 
#1 NOV '99 |
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Magneto: The Master of Magnetism! Magneto commands the very power which keeps our world in place, and attempts to use this power to help mutants everywhere in his own way - through conquering the humans! A long-time foe of the X-Men, and father to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, Magneto is a man of mystery. His past is shrouded in shadow, and within those shadows, the driving force behind his actions. |
This issue is recommended for Mature Readers only!
"It was 1939. I remember running down the street, my older sister directly behind. She was laughing, and saying things like, 'I'm going to catch you, Erik.' I was thirteen years old, and very happy at the time. But when I saw those men on our steps, dressed in black, and when I saw my mother crying, I knew things weren't quite right."
"What do you mean we have to move? Move where?" Erik's father asked in German as he looked at the Nazi soldier in disgust. The star of David around his neck swung from side to side as he spoke.
"All Jews in the city of Danzig are to take three days worth of food, and as much clothing as can be carried," the Nazi soldier said, reading from a piece of paper, "and are to be marched to the Danzig train station to be sent to Lublin, in Poland." The soldier placed the piece of paper in his pocket, and looked at Erik's father and crying mother. "You are being given twenty-four hours notice."
Erik stood on the sidewalk in front of the house, and watched his parents in amazement. Erik's eyes followed the soldier as he stepped down, and walked down the street. Erik's sister caught up, and stopped right behind Erik. Erik walked up to his parents, and tugged on his father's coat. "Papa, what is going on?"
Erik's father smiled at him, hoping beyond hope that even though Erik was thirteen, he wouldn't be able to understand the horror of what was happening. He said, "Nothing, son. We simply must go on a trip to Lublin." He looked at his wife, who was wiping her tears away, and said, "Nothing more than a trip."
"What happened next, Erik?"
"The next day we boarded a train for Lublin, like my father said. He told me we were going on a trip, in an attempt to keep me from worrying. But when we got on the train, and I saw my mother, along with many others, crying, I knew we weren't simply going on a trip.
"When we arrived at Lublin, people were crying, and wondering what to do. My father took charge, and led us into town. We searched and searched for somewhere to go, for someone to take us in, but no one would. Eventually we found shelter in the ghettos of Lublin, where we lived in relative squalor. One day, we were marched from our homes once more ..."
"Line up along there," the Nazi soldier screamed, pointing. Erik and his family members, along with many others, lined up along a ditch, sweating. Before them were more Nazi soldiers, who were loading and cocking their weapons. "Kill them," the main soldier screamed.
Erik's eyes opened in horror as bullets were released from the Nazi machine guns, knocking over all those in the line, young and old. The bodies tipped over into the ditch, bleeding. Erik put his arms up in fear, and saw a flash as the bullets struck his body with incredible force. He clutched his chest as he fell into the pit, and landed on the dying body of an old woman. Tears streamed down his cheeks as the old woman whispered the words, "Help me..."
A gasped breath escaped Erik's lips, right before he passed out.
"When I awoke, I found my fingers interlocked with those of someone who was lying on top of me. The man was reaching for something as he died, for someone to hold close. I struggled against the weight of the man, but to no avail. Somehow, I had survived when all of the others were dead. I wanted to cry, but couldn't. While I may have survived, I surely would have suffocated had I stayed where I was.
"So I mustered all of my strength, and pushed against the man on top of me. Slowly he moved away from me, his fingers still connected to mine. I let his hands go, and lifted myself up. It took about ten minutes to reach the top. I will never forget the horrors that I saw as I made my way to the top of the corpse-filled ditch. I will never forget the sight of so many innocent dead that I had to see at such a tender young age."
Erik pushed his hand through the surface, and lifted himself onto the top of the pile. The dead bodies were already covered with quick-lime to hide the stench of the bodies, but Erik could still smell it on his clothes. There was a thin film of dirt on top of the bodies, signifying that they had already started covering the bodies.
Weakly, Erik stood up, and looked at two Nazi soldiers, who were standing to the side, smoking cigarettes. He stumbled over to them, and grabbed one by the coat like he used to do with his father.
The soldier looked down at Erik, wondering where he came from. Erik's clothes were bloody, and he smelled like a combination of death and quick-lime. The soldier puffed on the cigarette, and then dropped it to the ground. He looked at the other soldier, and said, "What do we do? We have already placed the lime on the pit, and have already started covering it up..."
The second soldier looked at the first, and said, with his cigarette still in his mouth, "There are no more pits for miles. How old do you think this Juden is?"
The first looked at him and said, "I'd say about sixteen..."
"You know, Auschwitz opened not too long ago."
The first soldier smiled, walked over to Erik, and placed his hand on Erik's shoulder.
