The Nazis are members of the the far-right totalitarian political ideology associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Originally from Germany, they made minor appearances in Drake's Fortune and Among Thieves. In the first game, Nazi soldier corpses were first encountered in the Amazon rainforest, and then later again in the bunker on the hidden island. In Among Thieves, Nathan Drake also found evidence of a Nazi expedition to Shambhala, led by Karl Schäfer.
History[]
Prior to Drake's Fortune[]
At some point prior to, or during, World War II, Nazi Germany re-discovered an uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean. On the island they discovered a former Spanish colony, and decided to construct a bunker with a submarine dock. At some point during their constructions they discovered the treasure vault, the corpse of Sir Francis Drake, his map of the island, and El Dorado. They removed the golden sarcophagus and all other treasure from the vault, and at some point opened it in their bunker, which caused one of their soldiers to transform. They recorded him alongside the statue, the footage showing him breaking free of his restraints and charging the camera.
Afterwards they placed it in another cavern hidden underneath the graveyard in the monastery, leaving a detailed map of the cave and the hidden access tunnel in their bunker. At some point a submarine was also sent out to the Amazon rainforest jungle, headed for the original location of El Dorado. Presumably they knew of the location thanks to information taken from the island, as the diary containing all of Drake's details, except the torn-out last page, was hidden inside his fake coffin. Said submarine then got stranded deep inside the Amazon rainforest rainforest jungle. Sometime afterwards, before the end of the war, the Nazi soldiers on the island were all wiped out by the descendants.
Prior to Among Thieves[]
In 1939 Nazi Karl Schäfer led an expedition sent by the Nazi think tank Ahnenerbe to find the entrance to Shambhala, and therein the Tree of Life and the Cintamani Stone. They had possession of a book depicting the 'Irminsul', or 'Tree of Life', and at the least managed to discover the hidden temple within the Nepalese city, where one of their members perished in the hidden spike trap. Without the Phurba they presumably did not manage to solve the temple, although they did find their way to the ice temple in The Himalayas. Along the way there they lost several more members due to the frigid conditions, but did ultimately manage to penetrate the inner sanctum. At that point Schäfer realized the truth of the Stone and the realization of what the Nazis would do with the power of it became too much for his conscience. He promptly murdered his fellow expeditionary members, and managed to exit the temple albeit heavily wounded, and at some point was found and taken into the Tibetan village, where he had stayed since.
Drake's Fortune[]
Nate discovering a Spanish Gold Coin.
Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan first stumbled upon a stranded Nazi U-boat in the Amazon rainforest rainforest rainforest, close to an ancient temple, in "A Surprising Find". They deduced it must have come up the river during flood season, and subsequently gotten stuck. On-board Nate found a corpse with Spanish coins, stamped with an unknown mint mark. Shortly afterward he discovered the remains of the captain, which to his eyes seemed to have been killed by being torn to shreds. Presumably, this would have been done by an onboard captive descendant, possibly a Nazi soldier, who got loose and attacked the crew.
The Nazi U-boat docked within the bunker.
Nate also discovered that the captain had a map, which was the original final page from Francis Drake's diary, torn out by himself, which the Nazis must have taken from his corpse. The island design on the map corresponded with an official Nazi map, of an island named the 'Hidden island' ('Hidden Island'), with the coordinates UK2642. Nate used a Nazi coordinate chart to figure out the location of the island itself, taking Drake's map with him. Later, at the end of "The Heart of the Vault", Nate and Elena accidentally discovered an abandoned Nazi bunker, connected to the Spanish treasure vault. They found a Nazi map, which depicted the true location of El Dorado underneath the church.
Nate with the projector and a cursed Nazi.
While Nate turned on the bunker's power in "The Bunker", he was shortly after forced to fight dozens of descendants in "Unwelcome Guests", which appeared to have easy access to the entire bunker through large pipes. He used to Nazis MP40 machine gun to do so, which were littered throughout the base, indicating they died fighting. He also found a projector with short footage showing El Dorado, and a cursed Nazi soldier chained to a pillar, as well as Francis Drake's testament and final words.
Among Thieves[]
In 2009, Nate and Chloe found an MP40 amidst several skeletal remains in an ancient spike trap in a hidden temple in the Nepalese city during "The City's Secret". He also found two P08-9mm pistols within the ice caves on his approach to the temple, alongside a few of Schäfers expeditionary remains during "Mountaineering". The connection to the Nazis was not made until later, when Nate realized that the book Tenzin found belonged to the Ahnenerbe, at the end of "Heart of Ice". At this point he also truly understood what Schäfer meant and what he did. He also made use of the expedition's MP40s to defend himself and Tenzin against the two attacking Shambhala guardians.
Nate added the book's pages to his own journal, which he used to solve a puzzle in "Reunion", as well as "The Road to Shambhala". Later on in "Broken Paradise" Chloe found a P08-9mm pistol and handed it to Elena, with Nate noting that the skeletal remains were between sixty to seventy years old.[1] This implies that the Ahnenerbe had sent another expedition that did manage to find and enter Shambhala, unless someone else managed to do so and simply were in possession of an ancient German pistol.