Voldemort and the Death Eaters

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 28655

One thing that occurs to me about the Death Eaters and Voldemort is that the
analogy used here earlier about Hitler (not pureblooded German {whatever
THAT is; a saying a Bavarian taught me once is that an East Prussian is a
Pole who doesn't want anybody to find out} but the leader of pureblooded
Germans, is actually more correct than not.

Firstly, although one of Hitler's big things was the purity of the German
race, in practice he was quite flexible as long as there was no trace of
Jewish ancestry.  In the Third Reich, if you were a German citizen you got,
forex, called up for the Army if you were eligible; there were
ethnic-Russians whose ancestors had fled the Revolution who were German
citizens, and they served right alongside Germans of the purest (?) German
blood imaginable.  According to the Sven Hassel website, there were
half-Africans (descended from German/local marriages and liaisons during
Germany's period as a colonial power in Africa) that served in the
Wehrmacht, and nobody thought a thing of it much.  Similarly, although
Voldemort may be riding to power on a basis of appealing to purebloods,
possibly to those who feel resentful of "mudbloods" taking positions in the
wizarding world that they feel should be theirs, his main goal is NOT
pureblood power, but immortality.  I daresay that a halfblood or even a
Mudblood that looked to be useful and amenable to recruitment might be
approached, and purity of blood be d_mned.

Secondly, having found his followers largely among pureblood bigots,
Voldemort may well feel that persecuting Mudbloods is a cheap, easy way to
keep his followers happy and cooperative.  "Okay, OKAY, Malfoy!  You can go
kick the Mudbloods, but first help me with this potion!"  Hitler was in many
ways the prisoner of his own position and power; he had to tolerate a lot of
foolishness on the part of his subordinates to keep them happy and in line.
He never, for example, took Himmler's rhapsodies about the early Germanic
peoples' great accomplishments seriously, according to the _Table Talk._  "I
can't help remembering, when Himmler raves on about these primitive
artifacts, that when our ancestors were chipping tools out of flint, the
Greeks were building the Parthenon."  Since Voldemort's followers are NOT
the trustworthy type, he may well just allow them to work off their
frustrations on Mudbloods and Muggles (and, in the case of Muggles, feel
that this is payback for whatever mistreatment he suffered at Muggle
hands---that orphanage sounds ominous) because it is easier than having to
watch his own back lest, say, McNair, Malfoy Sr. and Avery put their heads
together and decide to eliminate him.