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X-Men: Magneto Testament #1-5

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 2:55 am
by wolframbane
Here is my full analysis of the series X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT #1-5. I have also interlaced this story with prior flashbacks to Magneto's history to construct a coherent overview.

Many thanks goes out to Rivka Jakobs and her incredible Magneto FAQs, which provided an enormous wealth of background material for Magneto during WWII.
http://cyberhellfireclub.myfreeforum.org/forum8.php

I would also recommend reading the Auschwitz Timeline, a well researched reference into the chronology of events of the Auschwitz death camp.
http://history.sandiego.edu/GEN/st/~mfr ... eline.html


X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT #1
Characters: Max Eisenhardt (later Magneto/"Erik Magnus Lehnsherr"), Jakob Eisenhardt (Max's father), Edie Eisenhardt (Max's mother), Ruth "Ruthie" Eisenhardt (Max's sister), Erich Eisenhardt (Max's uncle), Magda (later Magda Eisenhardt, Max's later wife), Anya (Magda's mother, her name was confirmed in XCAL3 9), Fritz Kalb, Adolf Hitler, Max's headmaster

X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT #2
Characters: Max Eisenhardt, Jakob Eisenhardt, Edie Eisenhardt, Ruth Eisenhardt, Erich Eisenhardt, Magda, Anya, Major Jurgen Scharf, Jessie Owens, Herschel Grynspan

X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT #3
Characters: Max Eisenhardt, Jakob Eisenhardt, Edie Eisenhardt, Ruth Eisenhardt, Erich Eisenhardt, Cecelia

X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT #4
Characters: Max Eisenhardt, Magda, Fritz Kalb, kapo (Max's group leader in the Sonderkommando)

X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT #5
Characters: Max Eisenhardt, Magda, Nurse Ruth Shulman, kapo, a Hauptscharführer (a Nazi officer)


TIMELINE

X:MT 2 (1:2)-FB
The young Jakob Eisenhardt and Major Jurgen Scharf have a drink together at a pub. Jakob had saved Scharf's life during WWI. Depicted in a photograph during the First World War.

X:MT 1 (1-3)
Max, Jakob, Edie and Erich Eisenhardt are at home. Max makes a necklace out of metal for Magda. Probably the day before X:MT 1 (4-14), so September 14, 1935. Max is "nine years old," so he would have been born 1926.

X:MT 1 (4-16)
At his school, Max comes in last in many sporting events while Anya and Magda tend the grounds. The headmaster publicly berates Max for being Jewish, but Max the wins the javelin throw, winning a medal. His teacher Fritz Kalb warns Max to be careful and watch himself. Max hurries to a public rally, where he gives Magda the necklace. This ends up being the annual party rally for the Nazis, where they announce the Nuremberg Laws, where Hitler greatly restricts the rights of the Jewish people. Max finds his uncle Erich severely beaten for having been with a German woman. At their home that evening, Max, Erich, Jakob, Edie and Ruthie discuss the changing Germany. "September 15, 1935." Jakob fought for Germany during "the Great War."

X:MT 1 (17-22)
At school, the headmaster claims Max did not earn his medal with the javelin. Max is forced to throw another javelin to prove himself as Anya and Magda watch, and he still excels despite the javelin being rigged. The angered headmaster expels Max, and Kalb is beaten and arrested by Nazi police. Max is then beaten by the German students. X:MT 1 (4-16) was "yesterday," so September 16, 1935.

X:MT 2 (1-7)
Jakob and Max take a train to Berlin, where the 1936 Summer Olympics are being held. Max watches news coverage of the Olympics, including runner Jessie Owens receiving a gold medal. Jakob tries to meet with his old war comrade Scharf, now a government official, to help get his job back. Jakob is apprehended and beaten by Nazi soldiers, but Scharf begrudgingly secures his release. "1936." During the 1936 Summer Olympics, so sometime between August 1-16, 1936. References to "four gold medals for a negro" and "that Jew fencer" refer to African American Jessie Owens and the German Jew Helene Meyer respectively.

