This article explores the collection of Nazi or German militaria in the Channel Islands and the change in meaning that this practice has held for four generations of islanders from 1945 to the present day. Focusing on the role of children in building this trade in militaria, it examines why they have been the primary agents of collection and asks what meaning or value such objects hold for them. This article proposes the concept of ‘inherited nostalgia’ to explain the desire of the third and fourth generations for such objects. It also presents German militaria as ‘postmemorial objects’, and their display as a ‘postmemorial project’, as a way of understanding their meaning in this particular formerly occupied part of Europe.