Georg Thomas (General)

Georg Thomas (born February 20, 1890 in Forst (Lausitz) , † December 29, 1946 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German officer , most recently a general of the infantry in World War II and from 1939 to 1942 head of the Defense Economics and Armaments Office .

Life

The son of a factory owner joined the 4th Upper Silesian Infantry Regiment No. 63 of the Prussian army in 1908 and became a professional officer. After the First World War in the Reichswehr adopted, Thomas worked since 1928 in the Army Ordnance Department of the Defense Ministry with armaments.

As early as November 24, 1936, in a speech at the 5th session of the Reich Chamber of Labor, he described the possibility of total war :

"Gentlemen! The total war of the future will make demands on the people that we all do not yet know. "

In 1939 he became head of the Wehrwirtschafts- und Armaments Office in the High Command of the Wehrmacht . He was a member of the supervisory board of the Continental Oil AG and from 1941 to 1942 on the supervisory board of the Reichswerke Hermann Göring . Thomas, promoted to General of the Infantry on August 1, 1940, recognized Germany's limited economic opportunities early on. In February 1941 he published a study on the economic aspects of a relocation of the theater of war to the east, which also meant the war against the Soviet Union , which began on June 22, 1941. As a member of Goering's East Economic Management Staff , Thomas, together with Herbert Backe, played a key role in drawing up a hunger plan which , for economic reasons, included the starvation of many millions of Soviet residents from the outset. On May 2, 1941, seven weeks before the German invasion of the USSR, the minutes of a meeting of the secretaries of state with General Thomas state that

“The war can only be continued if the entire Wehrmacht is fed from Russia in the third year of the war. Without a doubt, tens of millions of people will starve to death if we get what we need out of the country. "

The historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler judges: "Georg Thomas [...] accepted as a consequence of this fighting strategy that at least tens of millions of people will starve there."

One month after the attack, on July 31, 1941, at a meeting about the foreseeable starvation of the Russian civilian population, Thomas said: “Large areas will be left to their own devices (have to starve).” Finally, in the spring of 1942, Thomas demanded that “4000 trucks des Army to bring about 300,000 tons of grain from Ukraine ”. For his biographer, the historian Roland Peter, he “accepted the starvation of millions of people without scruples” and “is one of the particularly striking examples of the cooperation of compliant military in the war of extermination in the East”.

On November 20, 1942, Thomas resigned from the Armed Forces and Armaments Office and was transferred to the Führerreserve . Albert Speer and his Reich Ministry for Armaments and Ammunition had meanwhile acquired almost all competencies in matters of armaments.

Grave of Georg Thomas in the Heerstraße cemetery in Berlin-Westend

Since Thomas was in close contact with his former superior Ludwig Beck as well as Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and Johannes Popitz , he had already participated in the planning for a military coup in 1938 and 1939. When the old plans from 1938/39 were found after the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , Thomas was arrested on October 11, 1944 and taken to the Flossenbürg and Dachau concentration camps . On a transport to South Tyrol, he and over 130 other prominent prisoners were freed by the Wehrmacht in Niederdorf on April 28, 1945 after the SS guards had fled (see Liberation of the SS hostages in South Tyrol ). His final release took place after temporary arrest by US Army troops on June 16, 1945. In freedom, he wrote several justifications and died on December 29, 1946 in Frankfurt am Main. His grave is in the state-owned cemetery Heerstraße in Berlin-Westend .

Fonts

Georg Thomas: Thoughts and Events . In: Schweizer Monatshefte 25 (1945). Pp. 537-559.
Georg Thomas: History of the German Defense and Armaments Industry (1918–1943 / 45). Edited by Wolfgang Birkenfeld . Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1966.

literature

Samuel W. Mitcham / Gene Mueller: Hitler's Commanders. Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2012. ISBN 978-1-4422-1153-7 , pp. 17-20.
Roland Peter: General of the Infantry Georg Thomas. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. From the beginning of the regime to the beginning of the war. Volume 1. Primus, Darmstadt 1998, ISBN 3-89678-083-2 , pp. 248-257.
Adam Tooze : Economics of Destruction. The history of the economy under National Socialism. Translated from the English by Yvonne Badal. Siedler, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-88680-857-2 . New edition: Pantheon, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-570-55056-7 , passim.

Web links

Literature by and about Georg Thomas in the catalog of the German National Library
Short biography of the German Resistance Memorial Center

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Quote from Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. 2nd edition. Fischer, Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 623.
↑ Adam Tooze : Economy of Destruction. The history of the economy under National Socialism. Munich 2007, p. 552 f.
↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler: The National Socialism. Movement, leadership, crime 1919–1945. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2009, p. 182.
↑ Roland Peter: General of the Infantry Georg Thomas. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. Volume 1, Darmstadt 1998, p. 254 f.
↑ Peter Koblank: The Liberation of Special Prisoners and Kinship Prisoners in South Tyrol . Online edition Myth Elser 2006.
^ Samuel W. Mitcham / Gene Mueller: Hitler's Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2012, p. 20; Online biography of Georg Thomas at the German Resistance Memorial Center ; Roland Peter: General of the Infantry Georg Thomas. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. Volume 1, Darmstadt 1998, p. 255. In contrast, Peter gives October 29, 1946 as the date of death.

personal data
SURNAME	Thomas, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German officer and head of the Defense Economy and Armaments Office
DATE OF BIRTH	February 20, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH	Forst (Lausitz)
DATE OF DEATH	December 29, 1946
Place of death	Frankfurt am Main

[KleeZitat-1] Quote from Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. 2nd edition. Fischer, Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 623.

[2] Adam Tooze : Economy of Destruction. The history of the economy under National Socialism. Munich 2007, p. 552 f.

[3] Hans-Ulrich Wehler: The National Socialism. Movement, leadership, crime 1919–1945. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2009, p. 182.

[4] Roland Peter: General of the Infantry Georg Thomas. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. Volume 1, Darmstadt 1998, p. 254 f.

[5] Peter Koblank: The Liberation of Special Prisoners and Kinship Prisoners in South Tyrol . Online edition Myth Elser 2006.

[6] Samuel W. Mitcham / Gene Mueller: Hitler's Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham 2012, p. 20; Online biography of Georg Thomas at the German Resistance Memorial Center ; Roland Peter: General of the Infantry Georg Thomas. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (ed.): Hitler's military elite. Volume 1, Darmstadt 1998, p. 255. In contrast, Peter gives October 29, 1946 as the date of death.