The death eaters and the Nazis are not the same. Period.
Hello there fellow HP fan folk. Today, I'll be explaining on how the death eaters and Nazis are not the same fucking thing, because you people love to water down the Nazis and it's pissing me off.
This is partially aimed at anti-snape fans who keep calling him a nazi, but also at Harry potter fans who think that the Nazis and death eaters are the same, despite Jkrs absolutely horrendous attempt at the blood purity ideology. Anyway, let's dive in.
DISCLAIMER: I do not support J.K.R, any of her views or whatsoever. Trans rights are human rights. I do not support the Nazis or any sort of fascist ideology, this is merely my take on the entire 'Death eaters are Nazis' ideology.
Definitions and terminology.
FIRST THINGS FIRST, what is blood supremacy?
Blood Supremacy - In the Harry Potter universe, blood supremacy is the belief that pure-bloods (wizards from families with no Muggle or Muggle-born ancestry) are inherently superior to all other wizards. This ideology, popularized by Salazar Slytherin and championed by figures like Lord Voldemort, views Muggle-borns as "impure" and unworthy of magic, leading to widespread discrimination and violence against them.
Meanwhile, what is Nazism?
Nazism, formally named National Socialism, is the far-right totalitarian ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequently called Hitler Fascism and Hitlerism. The Nazi party, during WW2, killed 6 million Jews, 3.3 million Soviet POWS, 1.8 Poles, more than 310k Serbs, 270k people with disabilities, 500k Romani people, 80k freemasons, 25k Slovenes, 1.7k of Jehovah's witnesses and 3.5k Spanish republicans. In total, that's around 13m+ kill count. It's also important to note, that Hitler had formal allies like Japan, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Croatia. Let that sink in.
One of the many reasons why the death eaters aren't even remotely the same as the Nazis, is because of the differences in ideology. The Nazis targeted people because of their race/ethnicity, meanwhile the Death Eaters targeted people because of their ancestry. Ancestry ≠ Race. This is a huge difference, which brings me to my 2nd point;
The origins of the ideologies/more in-depth explanation and the "evidence" of the ideologies.
Nazi Ideology: Was built on a foundation of rigid, pseudoscientific racial hierarchy. It claimed there were biologically distinct races with measurable, inherent qualities. This "science" was used to justify everything from segregation to sterilization to industrialized extermination. The goal was the creation of a "master race" through eugenics.
To put it simply, Nazism was built on falsely claimed racial hierarchy. It basically said that each race have their own essential traits, which was a justification of a literal genocide, sterilisation, murder and discrimination.
Death Eater Ideology ("Blood Purity"): Is fundamentally magical and genealogical. It's not about biological race in a scientific sense. A Muggle-born wizard is, magically, identical to a pure-blood. The prejudice is based on the source of their magic and their social and cultural lineage, not ethnicity or race.
Blood purity, in simple terms, has zero relations with race or ethnicity, unlike the Nazi ideology. An average muggleborn wizard is the same as an average pureblood wizard, whether it's appearance, magic or the way of talking.
It's also important to note, that Nazis at the time, had a somewhat "believable" ideology. Let me elaborate;
Nazi "Science": Used fake anthropology and phrenology (skull measurements) to "prove" racial inferiority.
Real-World Racism: Points to cherry-picked statistics, cultural differences, or historical grievances.
Pureblood Supremacy has NOTHING. In fact, the evidence constantly and overwhelmingly disproves it.
The literal FOUNDER of their cause, Lord Voldemort/Tom Marvolo Riddle himself, is a literal half-blood, that has a muggle father, Someone they deem objectively inferior.
The literal 'Savior Of the (British) Wizarding World' himself, Harry Potter, is a literal half-blood.
They have 0 magical differences; A spell cast by a muggle-born is just as strong by a half-blood or a pureblood. There's no magical evidence that shows muggle-borns being magically inferior to Purebloods. None.
Hermione Granger, the Brightest Witch Of Her Age, is a muggle-born.
Lily Evans-Potter was literally Hermione of her generation and was the reason Harry survived infancy to defeat Voldemort.
Severus Snape, the double agent for the Order and a Potions prodigy, corrected an entire Potions textbook at 16 and invented his own spells, deceiving one of the most powerful dark wizards of all time. He was a half-blood, with a muggle father.