The door of the train slid open, revealing to Erik a drab world surrounded by barbed wire and men with guns. Erik sighed, and stepped towards the edge of the floor. Erik leapt from the train, and stumbled as he hit the ground. He fell into the dirt, his knees blackening because of it. Behind him people stepped from the train, looking around. Nazi soldiers stood around, guns in hand. Men dressed in what looked like prison garb ran around, directing the deboarding Jews. They spoke various languages, most of which Erik could not understand.
A black haired man walked up to Erik, and knelt down in front of him. With his thumb, the man wiped a tear from Erik's cheek and smiled. Erik's emotions seemed to turn from fear to happiness. "How old are you, son?"
"Fourteen," Erik said, sniffling. "My name is Erik."
"Well hello, Erik. My name is Joshua."
A large built SS soldier walked up to Joshua from behind, and kicked him in the back, knocking him over. "Remember, Juden. The only reason you are a kapo is because your ability is useful. So stop dawdling around with a pup, and get to work with the others." The soldier looked at Erik, and then walked off.
Joshua stood up, and wiped the dirt from his clothes. He leant back towards Erik and said, "Listen, Erik. Where are your parents?"
"The soldiers killed them."
Joshua sighed, and said, "Very well then. Do you have any special talents?"
"My father built things. I was his apprentice." Joshua smiled at this and said:
"Then when the SS men ask if anyone can do anything special, I want you to tell them about that, alright?"
Erik nodded in assent.
Joshua smiled, and rubbed Erik's hair. He looked at the SS soldier, who was still staring at him.
"If you have are trained in a trade such as carpentry or sewing, please step forward." An SS soldier walked along a line of people, screaming orders. Following behind him were the large built SS soldier and a thinner, taller SS soldier.
Erik leant forward and looked down the line of men as people stepped forward. He stepped forward, not realizing that the SS soldiers were walking towards him. As he stepped out, he nearly bumped into one of them.
The three soldiers stopped, and looked at Erik. The well built one smiled and said, "it's the pup who was distracting our single juden kapo."
The tall one laughed, saying, "He thinks he is skilled in a trade! How pathetic!"
The lead soldier looked at them and said, The juden is indeed awfully young to be good at anything. Although, he is small enough to... unclog the furnaces. Heh!" He turned towards Erik and asked, "So, little juden. What trade do you happen to know?"
Erik trembled, and said, "My father taught me skill like carpentry, metalsmith, and many others." Joshua stared at Erik as he spoke, nodding all the while.
Otto, the tall soldier, snickered. "You would have guesses that a juden could actually teach something?"
Victor, the well built soldier, said, "The houses his father built probably collapsed as soon as they were hit by a shell. Shoddy juden worksmanship."
The lead soldier smiled devilishly, and said, "He'll do."
After awhile, the lead soldier screamed, "All those men and boys who are not part of the line, please proceed through the gates to my left. Women and girls, proceed to the right."
As the men and boys ran off to the left, and the women and girls ran to the right, Joshua bit his lip, and lowered his gaze towards the ground. He wanted desperately to fight back the screams he would hear at times, but found it difficult. Erik stood across from Joshua, staring at him in quiet awe.
"The screams I would hear at night were terrible. Men, women and children would yell for help. They would scream to family or to Yahweh for help. They sought the protection of a God who supposedly loved them, yet would allow such atrocities to happen.
"As I would lay in bed, staring at the ceiling as innocent screams cut through the night, Joshua would reach his hand towards mine in solace. I always felt that with him at my side, I would be okay.
"He was a good friend. He would never pressure me into doing something that I did not want to do, and he always took the blame when I did something wrong. Otto and Victor seemed to like him more than they liked other Jews, even though they still hated him. But Joshua never asked me about my life; he preferred to wait until I wanted to tell. And I never asked him about his."
"Stop them!" A Nazi soldier pointed at two Jewish prisoners who were attempting to escape. A line of soldiers lifted their guns, and pointed them at the fleeing Jews.
Victor placed his hand on one of the guns, and said, "No, let us handle this." Otto, who was standing next to Victor, laughed, and said:
"You get the one on the left, I'll get the one on the right."
Victor nodded, and leapt into the air. He came down in front of one of the fleeing Jews, and grinned. Victor lifted his fist, and with a mighty blow sent the escapee flying into one of the camp's buildings.
Otto knelt down, and touched the ground. A tremor tore across the dirt, headed towards the second escapee. When the tremor reached him, the ground exploded in an incredible blast. When the dust settled, the man was gone; literally nothing remained of him.
"This is what happens when you attempt to run." Victor rubbed his hands together, trying to remove some blood that spilled on his gloves. In the minds of the prisoners, escape was impossible, and any attempt would be met with death at the hands of these two 'supermen'.
Joshua sighed, and mumbled, "No good will be served to mutantkind if you two proceed to behave in this manner."
