Richard Thomalla
Richard Thomalla | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | October 23, 1903Expression error: Unrecognized word "october". Annahof, Upper Silesia, German Empire |
| Died | May 12, 1945 (aged 41) Jičín, Czechoslovakia |
| Allegiance |  Nazi Germany |
| Service |  Schutzstaffel |
| Years of service | 1932—1945 |
| Rank | Hauptsturmführer, SS (Captain) |
| Commands | Headed construction of Bełżec, Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps during Operation Reinhard |
Richard Wolfgang Thomalla[1] (October 23, 1903 — May 12, 1945) was an SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain) and a civil engineer by profession who was head of the SS Central Building Administration in Lublin and was in charge of construction of the Operation Reinhard death camps Bełżec, Sobibor and Treblinka during The Holocaust in Occupied Poland.
Born in Annahof in the former Upper Silesia region of the German Empire (now, the village of Sowin, Opole Voivodeship, Poland). Thomalla became a member of the Nazi party in 1932: (no. 1.238.872) and SS (no. 41206).
The first death camp to be constructed under Thomalla's supervision was Bełżec. Construction started on 1 November 1941 and was completed in March 1942. He then proceeded to design and supervise the construction of Sobibor. During this preliminary stage, Thomalla served as the head of the Sonderkommando at Sobibor.[2] When Thomalla completed his building assignment in Sobibor he was replaced there by Franz Stangl in April 1942. He then proceeded to Treblinka which copied the design of Sobibor.
SS-Unterscharführer (Corporal) Erwin Lambert who had previously been assigned to the Action T4 euthanasia program and had constructed the new gas chambers in Treblinka, testified about Thomalla:
_II.jpg){kind=link}
I and Hengs went to Treblinka by car. SS-Hauptsturmführer Richard Thomalla was the camp commander. The Treblinka camp was still in the process of construction. Thomalla was in Treblinka for about four to eight weeks. I was attached to a building team there. Thomalla was there for a limited time only and conducted the construction work of the extermination camp. During that time no extermination actions were carried out. Then Dr Eberl arrived as camp commander. Under his direction the extermination actions of the Jews began.
Between July 1942 and October 1943, around 850,000 people were killed in Treblinka.[3][4] Thomalla was reportedly executed by the NKVD (Russian Secret Service) in Jičín, Czechoslovakia on 12 May 1945.[5][6]
References
- ^ Sobibor - The Forgotten Revolt
- ^ Klee, Ernst, Dressen, Willi, Riess, Volker The Good Old Days: The Holocaust as Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders, p. 231. ISBN 1-56852-133-2.
- ^ Henry Friedlander. The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution. The University of North Carolina Press, September 22, 1997. ISBN 0807846759
- ^ Naomi Kramer, Ronald Headland. The fallacy of race and the Shoah. University of Ottawa Press, November 25, 1998. ISBN 0776604767
- ^ Yitzhak Arad. Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps. Indiana University Press, May 1987. ISBN 0253342937
- ^ Ernst Klee. Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005. ISBN 3-596-16048-0