Voldemort vs. Hitler

[DariaJones]

No: HPFGUIDX 67959

 Curt Angeli <losangelis at c...> wrote:
>>>>> I was curious, now with the advent of  OoP, and in response to 
Iana's comment about Hitler's dark hair and facial hair, if anyone 
has any further comparisons of the Death Eaters and the Third Riech.  <<<<

Owlery 2003>>>> OK, given the mod's caution, here's a superficial stab. I've 
studied the World War eras pretty extensively, and the rise of nazism 
ties in quite well with Voldy's quest to dominate the Wizarding 
world. We don't know enough about Grindelwald to claim he's the 
precursor equivalent to WWI. <<<<<


I thought that the first Voldemort war was the analogy for WWI.  If 
you are working from a British perspective they had to go to war with 
the same people twice in thirty years.  This doesn't hold together 
very well at a detailed level but it is close enough be a loose 
metaphor. 
   

Owlery 2003
>>> There's no equivalent to DD, though (unless you view him as America).<<<


Or maybe if you view him as a communist.  There were numerous people 
in Germany (and Britain, Europe, amercia etc) who noticed that Hitler 
was a very nasty man with really dangerouse hateful ideas but the 
mainstream press usually dismissed these people as communists.  So 
there were people who noticed the evil of the rise of Hitler but they 
were ignored and discredited because the dominant society and its 
media were run by people who hated communists.  Later on during the 
McCarthy period in the US one of the sillier definitions of a 
communist was a "premature anti-fascist".  Dumbledore and Harry in 
OOP appear to me to be being treated as "premature anti-voldemortists"

Owlery 2003:
>>>>The prior comparison of Voldy to Hitler is a good one (though Voldy 
was no art student!) in that they both denied/rebelled against their 
heritage to espouse an elitist political dogma. <<<<


I have never paid much attention to psychological explanations of the 
rise of fascism but I believe that it has often been argued that  
Hitler was either
a) part Jewish 
b) thought he was part Jewish 
c) other people thought he was part Jewish
This is supposed to explain Hitler's extreme anti-semitism and would 
certainly tie in with Voldemort's muggle hating because he is part 
muggle. 

Owlery 2003:
>>>>They both used violent means to intimidate the masses and build up a 
fanatical and devoted following. They both held to "the end justifies 
the means" philosophy, and established strategic alliances.<<<<


In addition they both replied on the complacency of "ordinary folk" 
and the (at least tacit) support of the media.  The description of 
the Black family's attitude to Voldemort is something like "they 
thought he had the right ideas."  This is also an oft quoted 
description of the attitude that a large section of the British upper 
classes (including a section of the royal family) had towards 
Hitler.  I do not know exactly who first said this (regarding the Br 
upper classes) but I relate it to the the Mitford family.  This 
aristocratic family is famous for having 2 daughters who were famous 
fascists (Diana who married Britsh fascist leader Mosely and Unity 
who was a close friend of Hitler), as well as the authors Nancy, who 
wrote, "Love in a Cold Climate," a book that I would bet JKR has read 
and Jessica who was a communist and wrote a book called "Hons and 
Rebels".  I think that it could be argued that the Blacks are (very) 
loosely based on the Mitfords because of the use of the "right ideas" 
line and because they had two sons who zealously fought on oppostie 
sides in the war.  Also on a side note Jessica was famous (as in 
front page of the paper famous) for running away from home.  

This is my first post to this list.  I hope I have not strayed too 
far from the topic at hand.  I could go on for hours about my theory 
that the WW is in fact a society that is stuck in the 1930s and that 
JKR is actually going to destroy the WW society in the last two books 
in the same way that British society of the 30s was destroyed by WWII 
and that this will NOT be a bad thing because the society itself is 
corrupt.  But I will leave that to another time.

Daria