I keep seeing people talk about them and yet I haven’t seen a lot of people talking about this, and if they are, they don’t seem to be getting a lot of attention. I’ve even seen some comparisons that are definitely off the mark about them, because there really isn’t a way around it.
The Vinsmokes are literally the German Nazi Party.
And I mean, initially I didn’t see this, but over time the symbols were too frequent to call a coincidence anymore. The ideals, the experiments, the symbols, the technology, with Nazi’s again being relevant in today’s climate, why haven’t be brought attention to this? If you haven’t at least had the fleeting thought, then you need to brush up your history lessons, friend.
Firstly Oda is painting them as the bad guys, which is really great. They haven’t been show to be nice people, save for Reiju (that probably belongs under the category of sexism, but the rampant sexism of the Nazi party could have an effect on this as well), and their plans are pretty alarming.
I picked this panel to start discussing symbolism.
Because the first, most blaring, most obvious symbol is the fucking NAZI WAR EAGLE hanging above them. This isn’t a mistake, and I’m not making a reach. THIS is a Nazi conference hall, full of actual Nazis. If you imagine looking at that conference hall from the ground floor, it has the same raised layout as well. Even the curtain paneling on the sides of the hall is a classic conference hall trend used to dampen the echo of voices and block noise from the outside, and could be seen as late as the 50s. The tapestries hanging on the walls are extremely similar to Nazi tapestries (one example, there are many).
Another symbol that seems to be everywhere the Vinsmokes are is the “lightning bolt” over the skull. That’s not a lightning bold by accident. That’s a direct call out to the SS-Runen, a symbol that marked SS soldiers and also represented the rally cry, “Victory! Victory!”.
The trademark “66″ everywhere is very similar to the Nazi swastika’s use. I pull special attention to this because it’s also using a tactic the Nazi’s used to brainwash their followers and the people around them - market saturation. It’s a common advertising technique, but for the original Nazi party (who were run partially on business techniques) it was used to give people a sense of omnipresence. All the Vinsmokes have a 66 on them. All their ships, all their property, all their soldiers. That is REALLY big. ALL THEIR SOLDIERS ARE PLASTERED WITH THEIR SYMBOLISM. They aren’t the rebels in Alabasta who didn’t unite under one sigil, or even the numerous pirate groups everywhere who DON’T have their sigils on them. They have a uniting sign, and it’s “66″.
But even beyond the symbolism, there’s another very important aspect that I haven’t seen much of at all: Nazi experiments.
We know the Germa 66 have some bizarre experiments going on. We know Big Mom is after them. And from the tiny in-panel text that I specifically included on the left, we know this is a huge secret.
That is definitely purposeful, considering all of the experiments the Nazi’s conducted were secrets, and some weren’t exposed for years after their demise. But even some of the minor things in this arc are oddly similar to Nazi projects.
The advanced technology? The magical mask that makes Sanji’s face seem 100% fine? Those are directly tied to categories of Nazi experiments.
The fact that the Vinsmoke children and Sanji are all born as experimental is pretty alarmingly Nazi. The Twin Experiments were a series of tests done on captive sets of twins to see if the human body and genes could be manipulated in strange ways (which actually makes Caesar Clown Josef Mengele). Unwilling children undergoing genetic experiment? Ringing some bells? And let’s recall that it didn’t work on Sanji, who would be the representation of the actual outcome of the original experiments. And remember that whole thing about how Hitler wanted to create Super Soldiers in a last-ditch attempt to win the war? Firstly, YES that was real and lots of people were unwillingly or unwittingly used for it. Secondly, Judge has been successful, mostly because no one has come to stop him yet.
I think it’s obvious what the endgame of the Vinsmokes is - world domination and possibly the extermination of all people who can’t be made special or used in their programs. Just a hunch there, considering that’s what the Nazi’s wanted. That would also lend to why the Germa would want to get close to Big Mom - when they’re in her house, killing her people will be easy. Big Mom is a woman who wishes to ‘unite all the races’, and if Judge is Hitler, then he wants to see them gassed.
If you’re having trouble believing this symbolism still, then you really need to do a history check, especially with Nazism on the rise again in lots of places. Not to be rude, but ignorance really isn’t a good excuse for turning a blind eye to Nazism. Oda is very well-read on this, and is using his platform in a way that calls attention to the Vinsmokes as evil and horrible people AS THEY ARE. It’s truthfully brilliant use of history, and I’m loving every second of it (WWII history is extremely interesting to me). And it might be considered a bold move on his part, since the Germans and the Japanese were both Axis powers in the war (they would have absolutely destroyed each other if they won because racism, but if you’re interested in some really cool theoretical alternate timeline stuff, check out The Man In The High Castle).
So recap: Vinsmokes are evil and better fucking not get out of this unscathed.
