the coming war

[Athena Appleton]

I read something recently that's kinda made me start taking a closer look at the various characters of the Harry Potter books. J.K. Rowling, herself, has compared Voldewart and the coming war to Hitler and his Nazi regime. Think about it: Voldything uses manipulation, fear, and torture more than death to get his way, and that's what Hitler did. The Ministry and Umbridge represent the government infiltrating the schools and trying to turn students against each other and their families (ie Umbridge telling the class that they should come to her if they hear anymore "nasty lies" about Voldy coming back, Percy's letter to Ron advising him to turn against Harry). The Inquisitorial Squad represents the SS and the various arien (sp?) youth leagues.
Now, hearing this made me think more about the different smaller characters in the HP series, and what my lay in store for them. Two particular characters I think will be a lot more important as this war rages on are Madame Maxime and Fleur Delecour. Even though we aren't explicitly told so, we pretty much know for sure that Bouxboutons is in France. During the Nazi regime, the French had a very strong, very intricate Resistance group. I think these two French characters (and their friends, possibly) will be taking a leading role in the Resistance against Voldywart.

[Mistress Siana]

Hm, there is certainly a connection between Hitler's regime and Voldemort, but I don't think the Inquisitorial Squad fits into it. After all, the ministry's ignoring the fact that LV has returned, not willingly helping him (at least not as far as we know-you can never be sure with Fudge).
I rather think that the Death Eaters are based on the SS. The part of the SS responsible for everything happening inside Germany was called 'Skull Brigade' , and some of them even had the swastica burnt into their left arm-just like the DEs and the Dark Mark. And if you look at it really closely, I think, there is even a connection between the SS leader Himmler and Lucius Malfoy, but I don't wanna go into detail.

I like your theory about French characters assuming a leading role...very good thought! Maybe not only France, I think Durmstrang could very well represent the Soviet Union.

[Athena Appleton]

Wow, I didn't know that about the SS burning something into their arms...
Ummm, it was really really late when I wrote that last post. I meant that the Inquisitorial Squad represented the Aryan youth leagues and clubs.

[Mistress Siana]

I got that. But I think that would suggest a connection between the ministry and Voldemort...are you sure about that?

[Meg Boyd]

Man I agree with this theory of an alleogory of WWII...I posted about this before somewhere ages ago, but I just can't remember where it was...if I find it I will paste my ideas here, because I really don't feel like rewriting it!!! Anyways, Voldy is coming to power because of legimate mistakes by the government...Hitler came to power legally because of the government in Germany...they are kinda connected. By denying Voldy's advances (just like other governments and Germany's own goverment's appeasement of Hitler's actions) Voldy comes more and more into power.

I can definetly see the IS as a parallel to the Nazi Youth. Nough said

[Athena Appleton]

I agree with what Meg said, and also... several governments didn't take Hitler seriously until it was too late and they were overtaken... Just like the MoM didn't take Voldy seriously, and now they're havin to work double-time...

[Jotomicron]

I really like this theory... More, the last chapter of OotP is really named "The Second War Begins"...
I just can't understand what's the role Harry plays into this war... and, we don't really know how did Hittler died... Could the same be apllied to Voldemort? Will we "see" his death (or disappearence, as I think he could not be killed by any standart mean)?

[Athena Appleton]

no idea! I've had my deep thought for the day... i'll have to come back to this one later!

[choki]

Hitler was said to have committed suicide when Germany was losing the war as the British troop advanced forward to Berlin.

So do you seriously think that the 'mightly' Lord Voldemort would do that? I don't really think so, because it is simply weird to kill of LV like that!

As for relation of the second war with WW2, the Allied consists of many countries like U.S, Great Britain, France, Russia (can't remember all) while the Axis (is it called the Axis???) consists of only Germany, Italy and Japan (not too sure abt Japan).
If a country represents a race (either muggle, elves, centaurs), it make sense, don't they?

On LV's side, we have the Death Eaters, Dementors and probably Giants
While on DD's side, we have only wizards so far. Similar to what happened in WW2, Great Britain was the only country to stand up against Germany in the starting and after sometimes (a year or two), others started joining. So I believe there are much more allies to come along.

And...did Russia first joined the Axis and later the Allied, because Hitler went back against their promise and attacked Russia? If so, maybe one of the allies of the dark side will switch over to the good side.

