Joachim Peiper (German pronunciation: [ˈjoːaxɪm ˈpaɪpɐ]; 30 January 1915 – 14 July 1976), also known as Jochen Peiper, was a field officer in the Waffen-SS during World War II and personal adjutant to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler between November 1940 and August 1941. He saw combat on both the Eastern Front against the Red Army and the Western Front against the Allies. By 1945, he was an SS-Standartenführer and the Waffen-SS's youngest regimental colonel. Peiper was convicted of war crimes committed in Belgium and accused of war crimes in Italy. He was murdered in France in July 1976, after his house was attacked with Molotov cocktails.

Peiper was born on 30 January 1915 into a middle class family from the Silesian region of Germany and Poland. His father Captain Waldemar Peiper was in the German Imperial Army and fought in the colonial campaigns in East Africa. He was awarded the military cross in 1904, wounded several times and became infected with malaria. When World War I broke out, his father resumed service and was sent to Turkey. In 1915, however, cardiac troubles resulting from his exposure to malaria forced him to retire from active duty. After the war, he joined the Freikorps and took part in the Silesian Uprisings.

Saint Joachim ("he whom YHWH has set up", Hebrew: יְהוֹיָקִים Yəhôyāqîm, Greek Ἰωακείμ Iōākeím) was the husband of Saint Anne and the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican traditions. The story of Joachim and Anne appears first in the apocryphal Gospel of James. Joachim and Anne are not mentioned in the Bible.

Since the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke do not explicitly name either of Mary's parents, but apparently name two different fathers for Saint Joseph, many scholars from John of Damascus (8th C.), and particularly Protestant scholars, argue that the genealogy in Luke is actually the family tree of Mary, and that Heli is her father. To resolve the problem of Joseph having two fathers - one descended from Solomon, one descended from Nathan, son of David, traditions from the 7th Century specify that Heli was a first cousin of Joachim.

In the Protoevangelium of James, Joachim is described as a rich and pious man of the house of David who regularly gave to the poor and to the temple (synagogue) at Sepphoris. However, as his wife was barren, the high priest rejected Joachim and his sacrifice, as his wife's childlessness was interpreted as a sign of divine displeasure. Joachim consequently withdrew to the desert where he fasted and did penance for forty days. Angels then appeared to both Joachim and Anne to promise them a child. Joachim later returned to Jerusalem and embraced Anne at the city gate. The cycle of legends concerning Joachim and Anne were included in the Golden Legend and remained popular in Christian art until the Council of Trent restricted the depiction of apocryphal events. Traditional depictions (e.g., vestibular statuary) of Joachim show him bearing a shovel.