Alara's Notes:

This is from Rivka Jacobs (shiloh999@aol.com) and comes from a discussion on 
rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks which got taken to private email.  It discusses 
the Mischlinge (people of mixed Jewish and "Aryan" blood, as defined by the 
Nazis) and the Sonderkommando (the inmates at Auschwitz who were responsible for 
the maintenance of the gas chambers and crematoria and for transferring bodies 
from one to the other.)


             First, as to the Law of Return. (These
are just facts, now. Not much comic book stuff.) The law was first passed in
1950, and it was very inclusive. But in 1962, a Israel Supreme Court decision
riled the more religious and conservative Israelis, and David Ben Gurion's
government voted an amendment to the Law. Now, a Jew was defined as being the
child of a Jewish mother, etc. The more religious definition. But then, in
1970, another Supreme Court decision angered the Knesset -- which was more
secular at the time -- and ANOTHER amendment was passed, this time allowing
the spouses and children of Jews to enter Israel under the Law of Return, and
said, a person could become a citizen of Israel if one grandparent was a Jew.
(This is called the "grandparent" clause, and is very contraversial.) Every
year, the religious right wing in Israel tries to repeal the "grandparent
clause" -- but I don't think they've succeeded yet, this year, despite what
the gentleman (Old Toby?) said in his post. 
           So, for our purposes, what year did Erik come to Israel? And this
opens up another BIG can of worms. The Marvel timeline, and when Erik and
Magda parted, and when Pietro and Wanda were born -- all these events are
moving father and father away from 1945, when Erik and Magda were what? 17 or
18 years old? If Erik entered Israel after 1970, the Law was different, than
if he entered between 1962 and 1970.

           Anyway, that is a moot point. Because the Nazi racial laws did not
regard one grandparent enough to consider someone a "full" Jew.

           Here is the Nuremberg Law that defined a Jew, in 1935. (The First
Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law, dated Nov. 14, 1935.) From Raul
Hilberg's THE DESTRUCTION OF EUROPEAN JEWS:
           "Everyone was defined as a Jew who (1) descended from at least
three Jewish grandparents (full Jews and three-quarter Jews), or, (2)
descended from two Jewish grandparents (half-Jews) and (a) belonged to the
Jewish religious community on September 15, 1935, or joined the community on
a subsequent date, or (b) was married to a Jewish person on September 15,
1935, or (c) was the offspring of a marriage contracted with a three-quarter
of full Jew after the Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor had
come into force (September 15, 1935), or (d) was the offspring of an
extramarital relationshp wtih a three-quarter or a full Jew, and was born out
of wedlock after July 31, 1936.  For the determinaton of the grandparents,
the presumption remained that the grandparent was Jewish if he or she
belonged to the Jewish religious community.
           "Defined *not* as a Jew but as an individual of "mixed Jewish
blood" was (1) any person who descended from two Jewish grandparents
(half-Jewish), but who (a) did *not* adhere (or adhered no longer) to the
Jewish religion on September 15, 1935, and who did not join it at any
subsequent time, and (b) was not married (or was married no longer) to a
Jewish person on September 15, 1935, and who did not marry such a person at
any subsequent time (such half-Jews were called Mischlinge of the first
degree), and (2) any person descended from one Jewish grandparent (Mischling
of the second degree). The designations "Mischling of the first degree" and
"Mischling of the second degree" were not contained in the decree of November
14, 1935, but were added in a later ruling by the Ministry of Interior.
           "In practice, therefore, Losener [the doctor who who wrote up all
the anti-Jewish decrees for Hitler] had split the non-Aryans into two groups,
Mischlinge and Jews. The Mischlinge were no longer sujected to the
destruction process. They remained non-Aryan under the earlier decrees and
continued to be affected by them, but subsequent measures were, on the whole,
taken only against "Jews." Henceforth, the Mischlinge were left out." 

