The National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party was an infamous, racist German political party that existed from the 1920s until the early 1940s. (TXF: "Triangle"; TLG: "Eine Kleine Frohike", et al.) As Germany's government, the Nazis were one of several large-scale combatants that fought in World War II, wherein they opposed the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. (TXF: "Triangle", et al.) The group was led by Adolf Hitler. (TXF: "Triangle"; MM: "Owls") The Nazis had many symbols and rituals, such as the swastika, "heiling" and distinct uniforms. (TXF: "Triangle", et al.)
Despite the conflict between Nazi Germany and the US, it was not entirely impossible that an atypical Nazi officer might work to defend America from within Nazi ranks. (TXF: "Triangle") At one point during the war, the Nazis had a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. (TXF: "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man"). (TXF: "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose") A more secretive arm of the Nazi organization was the Führer's personal party paramilitary the SchutzStaffel, or the "SS" which included the Geheimstaatspolizei. (TXF: "Triangle"; MM: "Roosters") In addition, the Nazis had a contingent of airmen, employed spies among the British and deployed submarines. (TXF: "Triangle")
The Nazis thought of themselves and their offspring as "the master race" or "Aryan". (TLG: "Eine Kleine Frohike") They killed and imprisoned many victims whom they considered as being degenerates. The Nazis also had mass rallies that Hitler attended. (MM: "Roosters") At least one Nazi doctor, named Josef Mengele, believed that he could produce a super-race through genetic engineering; he was consequently nicknamed the "Nazi Angel of Death". (TXF: "Paper Clip") The Nazis were also strongly opposed to Communism. (MM: "Roosters")
The Nazis were convinced of the mystical power of the Cross of the Crucifixion and consequently had the Vichy government in Damascus, looking for the cross. (MM: "Owls") The Nazis also had some involvement in controlling the media and one such Nazi-controlled newspaper was Volkischer Beobacter. (TXF: "Die Hand Die Verletzt")
Following the end of the war, several other organizations, such as Odessa, continued to follow Nazi principals. (MM: "Owls", "Roosters")
History
Involvement in World War II
On 23 November 1923, the Nazis attempted to seize power in Germany but sixteen members died and their blood stained a swastika flag that was thereafter referred to as the "blood banner"; it was subsequently said that whoever maintained control of the banner would defeat Communism. (MM: "Roosters")
In 1934, Volkischer Beobacter wrongly blamed the Jewish people for the death of a young male, after a Satanic ceremony in that year. (TXF: "Die Hand Die Verletzt")
By early September 1939, the Nazis had entered Poland. (TXF: "Triangle") A wealthy Polish couple, the mother and father of a man who would later serve an instrumental role in the Millennium Group, was gassed at Auschwitz due to Rudolf Axmann, a member of Hitler's inner circle. (MM: "Roosters") Meanwhile, an unofficial state of war existed between the Nazis and the British. On September 3, war was officially declared between the two powers and a radio broadcast about the announcement mentioned that the change was due to the fact that the Nazis had made no response to a repeated request from Great Britain to withdraw the Nazi troops from Poland. After a British luxury liner named the SS Queen Anne went missing on the same date, one theory regarding its disappearance held that the vessel had been torpedoed by a German U-boat. (TXF: "Triangle")
Having successfully invaded Poland, the Nazis then made their way to Denmark, Holland and France with a few stops in between. Commenting on these campaigns in hindsight, the American Fox Mulder once commented, "The French all but roll over on us, the Italians seize their opportunity and the Japanese come through the back door. It's a long, bloody story." (TXF: "Triangle")
Following the outbreak of war, the Nazis also invaded Soviet Union but encountered difficulty there. (TXF: "Triangle") According to information that Melvin Frohike later amassed, the father of the Cigarette Smoking Man had been an ardent Communist activist who had, during the German-Soviet non-agression pact, kept the NKVD informed on American plans to enter World War II but had been executed under the Espionage Act of 1917 before his son could even walk.(TXF: "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man")
The Nazis established Swiss bank accounts that, by the end of the war, contained fortunes in plundered gold; the existence of such gold was well-known, even in the US, by 1998. In the last days of the war, the Nazis established corporations with countries that would cooperate, such as Paraguay and Argentina, and transferred not only money from Germany but also the gold from the Nazis' Swiss bank accounts. (MM: "Roosters")
