Joachim Hoffmann (1 December 1930 – 8 February 2002) was a German historian who was the academic director of theGerman Armed Forces Military History Research Office.
Joachim Hoffmann was born inKönigsberg,East Prussia, in 1930. In the latter stages ofWorld War II Hoffmann's familyfled to western Germany to avoid the advancingRed Army. There the family settled inBerlin.
From 1951 Hoffmann studiedmodern history, eastern European history and comparative ethnology at theFree University of Berlin andUniversity of Hamburg. In 1959 he received hisPhD in history for his studyDie Berliner Mission des Grafen Prokesch-Osten 1849–1852. From 1960 until 1995 Hoffmann was working in theGerman Armed Forces Military History Research Office, where his field of expertise was the "Armed Forces of the Soviet Union". In his later years he held the post of scientific director. After Hoffmann had retired in 1995, he continued to work as an independent author.
He died inFreiburg in February 2002.[1]
Hoffmann published a number of books and articles mainly on theGerman-Soviet war (1941–1945). Most of his works were based on little-known topics likeDeutsche und Kalmyken 1942 bis 1945 (Germans and theKalmyk people) (1977),DieOstlegionen 1941 bis 1943 (1981) andKaukasien 1942/43: Das deutsche Heer und die Orientvölker der Sowjetunion (Caucasus 1942/43: The German army and the eastern peoples of the Soviet Union) (1991). Also in 1984 he published the bookDie Geschichte der Wlassow-Armee (History of theVlasov Army) (1984). A Russian version of the book was published byYMCA Press in 1990.[2]
From the middle of the 1980s, Hoffmann was involved in the debate about alleged Soviet preparations for an attack on Germany since the summer of 1940. In 1995, right after he had retired, he published his workStalins Vernichtungskrieg 1941–1945 ("Stalin's War of Extermination").
Hoffmann has been criticised by historians for his uncritical attitude to theNazi regime, and its war in the Soviet Union.[3][4][5] Most critics concentrate on his last book,Stalins Vernichtungskrieg 1941–1945 (Stalin's War of Extermination). In particular, his skepticism over the use of gas chambers to execute concentration camp inmates, as well as his claim that the death toll of six million Jews was a product of Soviet propaganda are both criticized.[6][7] In 1996, the German Bundestag stated that scholars unanimously rejected claims in the book including Hoffmann's preventative war thesis, and his skepticism over of the death toll of roughly 1 million Jews at Auschwitz.[8]
In 1995, Joachim Hoffmann served as an expert witness in a court. Wigbert Grabert published the anthology Grundlagen der Zeitgeschichte byGermar Rudolf, a Holocaust denier convicted ofVolksverhetzung (incitement of the people), under his pseudonym "Ernst Gauss". Grabert was charged with this. Hoffmann prepared an expert opinion for Grabert's trial. The district court of Tübingen had the anthology confiscated for Holocaust denial and sentenced Grabert to a fine.[9][10] Rudolf published Hoffmann's opinion in 1997 in the Holocaust-denying journal Vierteljahreshefte für freie Geschichtsforschung (VffG).[11]
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