            Well, the fate of the Mischlinge was debated off and on for the
next couple of years. The problem for Hitler was, too many of the
single-grandparent Jews had lots of German family members, who wouldn't sit
quietly by if their relatives were shipped to death camps. So, the Mischlinge
had to endure the Nurember Laws, and had to operate under certain
restrictions. But, for example, they did not have to wear the Star of David,
and they could come and go as they pleased (the Mischlinge of the second
degree, that is). 
           At the Wannsee Conference, on Jan. 20, 1942, the Final Solution
was decided on, for the Jews. The fate of the Mischlinge was addressed. But
the Nazi hierarchy couldn't agree on a course of action. It was proposed, and
almost decided, that the Mischlinge of the second degree, if they *looked*
like Jews, or, "behaved" and "felt" like Jews, they would be deported as
Jews. But the only thing all the Nazis agreed on, was that the best course of
action for the Mischlinge was sterilization. Still, nothing was implemented.
Meanwhile, of course, the Final Solution for Jews, and now Gypsies, was well
under way.
           There was a second conference, on March 6, 1942, convened for the
purpose of deciding the fate of the Mischlinge and the mixed marriages. The
chairman of this meeting was Adolf Eichmann. They all agreed, again, that
compulsary sterilization was the answer to the Mischlinge problem. But again,
no one made any final decisions. 
           Next, these Nazi chiefs exchanged letters, back and forth, trying
to convince each other. Dr. Stuckart, another early racist who helped
formulate Third Reich racial policy in the early 1930s, wrote in defense of
the Mischlinge, saying, "... that the interests of the German people must be
the sole criterion to be applied." In other words, the Mischlinge of the
second degree, especially, had become too intertwined with German culture and
society, and had too many German relatives.
           These letters each had a different slant on the *problem.* And
things continued like this, until September of 1942, when rumors began to fly
in the Interior MInistry that the RSHA was "preparing for the deportation of
the Mischlinge of the first degree."  Whether or not that rumor was true, Dr.
Losener wrote a long letter to Himmler "to save his Mischlinge." It worked.
There were no deportations. 
           Finally, on Oct. 27, 1942, the third "final solution" conference
was convened. It was here decided that the Mischlinge of the first degree
would be sterilizied, but the Mischlinge of the second degree (the ones with
one Jewish grandparent) "without exception, were to be treated as Germans,
but they too were to remain subject to Mischlinge restrictions." 
          But the sterilizations were never carried out. Hilburg says, "The
upshot ... was that, after all their discussion and controversy, the
Mishlinge were neither deported nor sterilized."
          "To be sure, the anti-Mischling restrictions were somewhat
intensified." Hilberg says. Mostly, it was like being a converso, or
*Marrano* in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition. Throughout the greater
Reich, and occupied countries, the Mischlinge could be deported if they ACTED
or LOOKED Jewish. Otherwise, they were merely kept from certain jobs, and
schools, etc. 
           Here is Goring's decree for who was to be considered "privileged"
among the Jews:
           1.) The Jewish husband of a German wife, provided the couple had
one or more children classified as Mischlinge of the fist degree.
           2.) The Jewish wife of a German husband, provided that the
children were classified as Mischlinge of the first degree, or that the
couple was childless. 

           Here are the additional clauses, from Sept. 1, 1941: "At the time
of the deportations, privileged status was consequently enjoyed in all cases
by..."
           1.)   The Jewish parent of a Mischling child, regardless of the
continuation of the marriage, and even if the only Mischling child had been
killed in action.
           2.)   The childless Jewish wife in a mixed marriage for the
duration of the marriage.

            NOT privileged were:
           1.)  The Jewish parent whose half-Jewish children were classified
as Jews. [Remember, because these children would have been active in the
Jewish community and practicing the Jewish religion, they would be classified
Jews even though they were Mischling of the first degree.]
           2.)  The childless Jewish husband in a mixed marriage. 

           Sorry for the length of this. I wanted you to see the details. As
Lucy Dawidowicz says in her book, THE WAR AGAINST THE JEWS, regarding these
classifications of Jew, Mischlinge of the first degree, and Mishlinge of the
second degree, "For the time being [1935] these distinctions affected
marriage and offspring of that marriage. Within a few short years they were
to decide between life and death."

           So, Erik Lehnsherr's family would have to have been full Jews, or
at least, if one one his parents was Jewish, and the other not Jewish by
birth, they would have been practicing the Jewish religion. Otherwise, they
would NOT have been deported, they would not have been shot, they would not
have been sent to Auschwitz. Erik would have been defined as Jewish by the
Nazis, if (1) he had three to four grandparents who were Jewish, and (2) he
had two grandparents who were Jewish AND his family was practicing the Jewish
religion. 
           There is no other way to look at this. 
           I'm not sure if I should post this stuff, or part of it. But all
that talk about Erik having one Jewish grandparent is nonsense. The ONLY
other POSSIBLE situation, would be, that three or four grandparents were
Jews, but his family converted to Christianity, and they were deported
racially as Jews anyway. This did happen to people.  BUT, Erik would then
have protested, I'm NOT a JEW. He wouldn't have been circumcised, and he
would not havet identified with Jews. Although this is a possibility, it is
so strained and unfair, for Marvel to say that Magneto was really a
*Christian Jew* that I can't see this ever happening. (I hope!)
           So, Erik's mother -- if she wasn't fully Jewish -- would have been
half-Jewish and half Gypsy, OR, she would have been born a Gypsy and
converted to Judaism. It's the only way the Lehnsherr family would have been
deported together in 1939 and 1940, or, as Tilman says, rounded up and shot
by the Einstazgruppen in 1941. They had to have been Jews, by the Nazi
definition of Jews. 

