Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing a couple of things. The first is a much debated aspect of Harry Potter - blood
purity. Within this, I’m going to be looking at the blood-purity ‘spectrum’ and what
is required for someone to be considered a ‘half-blood’. I’m also going to be discussing
Voldemort and infamous German Dictator Adolf Hitler- drawing parallels between them.
Blood status is one of the most controversial aspects of the wizarding world- a concept
in which wizarding families can be distinguished by the level of magically-endowed family members.
Generally speaking, people are slotted in to one of the following categories: Pure-blood,
half-blood or muggle. The existence of such a system, however, certainly isn’t a positive
thing. The different classifications of blood purity in the wizarding world actually act
in a very similar fashion to race in the real world- which obviously leaves the door open
for things like prejudice. The wizarding world is certainly not shy to elements of prejudice,
In fact, one of the main focuses of Voldemort’s death eaters was establishing power over the
worlds of half-bloods and muggles. Voldemort felt that those with pure-blood lines deserved
to be in power, and anyone who got in his way would either be murdered or made to be
indefinitely subservient- a slave to his regime. Of course, after enough time in power, it’s
also likely that the pure-blood lines (which are presently on their way out) would be able
to make a resurgence.
Of course it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that parallels can be drawn between
Voldemort and the Death Eaters with Hitler and the Nazis during WW2.
“I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the wizarding
world. So you have the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion
of purity, which is this great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like
to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves in nothing else they
can pride themselves on perceived purity. So yeah that follows a parallel [to Nazism].”
That quote was from JK Rowling
The Nazis were of course infamous for the persecution of Jewish people among other minorities.
Basically, anyone was persecuted that didn’t fit in to Hitler’s perceived notion of the
Aryan ‘Master’ race.
“The master race is a concept in Nazi ideology in which the putative Nordic or Aryan races,
predominant among Germans and other northern European peoples, are deemed the highest in
racial hierarchy. Members of this alleged master race were referred to as Herrenmenschen
("master humans")”
In this instance, Aryans were the ‘pure-bloods’ and any other group could be placed in to
either the half-blood or muggle category. In 1925, Hitler published ‘Mein Kampf’-
an autobiogaphical manifesto that outlined his political ideologies and antisemitic perspective.
In his book, Hitler wrote of his hatred towards what he believed to be the world's twin evils,
namely communism and Judaism. He said that his aim was to eradicate both from Germany
and moreover stressed his intention to unite all Germans in the process of destroying them.
Does that sound like someone else to you? Where Hitler rallied the Nazis, Voldemort
rallied the Death Eaters, and where Hitler sought to eradicate non-aryans, Voldemort
sought to enslave and dominate non pure-bloods.
One thing that I want to quickly explore before diving in to this further is- what constitutes
a half-blood? In an interview, JK Rowling was asked a similar question:
“Why are some people in the wizarding world called 'half-blood' even though both their
parents were magical?”
“The expressions 'pure-blood', 'half-blood' and 'Muggle-born' have been coined by people
to whom these distinctions matter, and express their originators' prejudices. As far as somebody
like Lucius Malfoy is concerned, for instance, a Muggle-born is as 'bad' as a Muggle. Therefore
Harry would be considered only 'half' wizard, because of his mother's grandparents.
If you think this is far-fetched, look at some of the real charts the Nazis used to
show what constituted 'Aryan' or 'Jewish' blood. I saw one in the Holocaust Museum in
Washington when I had already devised the 'pure-blood', 'half-blood' and 'Muggle-born'
definitions, and was chilled to see that the Nazis used precisely the same warped logic
as the Death Eaters. A single Jewish grandparent 'polluted' the blood, according to their propaganda.”
From this, we can derive that the Death Eaters used similar methodology to the Nazis- suggesting
that similar Third Reich formula rules were in effect.
In Germany itself, the Ahnenpass and Nuremberg Laws classified people as Jews if they descended
from three or four Jewish grandparents. A person with one or two Jewish grandparents
was a Mischling, a crossbreed, of "mixed blood".
