Richard Thomalla

Richard Thomalla
Official portrait c. 1940
Born	(1903-10-23)23 October 1903
Died	12 May 1945(1945-05-12) (aged 41) Jičín, Czechoslovakia
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Schutzstaffel
Rank	Hauptsturmführer
Commands held	Headed construction of Bełżec, Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps during Operation Reinhard

Richard Thomalla  pron. (23 October 1903 – 12 May 1945) was an SS commander of Nazi Germany. A civil engineer by profession, he was head of the SS Central Building Administration at Lublin reservation in occupied Poland. Thomalla was in charge of construction for the Operation Reinhard death camps Bełżec, Sobibor and Treblinka during the Holocaust in German-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. 41,206).

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 in March 1942. Workers employed for building the camp were local people from neighboring villages and towns. During this preliminary stage, Thomalla served as the head of the Sonderkommando at Sobibor. The Sonderkommando consisted of about eighty Jews from ghettos within the vicinity of the camp, brought to Sobibor for slave-labor construction work. A squad of ten Ukrainians trained at Trawniki concentration camp guarded the Sonderkommando. Upon completion of the camp, these Jews were shot. 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.