Comparing Evil: A Glimpse into the World of Harry Potter

Everyone that has read the Harry Potter books knows that one of the underlying plots is the battle between the pure-bloods and the Muggles and mudbloods. The theme of one side believing itself to be the superior race is as old as time itself. For centuries, the belief that one race was superior led to various races being enslaved, or worse, annihilated. The most famous of which, or the freshest on everyone's mind, are the atrocities committed during the years of the second World War.

In many ways, the two events were very similar. In Harry Potter, the villain, Lord Voldemort, had used his influence to pass several new laws that governed the Wizarding world. One that was obvious was the law that any Muggle born must register with the Ministry of Magic and in time were taken and tortured into admitting they stole magic, rather than had been born with it. The nearly unrelenting persecution caused many families to be ripped apart and sorted as they stepped off a train. Wives were taken to Azkaban, as were children and husbands. A member of a mixed family that was from pureblood ancestry would be forced to watch as their loved ones would be taken away for questioning. While done in the realm of storytelling, the idea behind the registration act is very similar to the one enacted over sixty years ago as another power monger began to ascend.

As families were torn apart and innocents were imprisoned, a great deal of pure-bloods within the wizarding world that wished to avoid any legal entanglements pretended that nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Some even went so far as to allow themselves to be willingly brainwashed into following the ideals set before them by a fanatic and insane leader. Those that aided the villain willingly just to save themselves are put into situations that cause you to cheer when you read them but it also causes one to ask what would they do if they were given the same choice?

Much like the Death Eaters within the pages of Harry Potter, the SS, or Schutzstaffel, was used as the powerful arm that hunted down and eliminated the perceived threat to their respective leaders. For the Germans, it was Adolf Hitler, who was quite possibly the most evil man in the twentieth century. Hitler used the highly skilled men of the SS not as front line soldiers but as guards and executioners of the Jewish community once it had been forced into the concentration camps.

While there were no mention of concentration camps of any sort within the books one can assume that the Wizard's prison Azkaban was a version of Auschwitz, or any other well known camp at the time. Once the mudbloods, or Muggle born and un-pure blood witches and wizards, were sent there they were guarded by Dementors. The Dementors were ghost like beings that fed off of a individual's joy and hope. Each time they passed one of the imprisoned humans that person felt like part of them had been ripped out by the creatures that guarded them. If the Dementor's performed their dreaded kiss on one of the inmates the person would be left without a soul, alive but in all respects dead. Much as the guards of the concentration camps the Dementors weren't particular about whose soul they took. Anyone that got in their way was subject to this punishment. Neither group cared who it was they were tormenting, much less killing.

Throughout history, humans have demonstrated the depths their depravity can go, but few are as remembered as those dark days in the first half of the twentieth century. While the genocide of World War II is greatly documented, the Harry Potter novels bring it into a new light for another generation to learn from. Just as words failed to describe the atrocities done within German occupied territories, the fictional works of J.K.Rowling have allowed us to glimpse into evil once more from the safety of our own home and remember what we are capable of through the mirroring examples within her books.