X:MT 2 (8-9)
Jakob and Max take the train home. They pass the Marzahn Detention Camp, where Magda, Anya and their family has been interred. Probably the day after X:MT 2 (1-7), so early August, 1936. The Marzahn camp was opened on July 16, 1936, when Nazi authorities forcibly relocated all the Romani in Berlin there, where they were subjected to forced labor. The men from Marzahn were eventually sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1938, and the women and children to Auschwitz in 1943.

X:MT 2 (18:1)
Herschel Grynspan, a Jewish man whose family were among the 15,000 Jews deported from Germany, assassinates German attaché Ernst vom Rath in Paris. "November 7, 1938."

X:MT 2 (10-17)
In Nuremberg, Max finds a coin on the street to feed his destitute family, and he gets into a fight after his old schoolmates mock him. Later at their home, Max, Jakob, Edie, Ruth and Erich discuss the dangers to their family in Nazi Germany. That night, German forces attack Jewish homes, and the Eisenhardt family is forced to flee and hide in a graveyard. "1938." The event of Kristallnacht, so November 9, 1938. Edie refers to her friend Mrs. Schulmann, who is possibly the same character as Nurse Shulman in X:MT 5.

X:MT 2 (18:2-18:3)
Nazi forces and rioters unleash attacks on Jewish businesses, temples and homes across Germany and Austria during Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"). "November 9-10, 1938."

X:MT 2 (18:4)
Nazis announce a one billion mark fine against the Jews for Kristallnacht. "November 12, 1938."

X:MT 2 (19:1-19:2)
Max, Jakob, Edie, Ruth and Erich journey by train and cart to Poland to seek refuge with Cecelia's family. "1939" and shortly before X:MT 2 (19:3-22) and X:MT 3 (1-3) on Sept 1, 1939, probably in late August, 1939.

X:MT 2 (19:3-22)
Max, Jakob, Edie, Ruth and Erich arrive at Cecelia's family farm, but they arrive as German forces invade Poland. "1939" and immediately before X:MT 3 (1-3) on "September 1, 1939." The German invasion of Poland occurred Sept. 1-Oct. 6, 1939.

X:MT 3 (1-3)
The German army invades Poland. Max, Jakob, Edie, Ruth and Erich flee into the woods to make their way to Warsaw. "September 1, 1939" and immediately after X:MT 2 (19:3-22) in "1939."

UX 344 (13:3-13:4)-FB
Max (and probably his family) are transported by Nazis by trucks (probably to Warsaw).

X:MT 3 (4:1-4:2)
Max, Jakob, Edie, Ruth and Erich arrive in Warsaw, Poland. The city is under Nazi control and the swell of Jewish refugees forces them to live in poverty. "September, 1939."

X:MT 3 (4:3)
The Nazis force over half a million Jews, including the Eisenhardt family, to live in the cramped Warsaw Ghetto. "October, 1940."

X:MT 3 (4:4)
The Germans construct a wall around the Warsaw Ghetto, as Max watches. "December, 1940."

X:MT 3 (5-13)
The Eisenhardt family live under deplorable conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto. Max and Erich have become smugglers, sneaking in and out to get supplies for their family. Erich stops Max from attacking soldiers who have just killed a young boy, as the Nazis would have retaliated by killing many Jews. "December, 1941."

X:MT 3 (14-18:3)
The Germans load many of the Jews onto trains bound for Treblinka with the promise of work, but they are actually bound for death in the gas chambers. Max, Jakob, Edie and Ruth sneak out of Warsaw through a hole in the wall, and Cecelia helps them escape along the river Vistula. Erich departs to help the resistance. "July, 1942" and day before X:MT 3 (18:4-22:2). Overcast full moon (and full moon from X:MT 3 (18:4-22:2)) indicates this is probably July 26 or July 27.

X:MT 3 (18:4-19:4)
Max, Jakob, Edie, and Ruth arrive down river, but are betrayed by Cecelia to the Nazis as they have her mother. The Nazis forces the Eisenhardts, Cecelia and many others to gather at a large hole. Probably the day after X:MT 3 (14-18:3).

