfactual representations of National Socialism can be observed in various audiovisual media. These representations are characterized by events that clearly and distinctly deviate from historical occurrences. Once relegated to a niche existence as B-movies and genre literature, they now reach a wide audience. The freedom that films like Inglourious Basterds or television series like The Man in the High Castle exhibit in their handling of the past stands in contrast to the demands that shape the discussion around the cinematic representation of National Socialism: the design of counterfactual scenarios undermines the question of an appropriate depiction of historical reality. Their seemingly carefree approach to the icons of National Socialism is noteworthy.