The Seattle city of Kent is paying over $1.5 million to secure the resignation of a former assistant police chief who displayed a Nazi insignia on his office door and allegedly joked about the Holocaust.

Derek Kammerzell, a department veteran with 27 years’ service, was disciplined last July after a detective complained about the insignia, the Seattle Times reported.

An internal investigation concluded that Kammerzell understood the meaning of the insignia, denoting an obergruppenfuhrer — a high ranking SS official. According to the investigation, Kammerzell had also had been overheard joking that his grandfather had died in the Holocaust — when he got drunk and fell out of a Nazi guard tower.

Kammerzell claimed he was unaware of the insignia’s significance and had only learned about it through the TV series The Man in the High Castle, in which a prominent character holds the rank.

But the investigation, conducted by an attorney at the Seattle firm of Stokes Lawrence, concluded that Kammerzell’s claim was not credible.

Kammerzell’s actions prompted a furious response from Jewish community members and others leading to local Mayor Dana Ralph demanding the officer’s resignation.

Kammerzell has been on paid leave since January while the city and his attorneys negotiated over his departure.

Officials said that had the city fired him, there was a strong chance he would have got his job back — with back pay — through arbitration under federal and state labour laws.

Interim city chief administrative officer Arthur Fitzpatrick noted that Kammerzell initially had demanded $3.1 million for his resignation and the settlement had followed months of difficult negotiations.

“It was clear the assistant chief would have significant difficulty being an effective leader in the department and in the community, and that his presence would have distracted from the mission of the department.”