NM 49 (17:1:1-17:1:2)-FB
Max, his family and others are forced to line up before the hole. Max holds his parents hands. Reference to "spring" is erroneous. The events of NM 49 (17:1) and NM 49 (18:1) occur within a montage of images within two large panels.

X:MT 3 (19:5-19:6)
Jakob puts his hand on Max's shoulder, as Edie holds Ruth to her.

NM 49 (17:1:3)-FB
The Nazi soldiers fire their guns.

X:MT 3 (20-21:1)
Max watches as the bullets fly towards him, and unconsciously draws upon his latent magnetic power to avoid the oncoming bullets. His father is struck by the bullets.

NM 49 (17:1:4-17:1:5)-FB
Jakob, Edie and Ruth are gunned down, and Max falls unconscious wih them into the hole.

X:MT 3 (21:2-21:3)
Max lies unconscious in the hole along with the bodies of his family and others.

NM 49 (17:1:6-18:1:1)-FB
The Nazis start to fill in the hole. Max later awakens while buried and tries to dig his way to the surface.

UX 344 (13:5-13:6)-FB
Max claws his way past dead bodies.

NM 49 (18:1:2)-FB
Max reaches the surface. The hole was apparently only partially filled, as Max was shown standing next to the open pit in X:MT 3 (22:2).

X:MT 3 (22:2)
Max stand next to an open pit. "July, 1942" and day after X:MT 3 (14-18:3). Full moon (and overcast full moon from X:MT 3 (14-18:3)) indicates this is probably July 27 or July 28. Magneto's later memories of Nazi soldiers witness his escape from the pit, and their decision to spare his life and immediately send him to Auschwitz, are probably in error.

X:MT 3 (22:3)
Max attempts to avoid being found by the Nazis. This apparently occurred over a period of weeks between July and September of 1942.

UX 344 (14:2)-FB
Max continues to avoid Nazis.

V&SW 4-FB
Max apparently uses his magnetic powers to hurl Nazi tanks away. Placement of this event is awkward, as Magneto is considered to have manifested his powers only once during his childhood, to deflect Nazi bullets in NM 49-FB. He recalls that "unlike the other victims, I possessed the power to fight back." He may simply be exaggerrating the story he tells to Vision, but W3 32 mentioned that Nazi soldier Gustav Reifsnyder said he saw a boy pick apart an armored car just by looking at it. It is possible that perhaps Max unconsciously drew upon his powers yet again, not realizing this until years later. The period between the deaths of his family and his capture to Auschwitz would seem to be the only possible period for this event.

X:MT 3 (22:6-24)
Max is found by the Nazi police in an alleyway, and forced onto a train with other prisoners. They are soon transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. "1942" and immediately before X:MT 4 (1-7) in "September 1942."

X:MT 4 (1-7)
Max arrives at Auschwitz by train. He is reunited his old teacher Fritz Kalb, who tells Max to claim he is eighteen and able to work. Max and other men capable of work are forced to remove their clothes and shower, have their heads shaved, are tattooed, clothed in camp uniforms and placed in their residence. Max tells a 14 year old boy to also claim he is 18, but the boy is discovered and shot. "September 1942" and immediately after X:MT 3 (22:6-24) in "1942." His tattoo number was alternatively shown as 214782 in UX 161 and 24005 in XCAL3 2.

X:MT 4 (8)
In the yards, Kalb tells Max that he works for the Kanada Kommando, the work detail responsible for sorting the belongings of new camp arrivals. Kalb makes arrangements to hopefully get Max transferred to his work detail. The day after X:MT 4 (1-7), which was "yesterday," and probably still September of 1942.

X:MT 4 (9:1-9:6)
Max labors with the work details at the camp, witnessing the horrors there while scavenging to survive. Sometime between X:MT 4 (8) and X:MT 4 (9:7-12), probably still September of 1942.

