Voldemort's age a coincidence?

[Mistress Siana]

I've been wondering about Tom Riddle's childhood and noticed that his time at Hogwarts was exactly the time Word War II lasted, 1938-45. Do you think that is a coincidence? I find it somewhat strange, but it doesn't seem as though JKR is going to expand on the fact that Tom, who grew up in a muggle orphanage, must be a war child, having experienced bomb alarms, murder, destruction etc. Maybe it's meant to draw a parallel?

[carsten]

I've been wondering about Tom Riddle's childhood and noticed that his time at Hogwarts was exactly the time Word War II lasted, 1938-45....

Keen observation!

I think it will have more to do with the Grindelwald incident in 1945 mentioned on the Dumbledore collection card.

[Scellanis]

I should imagine the muggle World war may well be connected to the Grindlewald incident...surely the muggles must notice when the wizards are fighting and vice versa...it must cause problems in their lives too and I suppose it could be useful for an evil wizard to use muggles sometimes...

[Mistress Siana]

Hm. I have to admit that the possible connection of Grindelwald and World War II that is implied by the date of defeat and the obviously german sounding name is one of the few things I truly dislike about Harry Potter. I don't know... the holocaust is a topic far too terrible and also far too important as that a side note in a children's book could be anything else than an insult to the victims. Really, I hope JKR leaves it at that and doesn't go into detail.

[Scellanis]

I think people look too deeply, I think she couldn't ignore the world war, the witches and wizards wouldn't have been able too, if muggles are fighting that much it has to affect the wizard world so I think if Grindlewald is connected its very clever of her and just shows how much work she has done to make sure the wizard world fits in with the muggle world we know.

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

Maybe she struggled for a while to think of a date of Tom Riddle's birth and school life, so eventually she just thought about a common an easy date to remember.

[Eol]

Maybe she struggled for a while to think of a date of Tom Riddle's birth and school life, so eventually she just thought about a common an easy date to remember

I think there's more to it than that. There are many similarities between Voldemort's attitude toward muggles and Hitler's attitude toward the Jews. There is even more similarities to be found in Voldy being a Half-blood and Hitler's grandmother supposedly being Jewish. JK has drawn inspiration from history for the Harry Potter Series and perhaps this was her way of showing it.
The Harry Potter series can even be seen as a satire, however loosely, but in this light an important lesson is taught to the readers,especially to younger audiences. I have always commended JK on this matter, as she is teaching as well as entertaining.

[Eol]

Maybe she struggled for a while to think of a date of Tom Riddle's birth and school life, so eventually she just thought about a common an easy date to remember

I think there's more to it than that. There are many similarities between Voldemort's attitude toward muggles and Hitler's attitude toward the Jews. There is even more similarities to be found in Voldy being a Half-blood and Hitler's grandmother supposedly being Jewish. JK has drawn inspiration from history for the Harry Potter Series and perhaps this was her way of showing it.
The Harry Potter series can even be seen as a satire, however loosely, but in this light an important lesson is taught to the readers,especially to younger audiences. I have always commended JK on this matter, as she is teaching as well as entertaining.

[darkcloak]

Good spot. Two things I would like to add:

I think when Dumbledore says "I know exactly how you feel" to Harry at the end of OotP, he may be giving a possible clue to his fight with Grindelwald. Perhaps Grindelwald killed his parents? Perhaps Dumbledore was prophesised as the only one who could defeat him? Also thinking about the death of Grindelwald, no-one seems to discuss him at all. You would think that the characters may draw parallels between the two "reigns of terror".

On another thread, perhaps Tom was on Grindelwald's side, perhaps he was there when Dumbledore defeated him and that's when he knew that he would have to go away and master the darkest magic to truly defeat DD?

BTW What was DD before he became Headmaster? Was he an auror?

[Tanuki]

Voldy was too young to help Grindewald. He's only in his fifties round about, the same age as Hagrid. As for the lack of comparrison; it might be because a lot of the generation that lived through Grindewald is probably already dead, so not a lot of people besides Dumbledore remember him. Of course there are also wizards out there older than Dumbledore, but we don't hear much from them

[Manticore]

and though it is a big deal, we don't even know what actually happened, it could have had something to do with the war, or not, and i don't think most of the wizards would be dead, there are still a lot of wwII vets that are alive and jkr said that wizards have longer life spans than humans

but also, tom riddle, opening the chamber of secrets in his 6th year i think was in 1942 or 1943, you can figure this out by reading and simple math, the books are not set now, they are set about 10 years agoish, it says in the first book, or maybe the second, i forgot, but whenever the deathday party was, that it was 1992, subtract 50 years = 1940's

[Eol]

Its also interesting that even the name Grindelwald sounds germanic in origin. I just looked it up and its the name of a Swiss hotel.

[Mistress Siana]

A famous swiss place for recreation, actually.

[highsorcerer]

Actually, I have to think that the world's history is full of examples of how if evil is ignored, it will regenerate. Voldemort's history has been one of power and control. He created horcurxes when he was 16, and has gone on to control power since then.

Since it is so obvious that Regulus Black betrayed Voldemort once he realized the full extent of his power, and stole at least one of his Horcruxes (and left it at his house... now in the hands of either Kretcher or Mundungas Fletcher, per Book 5 and 6 after that locket nobody could open was shown in book 5 - a mistake Dumbledore made in not trusting Harry before that).

Never trust evil.

HighSorcerer

[Athena Appleton]

I don't know about Voldemort's age being like that... but here's a kicker (from the mugglenet interview, I think)

Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in 1945. Grindelwald is actually pronounced "Grindelvald" (like the German dialect would pronounce it). Coincidence? She seemed a little mysterious when asked if there was a connection between Grindelwald and Hitler. She did say that wizard wars and muggle wars feed off of each other.