Georg Thomas (20 February 1890 – 29 December 1946) was a
German general
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry.
In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...
who served during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
[Mitcham and Mueller, ''Hitler's Commanders'', pgs. 17-20.] He was a leading participant in planning and carrying out economic exploitation of the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, most notably the
Hunger Plan
The Hunger Plan () was a partially implemented plan developed by Nazi Germany, Nazi bureaucrats during World War II to seize food from the Soviet Union and give it to German soldiers and civilians. The plan entailed the genocide by Starvation (cri ...
.
[ Thomas's role in plotting against ]Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
has led some historians to describe him as a member of the German resistance, while others find his record more ambiguous.[Hans Rothfels, ''The German Opposition to Hitler: An Appraisal'', pg. 79.]
Career summary
Thomas was born in Forst (Lausitz), Brandenburg
Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
. Thomas joined Infantry
Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...
Regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation.
In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...
63 as an ensign and a career soldier in 1908. From 1928, he dealt with armament questions at the (Army Weapons Office) in the Reich Defence Ministry in Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. From 1928 to 1938, Thomas worked as the Chief of Staff for the Army Weapons Office in the Reich Defence Ministry, where he studied national economics and war preparations, pushing forward the idea of a "defense economy", the accumulation of Germany's resources for the purpose of war under a central planning commission.
Despite his misgivings about National Socialism following the dismissal of Colonel General Baron Werner von Fritsch
Thomas Ludwig Werner Freiherr von Fritsch (4 August 1880 – 22 September 1939) was a German ''Generaloberst'' (Full General, full general) who served as Oberkommando des Heeres, Commander-in-Chief of the German Army (Wehrmacht), German Army fro ...
on trumped-up allegations of homosexuality in the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair, Thomas remained an important member of the German General Staff. During Fritsch's removal in 1938 Thomas experienced his first inner conflict with National Socialism.[Wheeler-Bennett, ''The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics, 1918–1945'', pp. 431–432.] It is speculated he did not resign to foment plans for a coup. In 1939, he became head of the Defence Economy and Armament Office in ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
The (; abbreviated OKW ː kaːˈveArmed Forces High Command) was the Command (military formation), supreme military command and control Staff (military), staff of Nazi Germany during World War II, that was directly subordinated to Adolf ...
'' (OKW, high command of the armed forces). He was a member of the board of Kontinentale Öl AG (an oil company whose purpose was to exploit petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...
resources in occupied countries) as well as ''Reichswerke Hermann Göring
Reichswerke Hermann Göring ("Hermann Göring Reich Works") was an industrial Conglomerate (company), conglomerate in Nazi Germany from 1937 until 1945. It was established to extract and process domestic iron ores from Salzgitter that were deemed ...
'', an iron
Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
and steel
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...
company.
Thomas was promoted in 1940 to General of Infantry, recognized early on that Germany's ability to wage a lengthy war was limited by the state of its economy. With the threat of war with the western powers over Hitler's bold political moves to secure the Austrian '' Anschluß'', the acquisition of the Sudetenland, and then with the impending attack on Poland awaiting the German General Staff, Thomas produced an extensive report for Hitler assessing the risks. Thomas' analysis was replete with graphics and statistics demonstrating the military–economic superiority of the western powers, at which Hitler balked and exclaimed that "he did not share General Thomas' anxiety over the danger of a world war, especially since he had now got the Soviet Union on his side" (consequent the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...
).[William L. Shirer, ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', pp. 744–745.] Thomas worried about an attack provoking the British and French as were generals Walther von Brauchitsch
Walther Heinrich Alfred Hermann von Brauchitsch (4 October 1881 – 18 October 1948) was a German ''Generalfeldmarschall'' (Field Marshal) and Commander-in-Chief (''Oberbefehlshaber'') of the German Army during the first two years of World War ...
, Colonel-General Halder and the Quartermaster General von Stülpnagel, yet Hitler refused to countenance delay or reluctance from his military staff about his plans and more earnestly pushed forward the attack despite their sound arguments otherwise.[ Joachim Fest, ''Hitler'', pg. 626.]
During the planning of Barbarossa, General Thomas' pragmatic and realistic nature once again gripped him as he thought a full-scale war with the Soviet Union should be delayed until the logistical concerns were remedied. Thomas informed Colonel-General Franz Halder, the Chief of the OKH General Staff, that the attack on the Soviet Union would experience logistical delays due to the fact that Russian railways were of a different gauge than German ones. Thomas also warned Halder of the insufficiency of German transport vehicle tires for the task ahead of them, and most significantly, Thomas revealed to Halder that the Germans only had two months' worth of fuel oil and petrol for the invasion. Inexplicably, Halder did not convey this information to Hitler and when Thomas tried to, General Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (; 22 September 188216 October 1946) was a German field marshal who held office as chief of the (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's armed forces, during World War II. He signed a number of criminal ...
suppressed the report.[Barnett, ''Hitler's Generals'', pg. 115.] Reassurances soon made their way to General Thomas when the ''Reichsminister'', Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...
, told him not to worry about using Germany's resources since "they would soon be masters of France, Belgium, and the Netherlands", adding that they would plunder resources in the "captured territories".[ Anthony Read, ''The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle'', pg. 603.]