The differences in political power and propaganda.
The key difference between the Death Eaters and the Nazis is that:
The Nazis were a state that functioned like a terrorist organization.
The Death Eaters were a terrorist organization that briefly became a state.
The Death Eaters only had the control over the state, censorship and propaganda only for a year, which was during the Deathly Hallows and only within the Borders of Britain, meanwhile, the Nazis were a full government with a bureaucracy, laws, and international relations, one of them being all the way to East Asia, JAPAN, no less.
Until DH, the Death Eaters had no political power or political alliances, except from the sacred 28 families.
The Nazis also had Security & Police Gestapo (Secret Police), SS (Paramilitary), SA (Brownshirts). A multi-layered, official apparatus for terror.
Meanwhile, in the blood purity cult of HP, the death eaters themselves were enforcers. They have no complex, dedicated bureaucracy for oppression.
Furthermore, the nature of their political control was fundamentally different.
State Integration: The Nazis didn't just control the government; they were the government, having legally and systematically fused the Party with the state apparatus. In contrast, the Death Eaters were always an external force, only achieving power through a violent coup and ruling the Ministry through a combination of magical coercion and puppet leadership, never true integration.
Scale of Ambition: Nazi propaganda and military might were directed at global conquest, fighting a world war on multiple fronts. The Death Eaters' ambitions, however, were intensely nationalist, focused solely on seizing and 'purifying' the British wizarding world, with little evidence of designs on the international stage.
The Nazis also had state-mandatory organizations like The Hitler Youth and German Girls League for indoctrinations and brainwashing the future generations, aka propaganda.
Meanwhile, characters like Draco Malfoy, were indoctrinated at home by their parents, not with a literal state run "Voldemort-Youth" kind of bs. Draco had propaganda shoved down his throat by his parents and his housemates at Hogwarts, not by state-run organizations.
The Nazis also had Joseph Goebbel's Ministry Propaganda; He controlled all of the media censorship, art, literature, information and so on, with terrifying efficiency.
Meanwhile, all the Death Eaters had was Daily Prophet, while influential, could be contested by another newspaper and wasn't state-run on full-time till DH.
Hitlers cult of personality was built by Nuremberg; Massive, staged rallies and years of Radio, Film and other propaganda.
Voldemort's power is based more on fear of his personal, magical power and cruelty. He doesn't hold shit; he holds seances and uses terror.
Now, let's discuss another key point of the differences between the death eaters and the Nazis: Muggle-borns and Jews.
First things first, what is a muggle-born?
Witches and wizards with non-magical parents are called Muggle-borns.
Now, one of the main differences between a muggle-born and a Jewish person, is the argument their oppressors used against them.
The Nazi argument was: "You have never truly been one of us, and now we will make that official by taking everything from you."
The Death Eater argument was: "You have been living among us as equals, but you are actually a thief and a pollutant, so we will take away the status you never deserved."
This proves that muggleborns, unlike the Jewish community, were not victims of historical oppression that was also happening WAYYYYY before Holocaust, hundreds of years back. The Historical oppression that the Jewish experienced, is incomparable to Blood supremacy, as Muggleborns weren't historically oppressed, and are literally privileged in the British Wizarding World.
This can be easily proven by many things:
Muggleborns have as much rights as an average pureblood wizard, till DH
Muggleborns weren't exiled from public entertainment, weren't stripped of their rights till DH, they had every right to go to Hogwarts as every other pureblood wizard, and so on.
Meanwhile, unlike Muggleborns, squibs, werewolves, magical creatures and so on are seen as 2nd class citizens.
Non-human beings/magical creatures are considered 2nd class citizens; The house-elves are enslaved, Goblins, despite controlling Gringotts, are constantly denied access to magical tools (such as wands), Centaurs are driven into reservations, and so on. All of this is legal discrimination that the system upholds.
The "Mudblood" Insult is Social, Not Legal: The prejudice they face is cultural and social, especially from bigoted individuals like the Malfoys, not enshrined in law until the DH. They are integrated into the system with full rights from the moment their magic is detected.
A Muggle-born like Hermione Granger has the exact same right to a Hogwarts education, to own a wand, to a Ministry career, and to participate in wizarding society as any pure-blood like Ron Weasley. There are no legal barriers until the Death Eaters themselves create them.
