J.K. Rowling uses the Harry Potter series and, more specifically, the last book as a historical allegory for the World War II Era. This argument allows more recent historical writers to explore and attack racism and fascism more effectively. Although sometimes any of Rowling’s characters’ accounts fit perfectly with their respective historical figures, it’s easy to see striking similarities. These similarities are more easily expressed in bad characters, which is often the most difficult thing to say.
As the main villain, Voldemort is clearly represented by Adolf Hitler. He is worshiped, the Dictator is feared. A copy of this in all the books; for example, in the seventh book, Wormtail is asked something by Voldemort and, like the rest, he answers in a faithful but fearful manner: “Yes, my lord, gasped a small man from the middle of the table, who had to sit in a chair so low that at first sight it appeared to be vacant .propaganda was constantly showing the German people helping Hitler’s children, but at the same time, the German people were not unaware of the millions of missing citizens whom Hitler had killed or imprisoned.
In addition to both fearing and worshiping Hitler and Voldemort, they share the same birth conditions. Tom Riddle—Voldemort’s original name—had a Muggle father. It is believed that Hitler was the father of Jews, although this has not been proven. Since Hitler hates Jews and Voldemort hates wizards, it can be guessed that each hates a part of himself. This is further confirmed by the fact that Hitler considered the Aryan race to be the highest level of perfection in humanity, while Voldemort considered the families of noble wizards to be the pure epitome of magical creatures, yet Hitler did not yellow hair like Aryans, and Voldemort was not a wizard by his own standards.
Voldemort is a sensitive pure-blood leader, much like Hitler was a sensitive leader of anti-Semitic sentiments. Voldemort, with his supporters, proclaims his hatred of bloods and half-barbarians throughout seven stories; In the seventh book, Voldemort speaks to Bellatrix and says, “Many of our oldest family trees are becoming a little morbid over time. Muggle blood as a scientific disease like Hitler tried to persecute the Jewish people. Additionally, Hitler blamed the Jewish people for everything in the campaign as politics, just like Voldemort.” He criticized them.
Voldemort’s minions, the Death Eaters, are analogous to the whole Nazi soldier. The Death Eaters are all marked by the Dark Mark, a skull and snake, which signifies their allegiance to Voldemort and also acts as a summoning device. This is similar to the Nazi uniform and more specifically, the inverted swastika, for which they are notorious. Likewise, after the first wizarding war against Voldemort, many Death Eaters claim to be under the Curse of the Empire, which controls the victim’s actions; similarly, many Nazis claimed that they were just following orders and did not know anything about the horrific concentration camps.
Not all comparisons are as clear as Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Dumbledore seems to be loosely based on Winston Churchill. Both Dumbledore and Churchill were strong British authority figures who were well respected but shunned because of public fears. Churchill warned everyone about the dangers of Hitler but was ignored when Dumbledore spent the first six books convincing the wizarding community that Voldemort had returned. Even the wizarding community is a lot like the population of Europe before World War II: The wizarding authorities were so unwilling to believe Voldemort’s return that it was right on the face of it was still recovering from the last war fourteen years earlier. Similarly, the European nations constantly appeased Hitler, not allowing him to build a huge army to invade Poland, because they all wanted to avoid another world war at all costs.
Rita Skeeter and the Daily Prophet are representations of the massive amount of propaganda spread by the Nazis. Rita Skeeter’s Quick-Quotes-Quills is misrepresented, fabricated, and marked as something for a certain behavior. The Daily Prophet quickly turned on Dumbledore as well. Tituli’s publicity apparatus was known for rewriting books and teaching photographs.
By giving her characters, especially the villains, representations of real historical figures, Rowling makes them easier to understand. She reminds us that prejudice is not dead and not only in the world of her fantasy story. There have been Voldemorts and Death Eaters in the real world and they probably will be again. Then the moral of his story is simplistic—discrimination is evil and present, yet presented in the complex history of wizards, house elves, and muggles. We learn to love the dryad house and sympathize with the Muggles and sometimes even pity Voldemort and his perverted Death Eaters. We get these feelings from Rowling’s intention and through them we learn to hate real racism and prejudice, but not always fully condemn the perpetrators. So really, the great characters in World War II are an essential part of the world of Harry Potter.
