Max Thomas

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Max Thomas (born August 4, 1891 in Düsseldorf ; † December 6, 1945 in Würzburg ) was a German doctor and in the National Socialist German Reich SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police, head of the SD upper section of the Rhine and of Einsatzgruppe C in the USSR as well Higher SS and Police Leader " Black Sea ".

Origin and studies

Thomas started studying in 1912, then volunteered at the beginning of the First World War . He became an officer and discharged from the Reichswehr in 1919 .

Thomas then studied law and medicine until 1922 and received his doctorate as Dr. med. He then practiced as a specialist in psychiatry .

Shortly after the Nazis "came to power ", Thomas joined the NSDAP on May 1, 1933 ( membership number 1.848.453). In July 1933 he became a member of the SS (SS No. 141,341).

At the security service of the SS

Thomas became councilor of the city of Fritzlar and took over the management of a branch of the security service of the SS ( SD ), after he had previously been active on a voluntary basis for the SD. In 1939 Thomas was finally entrusted with the management of the SD upper section of the Rhine.

As an SS-Standartenführer he was appointed inspector of the Security Police and the SD Wiesbaden and was at the same time special agent Reinhard Heydrich for the area of ​​the western buildings ( Westwall ) with 70 officers of the Gestapo and Kripo .

In the period from June 1940 to autumn 1941 he was used as commander of the Security Police and the SD (BdS) Belgium and Northern France .

With the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD in the USSR

In October 1941, Thomas SS Brigade Leader and Major General of the Police succeeded Otto Rasch as leader of Einsatzgruppe C, which was deployed in the area of Army Group South in northern and central Ukraine . This task force alone killed 26,000 people by the end of 1941. With the conversion of Einsatzgruppe C into a stationary unit in March 1942, Thomas became BdS in Kiev . He was responsible for the "dissolution" of the ghettos for the Ukrainian Jews, of whom at least 300,000 were killed.

Thomas was promoted to SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police on November 9, 1942. He finally came into conflict with SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel , the head of " Aktion 1005 ", about his way of clearing up the mass graves as traces of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD .

After Thomas had suffered numerous serious injuries in the USSR, he was released from the leadership of Einsatzgruppe C due to a renewed wounding and in August 1943 was appointed Higher SS and Police Leader "Black Sea". A plane crash in December 1943, however, also led to the termination of this use, so that Thomas had to be assigned to the SS- Führerreserve in April 1944 . At times he was still active in the SS Personnel Main Office (November 9, 1944).

After the war

After the end of the war, Thomas turned up with the false name “Dr. Karl Brandenburg “at first and finally worked in the practice of the doctor Mackenstein in Kleinostheim near Aschaffenburg .

On December 6, 1945 he attempted suicide and died of the consequences in the Würzburg Luitpold Hospital.

Awards

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Thomas, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION War criminal, lieutenant general of the police, head of the SD upper section Rhine and the task force C
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1945
Place of death Wurzburg