Majority of the Wizarding World is very pro-muggle. The only oppressors we see are mostly the Death Eaters, Voldemort and the Slytherin's, that are considered a minority in the Wizarding World. The rest of the Wizarding world doesn't exactly care about blood status, as we've seen in multiple other characters
Meanwhile, the Jewish people were in a complete opposite situation:
Right to Hold Public Office & Certain Professions: The "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" (April 1933) banned Jews from working as civil servants, teachers, judges, and other government roles.
Right to Educational Equality: Quotas were introduced limiting the number of Jewish students in schools and universities ("Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities," April 1933).
Right to Practice Law & Medicine: Laws were passed barring Jewish lawyers and doctors from serving non-Jewish clients.
Right to Freedom of the Press: Jewish journalists were banned from working for German newspapers.
Right to Participate in Culture: Jewish artists, musicians, and actors were expelled from guilds and prevented from performing for the general public.
Right to German Citizenship: The "Reich Citizenship Law" (September 1935) defined only those of "German or related blood" as citizens. Jews were reclassified as "state subjects," stripping them of their political rights and legal protections.
Right to Marry or Have Sexual Relations with Non-Jews: The "Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour" (September 1935) made marriage and extramarital relations between Jews and non-Jews a criminal offense ("Rassenschande" or "racial disgrace").
Right to a Dignified Identity: Jews were forced to add the names "Israel" or "Sara" to their official documents to make their Jewish identity obvious. Their passports were marked with a large "J."
Right to Own Property & Businesses: Jewish businesses were forcibly "Aryanized," meaning they were sold to non-Jews at a fraction of their value or simply confiscated. A 1938 decree mandated that all Jewish property be registered with the state, paving the way for its seizure.
Right to Economic Livelihood: By 1939, nearly all Jewish professionals had been banned from practicing, and Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed or stolen.
Right to Freedom of Movement: Jews were subjected to curfews and banned from public places like parks, libraries, and swimming pools.
Right to Education: By 1938, Jewish children were officially banned from attending German public schools.
Right to Safety and Security: The state-sanctioned violence of Kristallnacht (November 1938) saw the destruction of synagogues, Jewish-owned shops, and homes. This event made it clear that the state would not protect Jews but was, in fact, the source of the violence. 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps.
Right to Choose Their Place of Residence: Jews were forcibly evicted from their homes and forced into overcrowded, sealed ghettos, which were effectively urban prisons cut off from the outside world.
Right to Food and Sustenance: Rations in the ghettos were deliberately kept at starvation levels.
Right to Basic Human Dignity: They were forced to wear a yellow Star of David badge on their clothing at all times, publicly marking them for humiliation and segregation.
The Right to Live: With the Wannsee Conference (1942), the policy shifted from emigration and oppression to systematic, industrialized extermination in death camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Sobibor.
All of these laws, prove that the death eaters were not as oppressive against muggleborns, as the Nazis were towards the Jewish, which is, again, a crucial point for this discussion. If the Death Eaters had half the political power the Nazis did, then Hermione and Lily would've been killed off before we'd even get to the first book.
In conclusion, comparing the death eaters to Nazis, not only is watering down Nazism itself, but is also historically and canonically inaccurate, as the Death Eaters were not, in fact, the same as Nazis. It also implies that blood supremacy is also well-written, which it isn't, ESPECIALLY since JKR claimed that it was modeled after the Nazi ideology (which was very poorly executed, but that's a discussion for another day (I won't be discussing it here, as you should be able to understand why it was badly executed after reading the entire article))
But, if you asking: But if the Death Eaters aren't Nazis, then what are they?
The Death Eaters are a terrorist group. This is supported by multiple of their actions in the books, such as;
Using violence, fear and indiscriminate attacks to achieve political goals
They're a secretive, hierarchial organization, bound by a fanatical loyalty to one single person. Members are marked and initiated through acts of violence
These two alone make them a terrorist cult, not a nazi one.
Also, blood supremacy leans more towards Classism rather than Nazism. Use your terminology correctly, guys!!
Um, anyway, this took me awhile to finish this because I was being lazy and did not feel like doing anything. Bye, have a nice day, use your historical terminology correctly, and remember, blood supremacy was horrendously executed!
