The term Nazi is an abbreviation of the designation Nationalsozialist, used originally only for members and supporters of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (abbreviation: NSDAP; English: National Socialist German Workers' Party). The Nazi Party was a fascist party within the Earth nation of Germany during the 20th century which eventually took control of the German government and formed a Nazi state, which was often referred to as "The Third Reich".
History and specifics[]
History[]
The Nazi party became a tool for governmental domination by power-mad dictator Adolf Hitler — who was named the Führer of the Nazi state. Gaining power in the 1930s and 1940s, the Nazis of Germany, began a conquest of Europe, and with their Axis Powers allies were the principal participants in the Second World War. The Nazis set a standard for dictatorship, hatred, and fascism that has rarely been matched in their thirst for conquest, and their oppression, brutality and intolerance towards their fellow human beings. This was evidenced by Nazi persecution and systematic extermination of elements they deemed inferior in their own society - such as those of the Jewish origin.
The United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and a number of other nations formed an alliance to fight the Nazis, and in a destructive conflict they managed to drive the Nazis first back to Germany, then defeated them. The defeat of the Nazis came at a cost of millions of lives, and widespread destruction. (TOS episode: "Patterns of Force")
Legacy[]
The Nazi party was abolished after their defeat. Even so various groups who held Nazi ideals would still rise up from insular populations on Earth over the years and the legacy of the Nazis remained a significant period of Earth history.
In 2254 Spock compared the impact of return of the pre-reformation Vulcans of the Last-of-all-Cities to Vulcan to that of Humans finding a lost colony of Nazis. (EV comic: "Cloak and Dagger")
During the dinner held for the Klingon Chancellor Gorkon, General Chang made the statement, "We need breathing room!" Captain Kirk almost immediately said, "Earth: Hitler, 1938" in response to Chang's claim. (TOS movie: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
In 2370, Julian Bashir thought a Cardassian slave labor camp on Davonia (which a team he was a member of had discovered) was very much like a Nazi death camp. (DS9 novel: Devil in the Sky)
In 2372, Jake Sisko compared the situation between the Cardassians and the Bajorans during the Occupation to that of the Nazis and the Jews. (DS9 novel: Trial by Error)
Ekos and Zeon[]
One such group was started on the planet Ekos by the historian John Gill as a twisted, unauthorized social experiment.
Gill was a cultural observer sent undercover and alone to Ekos to monitor Ekosian society. At the time, the planet was in anarchy. Gill violated the Prime Directive by contaminating the normal development of Ekosian culture, attempting to institute a more benign version of the Nazi government on that planet. In the process, Gill showed just how dangerous the Nazi message could be, centuries after the death of Adolf Hitler and the original Nazi party.
Using the Nazi party as a model, Gill hoped to restore order on the planet. However, his subordinate Melakon soon seized power by drugging Gill and manipulated the populace into adopting the same brutal racial supremacist policies of the original party. The main target in this case was the people of their planetary neighbor, Zeon. Zeons were expelled from the Ekosian planet, or worse, rounded up into camps, just as had been done to the Jews on Earth. Gill was turned into a puppet, drugged and helpless as the worst excesses of the Nazi party came to light. A landing party from the Federation starship USS Enterprise attempted to rectify the damage to the society of Ekos before they could launch of an attack against the Zeon homeworld. Gill was eventually killed by Melakon when he denounced the usurper, who in turn was killed himself. A resistance effort to co-opt power from the decapitated Nazis came to power afterwards.
As he died in the arms of former student James T. Kirk, Gill admitted that he made a terrible mistake, that the non-interference directive was the correct way of dealing with less advanced people. The incident would come to be regarded as a textbook example of the importance of the Prime Directive. (TOS episode: "Patterns of Force")
The Hirogen[]
In 2374, the Hirogen captured the USS Voyager while it was in the Delta Quadrant. They then used holodeck simulations in an attempt to better understand their prey. One of the simulations was set during the World War II years in Nazi-occupied France, with Janeway, Tuvok, and Neelix participating being forced to pose as members of a French resistance group. (VOY episodes: "The Killing Game, Part I", "Part II")
Alternate histories[]
In an alternate timeline created by the interference of the Na'kuhl faction of the Temporal Cold War, the Third Reich was able to conquer the eastern seaboard of the United States. In this timeline Washington, DC and New York City were among the cities conquered by the Nazis - using technology given to them by the Na'kuhl. Adolf Hitler later visited Nazi occupied New York in 1944.
The temporal agent Daniels brought the Enterprise back to the 20th century. Jonathan Archer and his crew were able to destroy a temporal conduit that the Na'kuhl were using - which reset the timeline back to normal. (ENT episodes: "Zero Hour", "Storm Front")
In an alternate timeline where Edith Keeler championed US neutrality, Nazi hydrogen bombs won World War II for Germany, leading to the Nazi domination of Earth, under the Erdenreich government as the planet's dominant nation-state. The space fleet of the Erdenreich became the Raumwaffe, rather than Starfleet. (Last Unicorn RPG module: All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook)
The omnipotent being Q once created an alternate timeline where Claude Picard had not died in an accident at the age of six. Claude Picard eventually joined a neo-Nazi organization which eventually took control of Starfleet, with Claude as supreme dictator. In this time line Starfleet had ravaged Vulcan, decimated the Betazoids, as well as enslaving the Andorians and the Benzites. Claude killed his brother when Jean-Luc was part of a Starfleet force that attempted to infiltrate the organization in 2352, and in 2367 destroyed the starship Enterprise-D which had been stolen by renegades William T. Riker, Worf, Geordi La Forge, and Data. (TNG comic: "The Gift")
- See also: Gestapo
Appendices[]
External links[]
- Nazi article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.
- Nazism article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.