           I still haven't found any reference to Himmler being hyper about
mistakenly shooting or killing Aryans mistaken for Jews. I'm not doubting
you. I hope you can find that reference, because it's fascinating. Might be,
one of Himmler's aids said this? Maybe Albert Speer's book? 

           I also think it's possible that Erik's grandmother or grandfather
was Scandanavian, maybe Danish or Norwegian. The name Erik with a *k* is
Scandanavian, I believe. In my fantasies about Magneto, I pictured him as
having a Danish grandmother, a Christian woman, who married a Jewish
Lehnsherr, and stayed loyal to him, and was sent to Theresienstadt with him,
and on to Auschwitz in 1944 (where Erik had to kill them). I didn't think
Erik had ANY Gypsy blood in him. I thought of him as Nordic/Jewish. But, as
you say, it's possible that at least one of his grandparents was a Gypsy. 

           THE SONDERKOMMANDO--

           Yes, they led the victims to the slaughter. I have so many
references to send you, if you want them, if I get the time. Some of the
Sonderkommando left notes and manuscripts in jars and cans, and buried them
outside the crematoria. Because they knew they wouldn't survive. The stories
they tell are both chilling and heartbreaking. Then there are the survivors,
like Filip Muller, who confirms what these accounts said. 
            Anyway, yes, the Sonderkommando, as rotating different squads,
(a) met the trains, (b) helped herd the people into the correct lines, (c)
ushered the victims into the changing rooms, (d) helped them undress, and
thereby were able to steal extra food from the pockets of these doomed
people, (e) led them to the gas chamber and shut them in, and sometimes had
to hunt down little kids who tried to hide, and throw them in on top of the
naked crowd in the gas chamber. 
           The squad that retrieved the bodies had to, (a) pull the bodies
out of the gas chamber, (b) clean up everything -- changing rooms, gas
chamber -- so the next transport wouldn't know what had happend, (c)
specialists on the Sonderkommando had to cut the hair of the women, pull the
gold teeth, search the body cavaties for hidden valuables (even the vaginas
of dead women and girls, which one young Somderkommando member described as
making him want to give up and die). This squad would put the bodies on a
lift, which carried them up to the ovens, on the floor above. The squad that
worked the ovens had to pile the bodies on the retorts just the right way,
and burn them just the right way, and collect the ashes, and dispose of the
ashes. (Which Magnus describes.) They also had to keep the ovens working --
which Erik probably was good at. And they had to keep them cleaned out when
ashes and human fat began to interfere with their operation. During the
height of the murder of the Hungarian Jews, there were so many bodies, that
the Sonderkommando had to go on outdoor burning detail. They had to re-open
the large burial pits, and build fires and throw the bodies in. (They also
had to watch while sadistic SS officers like Moll threw Hungarian Jewish
children in the fires while still alive.) At the burial/fire pits -- the
Sonderkommando had to scoop up the melted human fat, and pour it back on the
bodies, to keep the fires going. 
           Have I made you sick yet? It makes me sick to read these things.
Also, the Sonderkommando members could be called on at any time to act as
servents for the SS personnel. Or for kapos. There wasn't sexual abuse,
because no one wanted to touch one of these *crematorium ravens*. (For Erik
there might have been sexual abuse when he first entered the camp, before he
was transferred to the SK.) 
           They could get extra food from the clothing of the condemned. They
used this to barter for other things, including bribing guards to let them
into the women's camp. Not that many women wanted anything to do with them.
The Sonderkommando members rotated, as I said, their squads. When Erik
started out, there were just a handful of SK members. At the height of the
Hungarian Action, there were around 900 to 1,000 members. So he survived
several liquidations, and must have done every job a Sonderkommando could do,
in the time he was there. 

            This is so long, it may not even mail completely. I apologize for
all this. 

            I'll post this, and the references, if the topic comes up again,
I suppose. I don't feel like fighting about it anymore. But I want the facts
to be straight, at least.

            All the Best,

            Rivka