Nazis
The Nazis (ナチス, Nachisu) were the far-right political party leading Germany during World War II, featured in the second part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, Battle Tendency. Nationalist, sadistic and violent, they are a minor antagonistic force that later aids JoJo in defeating Kars.
Major Rudol von Stroheim and his men are initially tasked with analyzing and nullifying the Pillar Men in order to prevent humanity's extinction.[1]
Members
★: The character is leader
(✩: Subsequent leader / ✦: Leader of their own faction within the group)
(👻: The character remains as a soul or ghost)
☮: The character has resigned
⚓: The character retired (incapacitated) and/or their fate is unknown
History
Background
Prior to the start of Battle Tendency, Adolf Hitler designed his flag as an altered cross of the swastika, the magical symbol that represents destiny and life found in ruins throughout the world. In 1933, they discovered the Pillar Men underground in Rome.[2]
Straizo vs. Joseph
Interrogating Speedwagon in Mexico
The Nazis residing in an information base in Mexico learn of Straizo's betrayal against the Speedwagon Foundation and his fight against Joseph Joestar. The major, Rudol von Stroheim, is informed by his men that they retrieved Speedwagon and healed his injuries after Straizo left him to drown in the Rio Dada river. However, their true intent is to learn of the ruins Speedwagon's men discovered.[3]
Speedwagon attempts to kill himself with a broken bottle, but the doctors stop him and put him in a straitjacket. Stroheim knew torturing Speedwagon wouldn't work, so he injects him with truth serum developed by the army's German medical science. The Nazis successfully discover the ruins and retrieve the man in the pillar, assuming he was the creator of the Stone Masks.
Stroheim receives an immediate order from Hitler to start the experiment on exposing the Pillar Man to fresh blood. He proposes to his Mexican prisoners that they just need one person's blood and they should choose among themselves who the Nazis should use, while the rest will be spared. One officer tells them to hurry up or he'll choose a woman for them. A courageous boy volunteers himself to be chosen. Stroheim admires his bravery and orders for everyone except the kid to be killed.[4]
The Pillar Man, Santana
The Pillar Man's Awakening
The Nazi doctors and researchers drain the blood of all their prisoners and pump it into the Pillar Man. Eventually, the blood starts flowing out so the Nazis use the shower within the shelter to wash it away. The creature awakens and Stroheim gives it the name Santana, declaring himself as the Pillar Man's godfather. Seeing Santana stumble around and trip shocks the Nazi officers and researchers, but Stroheim laughs and mocks his primitive intelligence. They begin the experiment and release a vampire prisoner. Just the other day, he was a weak, dying old man they captured but they put the Stone Mask on him. They didn't feed him any blood for the day to starve him so that he would attack the first prey he sees. The vampire attacks Santana, and the Nazis first assume the Pillar Man was just a normal human when it looked like the attack impaled him, so Stroheim orders for them to detonate the self-destruct bomb within the vampire's head. However, they quickly realize that Santana was eating the vampire by absorbing him whole into his body.[5]
Joseph and Donovan
Meanwhile, Joseph is in the desert on his way to the Nazi base to rescue Speedwagon. He is ambushed by a Nazi special forces member named Donovan who was ordered to capture Joseph to learn information about Straizo. Donovan mocks Joseph at first, but Joseph easily defeats him by exploding a cactus in his face. Joseph demands to know about the Nazis' plans but Donovan refuses to answer due to his pride as a soldier. Joseph then sticks a compass into the Nazi's eye and Donovan quickly gives up, agreeing to tell everything he knows if Joseph takes the compass out.[6]
After learning that Speedwagon is safe, Joseph ties Donovan to the cactus when the man attempts to run away. He leaves a note on the cactus saying "Hello Adolf!". Joseph attempts to sneak into the Nazi building but there are two Nazi gatekeepers performing body checks on the women passing by. Joseph decides to dress up as a woman with tequila but the men are not impressed. They're about to shoot him for being suspicious but Joseph quickly fires the tequila caps at a nearby tree to drop two coconuts on the men's heads, knocking them out. Joseph steals their Nazi uniform and sneaks in. In the laboratory, the Nazi researcher and everyone else are stunned that Santana vanished despite them keeping their eyes on him at all times. Stroheim orders to stop the flow of oxygen within the shelter and to rewind the film they recorded to see where he's hiding. They learn that Santana contorted his body and slid into the air vents to escape.[7]
Joseph and Stroheim vs. Santana
Stroheim realizes he messed up, thinking that he could get a promotion if he succeeded but now realizes that Hitler will be furious. He resolves himself to defeat Santana. Santana jumps into one soldier standing near an air vent and makes the man's body his host. The soldier goes blind since his eyes were squished into his head while Santana enlarges within his body. All of the soldiers shoot him but he remains alive with several bullet holes. Santana then imitates them and points his finger like a gun, shooting the bullets out of his fingers back at the men who shot at him. Santana rips himself out of the man's body and shoots some more, but Joseph appears at that moment and yanks out some of Stroheim's hair. Using the Ripple, Joseph forms a hair barrier to reflect the bullets.[8]