In November 1942, Thomas resigned from the Defence Economy and Armament Office. Albert Speer
Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer (; ; 19 March 1905 – 1 September 1981) was a German architect who served as Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production, Minister of Armaments and War Production in Nazi Germany during most of W ...
and his Armament Ministry, had taken over almost all the expertise relating to armament policy. Of note, during the autumn of 1943, Hitler asked for a forecast of what the Germans might expect in the near future. The Chief of the Operations Staff for the OKW, Colonel-General Alfred Jodl
Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl (; born Alfred Josef Baumgärtler; 10 May 1890 – 16 October 1946) was a German Wehrmacht Heer, Army ''Generaloberst'' (the rank was equal to a four-star full general) and War crime, war criminal, who served as th ...
, submitted the report to Hitler but he became irate when the estimates were given to him, mentioning Thomas, who "rated the Soviet war potential as high".[Albert Speer, ''Inside the Third Reich'', pg. 303.] Hitler forbade war studies by the OKW. Apparently Thomas tried several times to bring the German General Staff and Hitler back to reality. Thomas's pragmatism might have contributed to his disillusion with the regime, perhaps leading him to believe that a coup was necessary to stop Germany from being annihilated.
Resistance to Hitler
Through contacts with his former superior Ludwig Beck
Ludwig August Theodor Beck (; 29 June 1880 – 20 July 1944) was a German general who served as Chief of the German General Staff from 1933 to 1938. Beck was one of the main conspirators of the 20 July plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
...
, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler and Johannes Popitz, he got to work as early as 1938–1939 on the planning for a military coup d'état
A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup
, is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
against Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
. After the failure of the attempt on Hitler's life in the 20 July Plot at the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia
East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...
on 20 July 1944, the plans from 1938–1939 were found, leading to Thomas's arrest on 11 October 1944. He was transferred to the Flossenbürg and Dachau concentration camps. In late April 1945, he was transferred to Tyrol together with about 140 other prominent inmates. On 30 April, after US troops and soldiers from Wichard von Alvensleben's unit had surrounded the village, the SS guards decided to escape. Thomas and the other prisoners were liberated by the Fifth U.S. Army on 5 May 1945. He was freed, and moved to Frankfurt am Main but imprisonment had broken his health and he died on 29 December 1946.
Role in Hunger Plan
Thomas has been described as someone who at times "toyed with opposition to Hitler's war" but who fundamentally was a "ruthless pragmatist" whose only concern was "Germany's future as a great power".[ He was deeply involved in the making of Nazi policy for the occupied Soviet Union, which was to exploit the resources of the country for the benefit of Germany and the German armed forces, at the expense of the deaths by starvation of millions of people.][Tooze, ''Wages of Destruction'', p. 478.] This became known as the Hunger Plan
The Hunger Plan () was a partially implemented plan developed by Nazi Germany, Nazi bureaucrats during World War II to seize food from the Soviet Union and give it to German soldiers and civilians. The plan entailed the genocide by Starvation (cri ...
. Thomas worked closely with Herbert Backe, the de facto chief of Nazi agriculture, in developing this plan. On 2 May 1941, Thomas held a meeting to review the strategy. An internal Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
memorandum prepared by his staff described this policy and acknowledged that "if we take what we need out of the country, there can be no doubt that many millions of people will die of starvation".[Tooze, ''Wages of Destruction'', p. 479.] This memorandum has been described as,
The historian, Christopher Browning, wrote that on 2 May 1941, the state secretaries of various ministries met with Thomas and agreed to make it a priority to supply the army with food from Russia and to ship other essential agricultural products, including grain, to Germany. "In doing so" Thomas's protocol laconically stated, "umpteen million people will doubtless starve to death, if we extract everything necessary for us from the country".[Browning, ''The Origins Of The Final Solution'', 2004, p. 235] While the memorandum did not estimate how many millions would die, Backe stated that the "surplus population" of the Soviet Union was 20 to 30 million.[ German policy for the invasion, and instructions to the troops, were deliberately calculated either to kill these 20 to 30 million through starvation or force them to flee to Siberia.][Tooze, ''Wages of Destruction'', p. 480.]
Notes
References
* Barnett, Correlli ed. ''Hitler's Generals''. New York: Grove Press, 2003.
* Fest, Joachim. ''Hitler''. Orlando, FL.: Mariner Books, 2002.
* Mitcham, Samuel W., and Gene Mueller. ''Hitler's Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS''. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012.
* Read, Anthony. ''The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle''. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.
* Rothfels, Hans. ''The German Opposition to Hitler: An Appraisal''. Hinsdale, IL: Henry Regnery Company, 1948.
* Shirer, William L. '' The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
* Speer, Albert. ''Inside the Third Reich''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
* Tooze, Adam, '' The Wages of Destruction'', Allen Lane 2006 ; available in as ''Ökonomie der Zerstörung. Die Geschichte der Wirtschaft im Nationalsozialismus''. Aus dem Engl. von Yvonne Badal. Siedler, München 2007, . (Neuaufl., Schriftenreihe der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Bd. 663, ; Neuaufl. Pantheon, München 2008, .)
* Wheeler-Bennett, John W. ''The Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics, 1918–1945''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1967.
External links
*
Georg Thomas at ''Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Georg
1890 births
1946 deaths
Holocaust perpetrators
People from Forst (Lausitz)
Military personnel from the Province of Brandenburg
German Army generals of World War II
Generals of Infantry (Wehrmacht)
Reichswehr personnel
Members of the 20 July plot
Dachau concentration camp survivors