Courtnee Johns
February 3, 2017
ENGL 281
Dr. Powers
Nazis, Death Eaters, and Squibs
In the book, Harry Potter and History, Nancy Reagin writes a compelling chapter, titled Was Voldemort a Nazi? Death Eater Ideology and National Socialism, discussing the many similarities and differences between the Nazi National Socialists and the Death Eaters (in Harry Potter), and between Adolf Hitler and Voldemort. While Neagin asserts that the National Socialists and the Death Eaters have more in common than Hitler and Voldemort, and asserts the subsequent consequences of each group’s actions, it is interesting to consider where Squibs fall in the wizarding world while the Death Eaters sought pureblood superiority.
The National Socialists and the Death Eaters both established a Racial State in which decrees were established that forced citizens to prove that they were not “full Jews” (in Germany) or not Muggle-born (in the Wizarding world). The decrees set forth by the National Socialists aimed to identify all Germans who had Jewish ancestors, even if those ancestors converted to Christianity (Harry Potter and History, 135) and like the German edicts, The Ministry of Magic’s decrees sought to identify witches and wizards who do not have wizarding ancestry (135). Both the National Socialists and the Ministry of Magic indicated loopholes of leniency if the person in question had at least one Aryan ancestor or pure-blood history that could be proven, such as half-bloods. While muggle-born citizens were under extreme pressures to prove their ancestry, Squibs were under no seeming prosecution although they possessed no magical abilities, and should have been considered inferior to pure-bloods as well.
Usually depicted as enduring unfair treatment by other witches and wizards, Squibs (non-magic persons born into wizarding families) seemed to undergo fairer treatment while Dolores Umbridge was headmistress at Hogwarts. In Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, readers learn that “the existence of a Squib child used to be ‘hushed up’ by pureblood families, who saw these children as a shameful family secret,” as Neagin mentions (130). Why then, did Umbridge trust Argus Filch, a known Squib, with responsibilities such as upholding her decrees, punishing students using archaic methods, and keeping his job as Hogwarts groundkeeper? Why not appoint a pure-blood wizard for the job? One possibility, is that Umbridge, and her allies, may have believed that Squibs were born without magic because muggle-borns stole their magic. “Because their theory was that all magical ability had to be inherited from a wizarding parent, this meant that half-bloods were not suspected of “stealing” a wizard’s or a witch’s magic (141).” If pure-bloods, and half-bloods inherited their magic, and muggle-borns stole their magic, who exactly did they steal it from if not from Squibs, who should have been born magical?
The belief that Squibs are magical beings who have been robbed of their powers by muggle-borns could be explained by their lack of persecution, and by the hierarchy of magical races, established by Umbridge and the Ministry of Magic. Regarding the hierarchy, Neagin explores, “Wizarding society ought to be a hierarchy that included several categories of persons, by such pureblood reckoning: purebloods with magical ability…; purebloods who were Squibs…; half-bloods…; and Muggle-born magical folk at the very bottom (130).” This hierarchy is significantly different than the previous treatment of Squibs who were harassed by magical-folk and were pressured to relocate to the Muggle world, and could explain both why Argus Filch was so eager to join Umbridge’s cause in Deathly Hallows, and why he seemingly hated the students of Hogwarts and delighted in punishing them.
Works Cited
Reagin, Nancy Ruth. “Was Voldemort a Nazi? Death Eater Ideology and National Socialism.” Harry Potter and History, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, 2011.
I thought your ideas were interesting about Squibs and how they were able to see so much of the Wizarding World without repercussions. However, I noticed a few spelling errors. You seemed to have misspelled “Reagin” throughout your journal as “Neagin”. Also, you weren’t consistent with how you spelled pure-blood throughout your journal. There were times where you would put the dash in-between the two words and then there were other times where you wouldn’t put the dash in-between the two words and would spell it as one whole word. Also, you defined what a Squib was during the third paragraph while you mentioned Squib during the second paragraph. It’s easier for the reader to understand what a Squib is if you define it whenever you first mention the word in your journal. Overall, I enjoyed reading your thoughts about the chapter, “Was Voldemort a Nazi? Death Eater Ideology and National Socialism”.
So first off this paper was awesome. I love the idea that squibs escaped persecution in the time that Voldemort was in power was because their magic was thought it be stolen and therefore they should be pitied. I just have a few changes. The title of the chapter should be in quotations and not italic. When making an in-text citation you should use the last name of the author and not the name of the book it came from. Lastly there are 2 places where you spelled the author’s name with an N not an R I found these in paragraphs 3 and 4. Again as a whole this paper was fantastic and I loved reading it. Good work!