However, one other important distinction to make is that, like with any oppressive regime,
the bosses make the rules. We see this with Lord Voldemort, who ironically was a half-blood
himself while actively leading a regime that sought to enslave anyone that wasn’t a pure-blood.
We also saw this with the Nazis- as they notably issued a ‘German Blood Certificate’ to
Erhard Milch- a Jewish born field officer that oversaw the development of the Luftwaffe.
After Erhard was issued his certificate, Hermann Goring famously said ‘Wer Jude ist, bestimme
ich’ which means ‘I decide who is a jew’.
This kind of behaviour is completely irrational, and makes absolutely no sense, but then again-
these regimes don’t make any sense. These types of movements are largely based on irrational
fear, a thirst for power, and an incredible amount of hypocrisy.
One thing important to note, however, is that Hitler and Voldemort didn’t only share similar
goals- they were actually quite similar people in a lot of other ways. Let’s take a look
at just how similar they were.
It appears that, from as early as childhood, both Voldemort and Hitler exhibited signs
of a manipulative, persuasive personality- a personality that closely followed them in
to adulthood and largely contributed to their eventual ‘successes’ in achieving power.
Voldemort, AKA Tom Riddle, was a highly manipulative young boy that was dangerously paired with
a high IQ- a combination which meant that he was always able to convince others to give
him what he wanted. While still very young Voldemort became entirely self-aware of his
‘talents’ - and would use emotional warfare on adults and fellow orphans alike. Hitler
showed similar characteristics as a boy, and though he didn’t grow up in an orphanage,
there is evidence to support that he was able to manipulate his mother in to pampering him.
Both boys would play off of the emotions of others, but also tread carefully when they
were confronted with someone that they could clearly not manipulate. Their uncanny ability
to recognize individuals that they wouldn’t be able to manipulate is likely a product
of their high levels of charisma.
For example, Tom Riddle played the role of ‘good little orphan boy’ when Dumbledore
came to visit, and similarly Hitler never tried any of his emotional warefare on his
father as he knew that it would have been futile.
Another dangerous trait that both men exhibited was the ability to persuade people- specifically
the ability to convince others of their good intentions. Tom Riddle infamously persuaded
professor Horace Slugorn to provide him with information on Horcruxes- a classic example
of Voldemort’s manipulation. To Horace, Tom was a good student with a good head on
his shoulders- he couldn’t imagine what harm giving that information to Tom could
have done, but that’s exactly how Tom wanted to come across- he knew exactly what he was
doing. He was able to come across in such a way that even the exchange of information
pertaining to the worst forms of dark magic wasn’t something that Slughorn would deny
him.
In a similar case of persuasion, Hitler at the age of 22 was able to convince his aunt
to give him a large amount of money and leave him the bulk of her life’s savings- money
that I’m sure would have normally been left to others.
There is so much power in the ability to convince people of things- and when you combine this
skill with unusual perceptions of the world- dangerous things can happen. For Voldemort,
it meant amassing a legion of death eaters to enslave half-bloods and muggles, and for
Hitler it meant shifting the perspective of an entire nation- creating an antisemitic,
intolerant environment where his ‘master race’ would regin supreme. Both men were
able to amass large followings- playing off of people’s deepest emotions in order to
get them on board with their regimes.
In order for Hitler to come to power- he played off of weaknesses that Germany had- like the
level of poverty and powerlessness that they likely felt as a nation. He brought these
things to the forefront of people’s minds, introducing himself as the solution.
Voldemort used fear to amass his followers- he was a known powerful figure, so powerful
in fact that not a single one of his death eaters ever dared question his half-blood
status. A prime example of this is Lucius Malfoy- who would follow anything that the
dark lord said- mainly out of pure fear.
I could go on for ages making comparisons between these two figures- even going as far
as to analyze the symbolism used by each man’s regime- for Voldemort the dark mark, for Hitler
the Swastika, but I think you get the gist of it.
If you have any questions pertaining to the topic of today’s video, I’d love to hear
them, so leave a comment down below. I may expand on this topic further if there is enough
interest.
Until next time
Remember
"You place too much importance, and you always have done, on the so-called purity of blood!
You fail to recognise that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to
be!"