I could be entirely wrong about this history because this is what I remembered, not memorised

[Meg Boyd]

And...did Russia first joined the Axis and later the Allied, because Hitler went back against their promise and attacked Russia? If so, maybe one of the allies of the dark side will switch over to the good side.

From what I learned is that Russia was sort of neutral, signing a pact with Hitler saying that Hitler will not invade Russia aslong as Russia stayed out of it. However, Hitler got all big headed and invaded Russia and failed. This made Russia angry, so they joined the allied forces.

hmmm...Beauxbatons is probably in the south of France (they describe warm weather) and France was invaded during WWII...do you think the DE will take over Beauxbatons???

[Hermione Weasley]

ok i agree with this post but i think there are some errors in the history stuff

Think about it: Voldything uses manipulation, fear, and torture more than death to get his way, and that's what Hitler did.

Hitler killed many more people than he did tourture them same with Voldy I am not sure if that what you meant or not.

From what I learned is that Russia was sort of neutral, signing a pact with Hitler saying that Hitler will not invade Russia aslong as Russia stayed out of it. However, Hitler got all big headed and invaded Russia and failed. This made Russia angry, so they joined the allied forces

I thought that was Britain because it started the blitzkreg in which the Nazi air force bombed the cr*p out of Great Britain.They had started doing it during the day then went to nights because they were losing to many planes.I am not sure what Russia did during the war so I could be wrong and thats what you meant but im not sure.

[Athena Appleton]

I meant to quote but i forgot and am on the world's slowest computer, so i'll improvise.

I meant that Hitler did a lot of manipulation. I wasn't referring to numbers and to the vast number of people he killed, I don't think Rowling is taking that literal of an approach to it.

The manipulation I was referring to was the breaking of the spirit that seemed to accompany his occupation of the various countries. Little stuff that would seem stupid unless you were living through it. There was no meat, sugar, coffee: the Nazis took it all (common knowledge). When Denmark was occupied the Nazis closed down the parks and fairs they had, and they weren't even allowed to grow the flowers Denmark is famous for (the epilogue of "Number the Stars," Lois Lowery). When Austria was invaded, the Nazis rang the church bells and announced to the world that the Austrians were rejoicing. They changed the streets from two-way to one-way (the Story of the Trapp Family Singers, Baroness Maria von Trapp). All this was to break the spirit of the people. I think Voldemort will do the same thing. I personally think Umbridge, whether knowingly or not, was helping him along
I don't think the various countries represent various races. I just think there is a parellell (sp?) between WWII and this coming war.

[Mistress Siana]

The Blitzkrieg wasn't on Great Britain but on Poland. The Nazis spread the lie that german soldiers had in some way been attacked by the Polish and therefor presented it as an act of self-defence. It's called Blitzkrieg because Poland was defeated in about a day. Hitler had a contract with the Soviet Union saying they wouldn't intervene and 'share' Poland afterwards.

I agree with Athena. I don't think the different nations are in any way represented, but I think it may influence the way the war takes. After all, can you be able to describe a war without referring to the horrors of WW2 in any kind of way?

[Athena Appleton]

I've been rereading the biography of Anne Frank (not the diary, but the biography by Melissa Muller) and it covers an excellent history of all aspects of the war. One thing that struck me while I was reading it is all the "good" people who didn't realize until way too late just how horrible things really were. Some big-named Catholic guy in Holland, whose job it was to determine what "life or death situations" meant more need for visas for Jews to move into Holland (before their annexation) apparently didn't think things were bad enough in concentration camps, because he was fairly stingy with visas. Ironically, this man himself died in a concentration camp a few years later. Queen Wilhemina (sp?) said, "regretfully," that unfortunately, a possible site for a refugee camp was too close to her hunting lodge, so the camp that was the internment camp for many many Jews and other political prisoners was built in swamplands. These two stories reminded me of Fudge in the Ministry of Magic. Not a bad guy, but, before he knew the truth from seeing it with his own eyes, was more concerned with his own little life and interests.
I think I mentioned this earlier, but someone in the HP series says that Voldemort is a master when it comes to dealing in secrecy... I've heard that the "solving of the Jewish question" in Hitler's regime was the "greatest-kept secret in history".