X:MT 4 (9:7-12)
Kalb arranges for Max to join the Kanada Kommando, but a German officer instead decides for Max to go with the kapo of the Sonderkommando, the work detail responsible for disposing of the dead bodies of those killed at the Auschwitz camp. He stands helpless as a group of women and children are forced into the gas chambers and murdered. Probably September of 1942; Max was "nine years old" on September 14, 1935 in X:MT 1 (1-3), arrived at Auschwitz in "September 1942" in X:MT 4 (1-7), and Charles Xavier later mentioned in XCAL3 14 that Magneto was age 15 while a member of the Sonderkommando; this can only be accommodated if Max was born in early September, 1926, then had only recently turned age 9 by September 14, 1935, was already age 15 by the time of his arrival at Auschwitz in perhaps early September, 1942 and joined the Sonderkommando almost immediately after, perhaps no more than a few days later, before turning 16 shortly thereafter and still during early September, 1942. As dating anomaly occurs as in XCAL3 7, Magneto states that he joined the Sonderkommando to avoid the Nazi doctor "Nosferatu" (Mr. Sinister), who worked in the medical section with geneticist Josef Mengele, but historically Mengele did not arrive at Auschwitz until May, 1943.

X:MT 4 (13-15)
At the "Kanada" warehouse, Max briefly encounters Kalb, who promises to try and get Max out of the Sonderkommando. Max is demoralized as he sees a storeroom filled with countless pairs of glasses taken from the dead. Sometime after X:MT 4 (9:7-12), probably still 1942.

V&SW 4-FB
At the camp, Max watches as Nazi point guns at prisoners. Max had very short hair; possibly sometime after his head was shaved in X:MT 4 (1-7).

XU 2 (11:4-12:2)-FB
Max is among the prisoners of Auschwitz.

X:MT 4 (16-23)
Max writes a testament recording his activities as a Sonderkommando and the atrocities that he has witnessed. After he witnesses the dead body of Kalb being disposed of in the ovens, he gives up on life and hides the testament beneath a floor tile in the crematorium. However, as he later walks by the Gypsy Family Camp, Max sees Magda, which reinvigorates his spirit. May 30, 1944, as Max has been a Sonderkommando for "almost two years" (X:MT 4 (16-23), and on "May 31, 1944," he had discovered Magda was alive "yesterday" (X:MT 5 (1-4)).

X:MT 5 (1-4)
The Sonderkommando watch as American bombers fly overhead, and discuss prisoners who escaped only "a month ago." Max bribes the Hauptscharführer (Nazi officer) with a gold tooth, and briefly talks with Magda, sneaking her food and telling he arranged to get her a job at the infirmary with Nurse Shulman. Magda watches as another trainload of prisoners arrive by train. "May 31, 1944." It is probable that Nurse Shulman is the same person as Ruth Shulman, the wife of David Shulman, both of whom he meets at a reunion decades later (UX 199). There is mention of escaped prisoners [Rudolf] Vrba and [Alfréd] Wetzler, who historically escaped on April 7, 1944. Captions indicate that between "May to June, 1944," over 300,000 Hungarian Jews brought to the camp are killed.

X:MT 5 (5-6)
While the Sonderkommando work at a pit, burning dead bodies, Max overhears a guard mention the Gypsy Camp is to be exterminated at "the end of July." Back at their barracks, Max, the kapo, and the Sonderkommando are informed that a planned revolt will be postponed until "August 15." Probably June of 1944; sometime after "May 31" in X:MT 5 (1-4), and sometime before June in X:MT 5 (7-8).

X:MT 5 (7-8)
Nurse Shulman and Magda arrive at the sauna, where Max bribes the Hauptscharführer so he can talk to Magda. Max tells Magda they will be liquidating the Gypsy Camp soon, and arranges for Magda to depart on a train going to a work camp, or if not, to hide in the corpse pile. Probably June of 1944; the Gypsy Camp is to be liquidated "next month" in July. Magda mentioned the Gypsy men resisted an attempt to exterminate the camp in "May."

X:MT 5 (9)
As the Sonderkommando watch American planes fly overhead, Max is shocked to see a procession of women and infants being led away. Probably June or July of 1944; sometime after June in X:MT 5 (7-8), and sometime before "August 2, 1944" in X:MT 5 (10-11).

