Max Gereon Alexander Thomas (4 August 1891 – 6 December 1945) was a German physician and an SS-Gruppenführer andGeneralleutnant of police inNazi Germany. During theSecond World War, he served as the commander of theSicherheitspolizei (security police) and theSicherheitsdienst (SD) inBelgium and northern France and in theReichskommissariat Ukraine, where he also commandedEinsatzgruppe C. Implicated inHolocaust-related mass murders, he killed himself after the end of the war.

Thomas was born inDüsseldorf and interrupted his higher education on the outbreak of theFirst World War when he volunteered for military service in theImperial German Army. He served in the Field Artillery Regiments 7 and 270. Commissioned as aLeutnant ofreserves in 1918, he became abattery commander in Field Artillery Regiment 154. He was discharged in 1919, having been awarded theIron Cross, 1st and 2nd class, and theWound Badge. He resumed his studies and, in 1922, he received adoctorate in medicine.^[1] He then practiced as a specialist inpsychiatry.

Shortly after theNazi seizure of power, Thomas became a member of theNazi Party (membership number 1,848,453) on 1 May 1933. On 1 July 1933, he joined theSchutzstaffel (SS) with membership number 141,341.^[2] Thomas served as a city councilor inFritzlar in 1933 and, in January 1935, he entered theHauptamt (main office) of theSicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence service of the SS, headed byReinhard Heydrich. On 28 June 1937, he was transferred to thePersonal Staff Reichsführer-SS. He remained onHeinrich Himmler's staff until February 1939 when he was given the command of SD-Oberabschnitt (main district) "Rhine", headquartered inFrankfurt. With the rank of SS-Standartenführer, Thomas was appointedInspekteur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (IdS) inWiesbaden in August 1939, commanding 70 officers from theGestapo andKriminalpolizei. Following the defeat of France and theLow Countries in thewestern campaign, Thomas served as theBefehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, or BdS, (Commander of the Security Police and SD) inBelgium and northern France from June 1940 to October 1941.^[1]

In October 1941, now an SS-Brigadeführer andGeneralmajor of police, Thomas succeededOtto Rasch asFührer ofEinsatzgruppen C, which was deployed at northern and centralUkraine in theSoviet Union. From October to the end of the year, theEinsatzgruppe engaged in the mass murder of thousands of Ukrainian Jews, including the massacres atDrobytsky Yar. In March 1942, Thomas was also appointed the BdS for theReichskommissariat Ukraine inKiev.^[3] He was responsible for executing the dissolution of theJewish ghettos in Ukraine that resulted in the deaths of an estimated 300,000 people.

Thomas attained his last promotion to SS-Gruppenführer andGeneralleutnant of police on 9 November 1942. In response to theRed Army advance into Ukraine, SS-StandartenführerPaul Blobel arrived in Kiev in July 1943 with orders to destroy the evidence of Nazi atrocities in an operation codenamedSonderaktion 1005. The SS and police under Thomas' command were assigned to oversee the exhumation and incineration of the corpses at the site of theBabi Yar massacre by concentration camp prisoners.^[4] Shortly afterward, Thomas was seriously wounded by aland mine, was removed from his command and was appointed theHigher SS and Police Leader "Black Sea" in August 1943.^[3] However, an injury in a plane crash in December 1943 led to the termination of this assignment as well, and he was placed in the SS-Führerreserve in April 1944. He was assigned to theSS Personnel Main Office from November 1944. During the war, he was awarded theClasp to the Iron Cross, 1st and 2nd class, theWar Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with swords, and the Wound Badge.^[1]

After Germany's surrender on 8 May 1945, Thomas went into hiding under thealias Dr. Karl Brandenburg, and worked in the practice of a Dr. Mackenstein atKleinostheim inLower Franconia.^[3] On 6 December 1945, he took his own life, dying at the Luitpold Hospital inWürzburg.^[5]

• Gutman, Israel, ed. (1995).Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. Vol. 1. Macmillan Publishing Company.ISBN 978-0-028-64528-5.
• Klee, Ernst (2007).Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Frankfurt-am-Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag.ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8.
• Schiffer Publishing Ltd., ed. (2000).SS Officers List: SS-Standartenführer to SS-Oberstgruppenführer (As of 30 January 1942). Schiffer Military History Publishing.ISBN 0-7643-1061-5.
• Thomas, Dr. med. Max inTraces of War

• Babi Yar: Mass Murder in Kiev in theHolocaust Historical Society
• Literature by and about Max Thomas (SS general) in theGerman National Library catalogue
• Max Thomas brief biography with photo (in Polish)
• Memorandum from Max Thomas to the SiPo and SD Kommandeur of Shitomir, 11/2/42 inYad Vashem

• 1891 births
• 1945 deaths
• 1945 suicides
• Einsatzgruppen personnel
• German Army personnel of World War I
• German psychiatrists
• Holocaust perpetrators in Belgium
• Holocaust perpetrators in France
• Holocaust perpetrators in Ukraine
• Military personnel from Düsseldorf
• Nazis who died by suicide in Germany
• Physicians in the Nazi Party
• Prussian Army personnel
• Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class
• Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 2nd class
• Recipients of the War Merit Cross
• SS-Gruppenführer

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2025