real world connections

WWII was big, but Roxane is right, Hitleresk figures run through history and racial purging happens still today. Look at Dafar.

No problem to agree with that.
I think the world has never been the same after WWII and everything that happened during the "Third Reich".

And, after reading the postings again, sure, there are a few things that reminds me on Hitler and the NAZI`s.
The fight between Dumbledore and Grindelwald was in 1945,
The "Hakenkreuz" (is it really fylfot in english) which is a very old symbol with several different meanings, the Nazis have just taken over.
The Death Eaters - there is no problem to see a reincarnation of SA or any other of Hitlers killing troupes in them.
You can go much deaper. Voldemort is a "Half-Blood", his mother has married a Muggle. So he does not meat the expectations he has to his fellowers.
And Hitler, if you look at the pictures of the ideal german he wanted to create - you will not find anything of him in them.
I think this list is nearly endless.
But JKR did not only give us hints to the Nazis, she also located the story more or less in the present time.
And it is this present time where Harry and the others have to fight against the "evil".

You can go much deaper. Voldemort is a "Half-Blood", his mother has married a Muggle. So he does not meat the expectations he has to his fellowers.
And Hitler, if you look at the pictures of the ideal german he wanted to create - you will not find anything of him in them.[/quote]

It is also interesting to note that some people think Hitler was part Jewish. I had a German History professor who said this isn't true though.

In any case, I agree that while Jo used history as an insperation, the Harry Potter books aren't supposed to be a retelling of WWII.

true on the not a historical retelling as LadyB pointed out. It's hard to get away from historical events as good story line -- or even just what you know.

CS Lewis has been quoted that there was no religious implications in Chronicles of Narnia - just a desire to tell a good story - and yet people keep trying to put them in.

I think the "Hitler was part Jewish" thing is something some people would like to find out.
But I don't think it would change a lot. We don't need facts like this, true or untrue to know that he was wrong.
But to think about the early biography of Hitler reminds on something that does not fit if you compare Voldemort with Hitler.
Before Hitler started his "political career" he was a real looser.
He wanted to be an artist, a painter and tryed to get a place at the academy in vienna. But he failed. I is said that he never came over this.
Voldemort is not described as a looser. He was the best in everything he did. (even in beeing evil)

Time magazine printed an article that the character that died in Harry Potter was God. I had to read that article twice before I decided it was written by someone who had not read the series.

Yep. I tend to read everything I get my hands on when it come to HP - the good articles easily outweigh the bad.