X:MT 5 (10-11)
The Gypsy Family Camp is exterminated on "Zigeunernacht," or Gypsy Night, with 2987 people gassed and burned. As Max works at the fire pits, the Hauptscharführer he bribed tells him that Magda is on the train to Buchenwald. The women will end up at Ravensbrück, where they will be experimented upon. "August 2, 1944."

X:MT 5 (12)
The Sonderkommando learn they are soon to be exterminated and plan to revolt. "October 5, 1944." Gypsy Night was "two months ago."

X:MT 5 (13-14)
While the Sonderkommando work, Nurse Shulman informs Max that half the transport of Gypsy women died at Buchenwald, and Magda was among those returned to the Gypsy Camp to be exterminated. "The sixth," or October 6, 1944. Magda was returned "yesterday," or October 5.

X:MT 5 (15-18:2)
As the bodies of the Gypsy women are being taken for cremation, Max finds Magda hiding in the corpse pile. After he takes her to the barracks, the Sonderkommando debate what to do with her, but the kapo sides with Max. An explosion and the destruction of Crematoria IV signals the start of the Sonderkommando revolt. As the Sonderkommando battle the Nazis and flee, Max takes Magda with him. "October 7, 1944."

CX 12/2 (2:3-2:6)-FB
A Nazi guard is about to shoot a fallen Magda, but Max strikes him in the head with a piece of wood. Max and Magda the flee. While Max and Magda were still within the fences of the camp, and with "World War II ending," suggesting the war was within months of ending.

X:MT 5 (18:3-21:2)
Max and Magda, along with the kapo and other Sonderkommando, flee the camp into the nearby woods. 200 Sonderkommando are killed during and after the battle, and another 250 who escape are later killed, among them the kapo. "October 7, 1944."

CX 12/2 (3:3-3:6)-FB
Max and Magda hide in the snow covered woods, trying to warm themselves with a meager fire. Shortly after their escape from Auschwitz.

X:MT 5 (21:3-21:5)
Crematoria IV is never repaired, but killings resume in Auschwitz on "October 9," with 4000 Jews killed in Crematoria II and V. The 800 Gypsies returned from Buchenwald are killed on "October 10" in Crematoria V. Himmler orders the crematoria dismantled in "November 1944" with the advance of the Red Army. The SS dynamite Crematorium V on "January 26, 1945," and the Red Army liberates the camp on "January 27, 1945." At least a million people died at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Among the America personnel present at the liberation of Auschwitz are USAF Major Thaddeus E. "Thunderbolt" Ross in H2 291-FB and Daily Bugle photographer Phil Sheldon MARVELS 2 (29:3)-FB.

X:MT 5 (22)
Max Eisenhardt returns to Auschwitz a few years later, and recovers his testament that he had hidden in the remains of the crematorium. "September, 1948." Magneto would later return to Auschwitz with Pietro and Wanda Maximoff decades later on an unspecified anniversary in X -1 ("this place - this day - holds a profound significance for him"); perhaps this anniversary was in September, the same day he returned in 1948.


*ANYA
X:MT 1
X:MT 2

*CECELIA
X:MT 3

*EISENHARDT, ANYA
CX 12/2-FB
UX 304-FB
Note: Name should be changed in the MCP from Anya Lehnsherr to Anya Eisenhardt.

*EISENHARDT, EDIE
X:MT 1
X:MT 2
X:MT 3 (1-19:4)
{NM 49 (17:1:1-17:1:2)-FB}
X:MT 3 (19:5-19:6)
NM 49 (17:1:3)-FB
X:MT 3 (20-21:1)
NM 49 (17:1:4-17:1:5)-FB
X:MT 3 (21:2-21:3)

*EISENHARDT, ERICH
X:MT 1
X:MT 2
X:MT 3 (1-3)
X:MT 3 (4:1-4:2)
X:MT 3 (4:3)
X:MT 3 (5-13)
X:MT 3 (14-18:3)

