Max Thomas

Max Gereon Alexander Thomas (4 August 1891 – 6 December 1945) was a German physician, SS-Gruppenführer and Generalleutnant of police in Nazi Germany. During the Second World War, he served as the commander of the Sicherheitspolizei (security police) and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in Belgium and northern France and in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, where he also commanded Einsatzgruppe C. Implicated in Holocaust-related mass murders, he killed himself after the end of the war.

Early life and education Thomas was born in Düsseldorf and interrupted his higher education on the outbreak of the First World War when he volunteered for military service in the Imperial German Army. He served in the Field Artillery Regiments 7 and 270. Commissioned as a Leutnant of reserves in 1918, he became a battery commander in Field Artillery Regiment 154. He was discharged in 1919, having been awarded the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class, and the Wound Badge. He resumed his studies and, in 1922, he received a doctorate in medicine. He then practiced as a specialist in psychiatry.

SS career Shortly after the Nazi seizure of power, Thomas became a member of the Nazi Party (membership number 1,848,453) on 1 May 1933. On 1 July 1933, he joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) with membership number 141,341. Thomas served as a city councilor in Fritzlar in 1933 and, in January 1935, he entered the Hauptamt (main office) of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence service of the SS, headed by Reinhard Heydrich. On 28 June 1937, he was transferred to the Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS. He remained on Heinrich Himmler's staff until February 1939 when he was given the command of SD-Oberabschnitt (main district) "Rhine", headquartered in Frankfurt. With the rank of SS-Standartenführer, Thomas was appointed Inspekteur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (IdS) in Wiesbaden in August 1939, commanding 70 officers from the Gestapo and Kriminalpolizei. Following the defeat of France and the Low Countries in the western campaign, Thomas served as the Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, or BdS, (Commander of the Security Police and SD) in Belgium and northern France from June 1940 to October 1941.