Shortly after Allied troops began to liberate France in 1944, a high-ranking Nazi officer was captured by marines but swore that the Allies would never find the Poisoner of Alsace, a murdering Nazi collaborator who had gone into hiding, nor learn her secret – the fact that the Nazi officer had fathered a son by the Poisoner of Alsace, who was actually Madame Helena Davos. About the same time, another Nazi officer transported Madame Davos' infant son away from her, as she intended to keep the infant's existence a secret. (TLG: "Eine Kleine Frohike")
Very soon after the Nazis lost the war (mostly due to the Soviet counteroffensive, partly due to the intervention of the US, and partly because the atomic bomb was invented) (TXF: "Triangle", "Paper Clip"), Operation Paper Clip brought numerous Nazi scientists and war criminals to the United States, escaping the Nuremberg trials. These individuals included Victor Klemper, Wernher von Braun and Dr. Josef Mengele. (TXF: "Paper Clip") The oldest surviving member of Hitler's inner circle was Rudolf Axmann. (MM: "Roosters")
Nazi doctors also worked on xenotransplantation and were also brought to North America to continue their work. (TXF: "Travelers")
Even as late as the 1990s, there were still some people living outside of Germany who still believed in the Nazis' ideology, namely their hatred of Jewish people. (TXF: "Kaddish")
Reemergence as Odessa
In March 1998, Odessa – having begun as a Nazi underground movement before continuing the Nazi's quest for the crucifixion cross, following the war – finally acquired the relic, stealing it from the Millennium Group. Both the Old Man of the Millennium Group (the same person whose wealthy Polish parents had been gassed at Auschwitz) and Odessa leader Rudolf Axmann displayed, in each man's home, a black-and-white image of a Nazi officer meeting Hitler. (MM: "Owls", "Roosters")
- When this image appears in Axmann's home in "Roosters", it may be the same one as can be seen in the Old Man's home, in the earlier episode "Owls", as the Old Man is no longer alive when Axmann's copy of the image appears, leaving open the possibility that Odessa seized it from the Old Man's residence. It is also possible, however, that more than one copy of the image was printed and that both Axmann and the Old Man had their own copy of the picture.
Within the Millennium Group, Peter Watts told Lara Means about the myths surrounding the cross, mentioning that the Nazis had sought the cross as they had been convinced of its power. (MM: "Owls") Meanwhile, Frank Black encountered many images of Nazi activities, as he began to uncover the truth of the hidden organization that was Odessa. (MM: "Owls", "Roosters") He correctly came to suspect that his wife, Catherine, had unwittingly begun working for a member of Odessa, Ms. Clear Knight, at Aerotech Guidance Systems, an Odessa company that could be tracked back to Nazi funds. However, not all members of the company were allied with Odessa; a shocked employee named Jim Ford reported to Catherine that Ms. Knight was "a freakin' Nazi" but he died soon after, which alerted Catherine to Ms. Knight's devious nature. While Frank Black explained to his wife how Aerotech Guidance Systems was connected to the Nazis, the Old Man detailed the origins of the Nazi organization to Lara Means. The Old Man was subsequently murdered by an Odessa assassin, however, so the Millennium Group retaliated by first destroying Odessa and then recapturing the crucifixion cross. (MM: "Roosters")
Aboard the Queen Anne
Nazi versions of Jeffrey Spender and the Cigarette Smoking Man confront Mulder and a 1939 version of Dana Scully.
After Fox Mulder visited the Bermuda Triangle in search of the SS Queen Anne in November 1998, he believed that he had been hoisted aboard the ship by members of the vessel's crew, who had mistakenly suspected him of being a Nazi, and the ship had been boarded by actual Nazis, who the vessel's captain had referred to as "goose-stepping hooligans". Apparently, the Nazis – some of whom had had the facial appearance of people Mulder knew, including Jeffrey Spender, Walter Skinner and the Cigarette Smoking Man – had searched the ship for Thor's Hammer and, although Mulder had disguised himself as a Nazi officer to avoid capture by the real Nazis, he had been imprisoned along with the vessel's crew, who had ultimately retaken control of the ship prior to Mulder's escape from the vessel. Mulder's alleged encounter with the Nazis was doubted by Skinner, Dana Scully and the Lone Gunmen – after Scully and the Lone Gunmen found Mulder's body lying unconscious in the Atlantic Ocean – as they instead chose to believe that Mulder had hallucinated the entire incident. (TXF: "Triangle")
Behind the scenes
During production of The X-Files television series, writers such as Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter based the relationship between the Alien Colonists and the Syndicate on the Nazis' relationship with the Vichy government of Nazi-occupied France, likening the Nazis to the Alien Colonists. Frank Spotnitz recalls, "We kept thinking about the position of [...] the French officials who were given the choice to fight the Nazis and be destroyed by the Nazis, or to collaborate with the Nazis, and the Syndicate really is in the same position the Vichy government was; they decided to collaborate with the Aliens rather than be destroyed by them." ("One Son" audio commentary)
Appearances
Additional References
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