*EISENHARDT, JAKOB
X:MT 2 (1:2)-FB
X:MT 1
X:MT 2
X:MT 3 (1-19:4)
{NM 49 (17:1:1-17:1:2)-FB}
X:MT 3 (19:5-19:6)
NM 49 (17:1:3)-FB
X:MT 3 (20-21:1)
NM 49 (17:1:4-17:1:5)-FB
X:MT 3 (21:2-21:3)

*EISENHARDT, MAGDA
*X:MT 1
*X:MT 2
*X:MT 4
*X:MT 5 (1-18:2)
*CX 12/2 (2:3-2:6)-FB
*X:MT 5 (18:3-21:2)
*CX 12/2 (3:3-3:6)-FB
XF@ 4/2 (7:3-7:4)-FB
*CX 12/2-FB (4:3-5, 6:3-10)
UX@ 12/3
{A 186-FB}
A 234-FB
V&SW2 5
Note: Name should be changed in the MCP from Magda Lehnsherr to Magda Eisenhardt.

*EISENHARDT, RUTH "RUTHIE"
X:MT 1
X:MT 2
X:MT 3 (1-19:4)
{NM 49 (17:1:1-17:1:2)-FB}
X:MT 3 (19:5-19:6)
NM 49 (17:1:3)-FB
X:MT 3 (20-21:1)
NM 49 (17:1:4-17:1:5)-FB
X:MT 3 (21:2-21:3)

*GREENSPAN, HERSCHEL
X:MT 2

HITLER, ADOLF
SJNS
DRSTR2 51-FB
*DARING MYSTERY COMICS 6 (1926)
INV 36-FB (1932)
DRSTR3 7/2
TOS 66/2-FB (1934)
*Z:BB 3 (1935)
*Z:BB 4 (1935)
*X:MT 1 (1935)
CA:ME-FB (1939)
HUMAN TORCH 3/2
...

*KALB, FRITZ
X:MT 1
X:MT 4

MAGNETO/MAX EISENHARDT/"ERIK MAGNUS LEHNSHERR"
*X:MT 1
*X:MT 2
*X:MT 3 (1-3)
*UX 344 (13:3-13:4)-FB
*X:MT 3 (4-19:4)
*NM 49 (17:1:1-17:1:2)-FB
*X:MT 3 (19:5-19:6)
*NM 49 (17:1:3)-FB
*X:MT 3 (20-21:1)
*NM 49 (17:1:4-17:1:5)-FB
*X:MT 3 (21:2-21:3)
*NM 49 (17:1:6-18:1:1)-FB
*UX 344 (13:5-13:6)-FB
*NM 49 (18:1:2)-FB
*X:MT 3 (22:2-22:3)
*UX 344 (14:2)-FB
*V&SW 4-FB
*X:MT 3 (22:6-24)
*X:MT 4 (1-15)
*V&SW 4-FB
*XU 2 (11:4-12:2)-FB
*X:MT 4 (16-23)
*X:MT 5 (1-18:2)
*CX 12/2 (2:3-2:6)-FB
*X:MT 5 (18:3-21:2)
*CX 12/2 (3:3-3:6)-FB
*X:MT 5 (22)
XF@ 4/2-FB (7:3-7:4)
*CX 12/2-FB (4:3-5, 6:3-10)
UX 304-FB (12-15)
XU 2-FB (12:3-12:4)
...

*OWENS, JAMES CLEVELAND "JESSE"
X:MT 2

*SCHARF, MAJOR JURGEN
X:MT 2 (1:2)-FB
X:MT 2

*SHULMAN, DAVID
UX 199

*SHULMAN, RUTH
X:MT 5
{UX 199}

Re: X-Men: Magneto Testament #1-5

Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 10:18 am
by Paul Bourcier
Thanks for this very thorough analysis, wolframbane. I'm sure Col_Fury will be VERY interested in this, given that he's working on a calendar of the MU during the World War II years.

Re: X-Men: Magneto Testament #1-5

Posted: Sat May 09, 2009 3:22 am
by Col_Fury
Thanks for covering this wolframbane. Great job!