Erik sat on the floor in a building, attempting to repair a radio that belonged to Victor. He was almost finished fixing it when something came crashing through the wall, drawing up dust and debris in its wake. The radio crashed to the ground, breaking into dozens of pieces, but Erik did not care. All that mattered to him was seeing what it was that crashed through the wall.
Erik leapt up, and ran towards that which shattered the wall. As he approached, he saw blood running across the floor, and gasped. He looked away in disgust and the blood touched his bare feet, soaking them in the substance. Erik looked through the broken wall to see Victor, standing there, rubbing his hands together.
"Tell me, Juden," Victor asked, belated, "did you fix my radio yet?"
Erik looked at the radio, which had broken. "It broke, sir."
Victor stopped, and stared coldly at Erik. "What did you say?"
"It fell to the floor and broke when the man came crashing through. I'm sorry sir."
Victor reached to his side and pulled out his pistol. Erik cringed as Victor pointed the gun right at him. Right as Victor was about to pull the trigger, Joshua ran between the two, out of breath. "Please, sir," he said, "don't kill him. He is still very useful to us. The radio did break, but it wasn't his fault."
Victor tightened his grip. "Whose fault was it, then?"
A bead of sweat ran down Joshua's forehead , and he said, "It was the fault of the escapee, sir. If they hadn't tried to escape, then it wouldn't have broken."
Victor smiled, and walked over to Joshua. "Very good answer, juden. When the mutant revolution comes, you will make a good slave. Until then, though, someone must be punished. That someone is you, and the boy. You're lucky though, juden. If you weren't a mutant, I would have shot you."
"I would have rather died than be punished in their way. It seemed that the only way they could punish us was to put us into the Sonderkommando."
"The Sonderkommando was a group of Jews who would take care of the crematoriums, correct?"
"Yes. They were cowards who would rather assist in the burning of their fellow Jew, their fellow man over dying. Not only that, but we were put in charge of looting the belongings of the dead for gold, food, anything of value. Being on the Sonderkommando was the most despicable task we could have been assigned."
"When was this?"
"1942. I was almost halfway through the hell that was Auschwiitz."
"Joshua," Erik said as he lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, whose wood was being eaten at by termites which would, at times, fall onto Erik's face and bed.
"Yes, Erik?" Joshua looked towards Erik with his caring, compassionate eyes.
"What was your life like before you came here?"
"Well, Erik," Joshua answered, turning onto his back. "I had a wife and three beautiful children. I worked for the Polish government, and performed menial tasks that truthfully weren't worthy of my time. However, no matter how much I did not like working, I could always come home to my wife and children, who would look at me with the most loving gazes. Then one day we were registered, and sent to a work camp. The camp had to be closed down for some reason or another, so we were sent here. My family was killed here."
"Why did you live, Joshua?"
"Because the two mutant SS officers here, Otto and Victor, saw something desirable in me. I wished that I could join my family, but the two wouldn't kill me. I think that in a way they found it humorous that I tried to get myself killed, but even more humorous that they would not let me die." Tears rolled down Joshua's cheeks as he spoke about his family. Erik knew that Joshua loved his family dearly.
"I'm sorry," Erik said, still staring at the ceiling. "I loved my papa and mama as well. And even though she would sometimes treat me poorly I loved my sister. One day we had to move to Lublin. I hated it there. We were cramped into such horrible quarters. It was humiliating. Then one day we were taken onto a field and shot."
Joshua sat up. "You were all shot?"
"Yes, but somehow I survived. I don't know how, but when the bullets hit me, they didn't hurt me much. They pushed against me, and I fell into the ditch." Erik continued his story, telling about how he lifted himself out; but Joshua was thinking about something else.
Joshua thought to himself, "There is no way he could have survived being shot. It is impossible. I've seen dozens of people up against a Nazi firing squad, and no one has survived. Could Erik be like me? Could he possibly be a mutant?"
"Joshua," Erik said, causing Joshua to look towards the young man. "I hate everything about this place, especially the mutants."
"As do I, Erik, as do I."
"I had finally started to open up to Joshua, who was, in essence, the only family I had. As much as I hated Auschwitz, I knew that I could survive with Joshua at my side. But he wasn't the only special person in my life. In 1943, a group of gypsies was brought to Auschwitz. There was a young girl in the group. She was about fourteen or fifteen, and was one of the most beautiful young women I had ever seen. Her name was Magda..."
In Magneto: Fear, Faith, & Condemnation #2: The man who would be Magneto meets the woman who is to be the love of his life! Will this newfound love decay in the face of incredible tragedy? Also, seeds are planted in the mind of Erik that will forever alter the course of humanity!
Marvel-X logo created by Ryan Krupienski, and may not be used without permission.
Fear, Faith, & Condemnation logo created by Eric J. Moreels, and may not be used without permission.
Story © 1999 Tim Schaeffer and Marvel-X, and may not be reproduced without permission.
