Is Voldemort Hitler?

[Gerald]

Has anyone seen a literary discussion of the Harry Potter books in which Voldemort is seen as a representation of Hitler, and perhaps Muggles are Jews?

[Arnau]

could be possible

[Nicholas]

Of course it could be possible

[Arnau]

But why would JK makehim racist

[Samantha]

there's a previous post about this already on this board :)

[Nicholas]

what do you mean

[Kristen]

I don't think that was the intent or anything, but there are some similarities.
I find it pretty ironic that they both targeted the people who they were technically part of. Voldemort wasn't a pureblood and Hitler was part Jewish. Or at least that's what I heard, that his mother was very likely Jewish.
Anyway....

[Christina]

I don't think Hitler was part Jewish, he just wasn't Aryan (the race that he was promoting as the "master race") and neither was he German (he was born in Austria). But I'm pretty sure he wasn't part Jewish. I could be wrong though.

And I don't know... there are similarities between Voldemort and Hitler, but I don't believe JKR meant him to be an allusion to Hitler. I mean, Hitler certainly is not the only genocidal racist despot in history, far from it. He's just probably the most well-known of them.

Personally, if anyone should be compared with Hitler, I think it is Grindelwald. Not least because Dumbledore defeated him in 1945 (and I'm pretty sure JKR said somewhere that this was a definite allusion to WWII). Although perhaps you could more easily compare him with Stalin. All of that "For The Greater Good" stuff.

I don't know. Anyway, conclusion: no, I certainly don't think JKR meant Voldemort to be a representation of Hitler specifically.

[Kristen]

Christina wrote: "I don't think Hitler was part Jewish, he just wasn't Aryan (the race that he was promoting as the "master race") and neither was he German (he was born in Austria). But I'm pretty sure he wasn't p..."

Yeah, I could be wrong too. That's just one of those random things I actually remember from History, lol. My teacher said alot of people thought his mother might have been Jewish. I can't really remember why now though. But his reasons were pretty interesting at the time, lol I think maybe she had a Jewish maiden name or something.
Not certain, but interesting if it's true.
Yeah, I remember that he was actually Austrian. Which is also odd. Didn't he also have some sort of prejudice against Austrians? I'm drawing a blank...History never was my strong point, lol

[Christina]

Don't know. I do remember reading somewhere though that Hitler's mother's doctor encouraged her to have an abortion. Always interesting to think about how history would have panned out if THAT had happened.

[Kristen]

Very true.
Although, someone I know just read this book (can't remember what it was, but it sounded really interesting), it's an alternate historical novel where the South actually won the American Civil War and through that, alot of other things in history were different, one of them being that Hitler never rose to power(don't ask me how that fits in, lol). But through the different events, someone else rose to power in Southern America instead and targeted the Blacks and started an alternate holocaust.

I think it was written by a historian. So maybe if there had been no Hitler, some other wacko would have popped up somewhere else.

[Christina]

Oh no doubt. And I'm not huge in history but anti-semitism was rife long before Hitler (and for quite some time after). The Merchant Of Venice is a perfect example of that. No doubt someone would have had the brilliant idea to exterminate the Jews at some point.
I don't know much about the Civil War, though, but that book does sound interesting

[Kristen]

I know, I wish I could remember what it was called. lol

[J.D.]

though the holocaust is the abiding memory of hitler, voldemorts like him in more ways than just that. wanting to take over the world is a pretty major one. having weird personal relationships, being obsessed.
hitler was supposed to be a good speaker, though and voldemorts not. voldemorts like, personally really powerful, and hiteler wasn't

[Chantelle]

That's an interesting thought, but I feel like J.K Rowling didn't do that on purpose. But who knows, I guess. I've never heard that interpretation before!

[Jago]

Nobody knows about the jewish thing of Hitler, but there are some who say that his mother was like 1/10 jewish or so...
Anyway, in my opinion, JK Rowling never meant Voldemort to resemble Hitler but these parallels certainly add up to the 'crazy person'. Moreover, the reader can understand the fear voldemort spreads throughout the wizard-world because of the resemblance with Hitler.