According to the writing on the walls of the ruins, Santana is weak to sunlight, so the only hope is destroying him with Joseph's Ripple. When none of his attacks work, Joseph tries to think of escaping with Speedwagon, but Stroheim declares that there's no way they can let Santana get out or he'd be a threat to humanity. When it looks like Joseph is about to be absorbed into Santana, Stroheim loses all hope and is about to activate the self-destruct switch to blow everyone up. Joseph reveals he was holding his breath to lull the Pillar Man into a false sense of security to blow him up with a surge of Ripple.[9]
Binding Santana's torso in chains as his body begins to reassemble, Joseph tries to drag up the bunker and expose the Pillar Man to sunlight. Stroheim almost gets to the door but Santana grabs onto the Nazi's leg. Joseph succeeds with Stroheim's help after being forced to chop his leg off.[10] However, Santana enters Stroheim's body through his amputated wound. Having no choice, Stroheim limps toward a nearby well and takes out a grenade, preparing to explode both himself and Santana. Stroheim tells Joseph that the Nazis didn't awaken Santana just for simple military reasons. Currently, their army located underground in Rome that there are other Pillar Men, and it's Joseph's destiny to figure out how to defeat them to save humanity. Their army was experimenting on Santana to discover another weakness aside from the sun. Stroheim tells him to go to Rome to meet a certain someone who Speedwagon knew well, before blowing himself up with the grenade. Joseph was touched by the German's noble act for humanity but Santana was still safe. Joseph lunges into the well with Santana and exposes him to the sunlight both above him and reflecting under him from the water, turning the creature completely into stone.[1]
Ultimate Warriors from Ancient Times
The Pillar Men Awaken
A Nazi Officer is with his team underground in Rome with the goal of cutting out the Pillar Men from the stones to transport them to a shelter in Germany. They learned from the decimation of Stroheim's team in Mexico to be cautious, and also discovered the method of the Speedwagon Foundation to shine ultraviolet light on the creatures to keep them as stone. The forehead of one of the statues opens up, and the officer's team goes to investigate. As one gets closer, he is impaled in the head by a horn that extends out of the statue. The Pillar Man awakens and speaks in Latin, revealing that artificial light can't stop him. He sticks the hands of every Nazi together, then pokes one in the forehead and all of them instantly deflate like balloons.[11]
With Germany and Italy being allies, and the Nazis interested in researching Caesar Zeppeli's Ripple ability, Caesar asks his Nazi friend Mark to take them to the Pillar Men. As they arrive, Joseph steps on the flesh of a dead Nazi soldier. The Pillar Man Wamuu walks past Mark before he could run away and he is instantly sliced in half, leaving behind a locket containing a photo of his girlfriend. Despite being cut in half, Mark doesn't die right away and begs for Caesar to kill him. Caesar obliges and uses the Ripple to stop his heart.
Ripple Teacher Lisa Lisa
Spying in Venice
Stroheim, who was actually alive, sends out spies to watch the Ripple users in Venice for three weeks. The Nazis knew about their Ripple training, what happened with Esidisi, and also what happened at the post office regarding the Red Stone of Aja.[12]
Earlier, one of Stroheim's men in disguise attempted to steal the stone from Lisa Lisa but was stopped by Joseph who then covered the man with mustard.[13]
Stroheim's Unit Strikes Back
The Nazis Return Near Switzerland
Hitler was convinced that Germans would rise above mankind but was worried as to once they reached the top, whether their domination would stand the test of time. The Stone Mask and Red Stone of Aja are essential to Hitler's plans, as immortality is necessary for his goal of world conquest. Thus, he sends Stroheim and his team to retrieve the parcel containing the Red Stone of Aja at the border between Switzerland and Italy. He meets up with Joseph, Caesar, Lisa Lisa, and Messina, offering to cooperate with them.[12]
Five hours later at a cabin, Kars appears in the night and senses five humans inside a room. He slices the five Nazis with his sabre and enters, only to be shocked at the sight of a sixth man sitting down. Kars couldn't feel his body temperature and attacks the man, who reveals himself as Stroheim. He was transformed into a cyborg with artificial steel arms, a metal band on his eye, and weapons implanted into his body with the power of German science. Stroheim reveals his new weapons and the two fight, but he is overpowered by Kars's Light Mode. He realizes that human science is not yet ready to face Kars.[14]
Kars grabs the Red Stone of Aja after tearing apart Stroheim's pocket but Stroheim fires an ultraviolet ray blast from his eye. The Red Stone starts sliding toward a cliff but Joseph manages to retrieve it before Kars and gets to safety with the help of Caesar, while Kars falls off the cliff. Messina is amazed at Stroheim's durability and says if he lowers his arrogance, they're willing to cooperate. Stroheim goes to get his body repaired.[15]
