Law & Order S3 E13 "Night and Fog" - TV Tropes

The apparent suicide of a Holocaust survivor turns out to be a homicide, and her husband, David Steinmetz, is a suspect. Problems arise during his prosecution when it emerges that Steinmetz is really Jakob Skulman, who worked with the Nazis during WWII.

Tropes present during this episode

• Category Traitor: The Villain of the Week is a Jew who worked for the Nazis.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Steinmetz/Skulman, a Nazi collaborator who killed his wife for discovering his true identity, ends up pleading guilty to protect his daughter from being charged as an accessory.
• Les Collaborateurs: Jakob Skulman was a member of the Jewish Ghetto Police, Jews who agreed to police the ghettoes on behalf of the Nazis, and was notorious for his brutality towards his fellow Jews.
• Literary Allusion Title: The episode's title comes from the documentary Night and Fog, directed by Alain Resnais.
• Retired Monster: Jakob Skulman was a Nazi collaborator who now lives a comfortable life as David Steinmetz in New York City.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Skulman ended up being sent to Auschwitz in spite of his collaboration. Truth in Television as most Jews who collaborated in the ghetto were killed in the end after they outlived their usefulness.
• Ripped from the Headlines: Based on the John Demjanjuk case, who was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity while working as a prison camp guard known as "Ivan the Terrible".
• Shout-Out: Stone mentions that his daughter had been reading The Diary of Anne Frank and thought it was fiction.
• War Criminal in Victim's Clothing: Holocaust survivor David Steinmetz is actually brutal ghetto policeman Jakob Skulman.