Final Battle Against Kars
The Ultraviolet Army Appears
Stroheim makes a flashy appearance in the final battle against Kars. Along with his Nazi Protection Group, they fire ultraviolet beams to deal with Kars's vampire minions. Stroheim himself was fully repaired and got new ultraviolet laser devices attached to his shoulders, successfully miniaturized by the Speedwagon Foundation.[16]
Birth of the Ultimate Thing
After Joseph manages to successfully hurt Kars with a Ripple blast, Stroheim and his soldiers surround the Pillar Man. They fire the ultraviolet beams to finish him off, but it was a trick by Kars. He already had the Stone Mask on his face with the Red Stone of Aja embedded within it. Despite Speedwagon's warning, they were too late to shut off the UV beams and it activated the Red Stone.[17] Kars awakens as the Ultimate Thing and transforms his hand into a rabid squirrel, which burrows into Stroheim's mechanical torso and then slices through a man in Stroheim's army.[18]
Joseph escapes in the Nazi aircraft that Stroheim and Speedwagon arrived in, but Kars chases him down and transforms his feathers into piranhas and octopus legs to destroy the plane. After Joseph figures his last resort is a suicide attack by crashing Kars into the volcano along with him, Stroheim shoots out his hand to impale Kars in the neck, revealing that he was sitting in the plane's float the whole time. The two of them jump while Kars crashes into the volcano, with Stroheim sacrificing his mechanical legs to give Joseph a safe landing.[19]
Kars manages to survive the lava by creating a shell around him, and Stroheim loses all hope. To finish him off, Kars strikes Joseph with the Ripple, but Joseph instinctively raises the Red Stone of Aja which amplifies the attack. This causes a massive eruption with the two blasted away on a large rock. About eight hours later, Stroheim gets back to Speedwagon alive and relays the news, assuming that Joseph died.[20]
End of the Nazis
When Joseph crashes his own funeral, he states that he wants to ask Stroheim to have a more convenient mechanical hand made for him, but they likely won't see each other again due to Nazi Germany being at war with Britain. Stroheim never sees Joseph again and dies in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943.[21]
Nazi Science
The Nazis are skilled in developing various technology, medicine, and futuristic weapons with their science. They have an information base in Mexico that is camouflaged to look like a normal building. The laboratory where their research is performed is hidden 20m underground.[6]
- They create a truth serum to learn information from Speedwagon.[4]
- They develop a shelter containing a wall with 50 cm thick steel panels to imprison Santana. It's calculated so that it cannot be destroyed by even hundreds of Vampires. It also has an internal flamethrower, sprinklers, machine gun, and a self-destruct bomb.[5]
- A method to drain the blood of all their prisoners and pump it into the pillar containing Santana, gruesome enough that even Stroheim didn't want to hear how it was done.[5]
- They are capable of transforming Stroheim into a cyborg after his body exploded from a grenade.[14]
- The pressure of his mechanical fingers is 1950 kg/cm³, which is roughly double Santana's.
- They calculated how much they would have to wound a Pillar Man like Santana to make their vital functions stop.
- A heavy machine gun is implanted in Stroheim's torso, capable of shooting 600 armored bullets per minute and piercing through a 30mm steel plate.
- The metal band on his eye can fire an ultraviolet ray blast.
Trivia
- Adolf Hitler and the real history of the Nazis were not shown or mentioned in the anime, except in the French dub where Hitler and the Nazis are directly referenced.
- Stroheim's outfit is censored in the English localization of Eyes of Heaven. His default costume with the Nazi uniform is removed, with only his alternative shirtless cyborg appearance remaining.
- In the anime, they are simply referred to as "German Soldiers" (ドイツ軍人, Doitsu gunjin). Their salute is also altered, and in the TV version, completely censored.
- However, the opening BLOODY STREAM depicts the salute completely unaltered.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 61: The Pillar Man, Santana, Part 8
- ↑ Chapter 65: Ultimate Warriors from Ancient Times, Part 1
- ↑ Chapter 52: Straizo vs. Joseph, Part 5
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chapter 53: The Pillar Man
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chapter 54: The Pillar Man, Santana, Part 1
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 55: The Pillar Man, Santana, Part 2
- ↑ Chapter 56: The Pillar Man, Santana, Part 3
- ↑ Chapter 57: The Pillar Man, Santana, Part 4
- ↑ Chapter 59: The Pillar Man, Santana, Part 6
- ↑ Chapter 60: The Pillar Man, Santana, Part 7
- ↑ Chapter 64: The Red Stone of Aja
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Chapter 84: Stroheim's Unit Strikes Back, Part 2
- ↑ Chapter 75: Ripple Teacher Lisa Lisa, Part 5
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Chapter 85: Stroheim's Unit Strikes Back, Part 3
- ↑ Chapter 87: Light Mode Kars, Part 2
- ↑ Chapter 106: The Bond That Binds Lisa Lisa and JoJo, Part 2
- ↑ Chapter 108: JoJo: The Final Ripple, Part 2
- ↑ Chapter 109: Kars the Superbeing is Born, Part 1
- ↑ Chapter 111: Joseph's Final Gamble
- ↑ Chapter 112: The Man Who Became a God
- ↑ Chapter 113: The Man Who Crossed the Atlantic
