Joachim Hoffmann: Difference between revisions
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Dr. '''Joachim Hoffmann''' ([[December 1]], [[1930]], [[Königsberg]], [[East Prussia]] – [[February 8]], [[2002]], [[Freiburg]]) was a [[Germany|German]] historian. From 1960 to 1995 he worked at the Military History Research Institute of the |
Dr. '''Joachim Hoffmann''' ([[December 1]], [[1930]], [[Königsberg]], [[East Prussia]] – [[February 8]], [[2002]], [[Freiburg]]) was a [[Germany|German]] historian. From [[1960]] to [[1995]] he worked at the Military History Research Institute of the [[Bundeswehr]], finally with the title of scientific director. He has published a large number of books, among the better known is ''Stalins Vernichtungskrieg 1941-1945'' (Stalin's War of Extermination, 1995), in which he claimed that Stalin planned a war of extermination against Germany, just like Hitler had planned against Russia. |
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<ref name='The Jewish War: Goebbels and the Antisemitic Campaigns of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry'> {{cite journal|title= The “Jewish War”: Goebbels and the Antisemitic Campaigns of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry|journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies|date=|first=Jeffrey|last=Herf|coauthors=|volume=Volume 19|issue=Number 1|pages=pp. 51-80(30)|id= {{doi|10.1093/hgs/dci003}}|url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/oup/holgen/2005/00000019/00000001/art00051;jsessionid=60a0rcc3nyu4.alice?format=print|format=|accessdate=2007-03-04}}</ref> |
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<ref name='Praventivkriegsthese und Barbarossa'> {{cite web|url=http://www.shoa.de/content/view/174/57/ |title=Präventivkriegsthese und "Barbarossa" |accessdate=2007-03-04 |last=Benz |first=Wigbert |publisher=shoa.de |language=German }}</ref> In Joachim Hoffmann's version of the theory, Stalin ordered his Jewish Minister of Propaganda, [[Ilya Ehrenburg]], "to incite a boundless national and racial hatred against all Germans". According to Dr. Hoffmann, Ehrenburg's "unbridled frenzies of hatred" culminated in his call "to put an end to Germany...reduce the population of Germany...until the only thing left to decide was whether to kill the Germans with axes or with clubs". His book 'Stalin’s War of Extermination' equates the actions of Soviet Jews with those of the Nazis. It's publication triggered scandal and a Federal probe into right-wing extremism within the Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamtes. While Dr. Hoffmann puts the number of "documentarily verifiable" deaths at Auschwitz at 74.000 he concedes that the actual number is higher. He testified at trial in defense of [[Germar_Rudolf | Germar Rudolf]] and the publishers of the book 'Dissecting the Holocaust' on a criminal charge of racial persecution in 1996, citing his own works in their support. They were convicted. Hoffmann's critiques were not limited to Russians or Russian Jews. A letter published in the [[Institute_for_Historical_Review | Institute for Historical Review]] titled 'Wartime bombings of neutral Switzerland' blames the United States more than any other nation for "massively and continuously" violating Swiss neutrality, causing "great loss of life and destruction of property". In addition to the [[Institute_for_Historical_Review | Institute for Historical Review]], his works are promoted through [[Barnes Review|The Barnes Review]], and [[Noontide_Press | Noontide Press]]. |
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==Scandal on Publication of Stalin’ s War of Extermination == |
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"Dokumentarisch verbürgt" seien für Auschwitz 74.000 Todesopfer |
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"''Daß die dokumentarisch verbürgte Zahl von 74.000 nur einen Teil der tatsächlichen Verluste umfassen kann, dürfte im übrigen nicht zu bezweifeln sein.''" |
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Joachim Hoffmann, Stalins Vernichtungskrieg 1941-1945<br /> |
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Verlag für Wehrwissenschaften, München 1995, Seite 302 f. |
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---- |
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A series of questions were put to the German Federal Government by members of the German Parliament regarding Hoffann's association with the Military Historical Office for Research,(MGFA), the apparent endorsement of the director of military archives and the theories espoused in the book.<ref name='Entsorgung der deutschen Vergangenheit'> {{cite journal|title=Entsorgung der deutschen Vergangenheit? Ein polemischer Essay zum "Historikersteit."|journal=The American Historical Review|date=Oct 1989|first=Hans-Ulrich |last=Wehler|coauthors=Review author Georg G. Iggers|volume=Vol. 94|issue=No. 4 |pages=pp. 1127-1128|id= {{doi|doi:10.2307/1906698}}|url=|format=|accessdate=}}</ref> |
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<blockquote> |
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For months the publication of "Stalins war of extermination 1941 - -1945 "by the former scientific director of the Military Historical Office for Research (MGFA) Joachim Hoffmann has been publicly debated. Hoffmann represents the so-called Preventive war thesis. Therefore, Hitler with the "operation Barbarossa" 1941 only briefly forestalled an attack by the Soviet Union . Also Hoffmann is outspoken about the "Auschwitz problem" and the "matter of the gas", for which he could find in the long run, no proof. He attributes the number of six million murdered Jews to a number from Soviet propaganda'" |
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</blockquote> |
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<blockquote> |
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Manfred Kehrig leading director of archives of the Federal archives/military archives is responsible for the preface, where the opinions of Hoffmann essentially are confirmed, and which serves in excerpts as advertisement on the envelope of the book. The preface and slogan also appeared in the second examined edition of the publication. Also Hoffmann in a further preface thanks several high federal officials, and the bureau chief of the MGFA for his assistance and support. |
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</blockquote> |
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<blockquote> |
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In the question time of 28 of February 1996 we placed several questions on the political handling of the Federal Government with that Publication. There we expressed the fear that by the support of the publication, the underlying support by Manfred Kehrig, or by the author in the preface by further high federal officials, the book is given quasi official reputation and could have an encouraging effect on the right-wing extremist scene.... |
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</blockquote> |
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<blockquote> |
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Since the parliamentary State Secretary Michaela Geiger to whom several questions had been referred, had read neither the book nor the preface, (Plenarprotokoll 13/88, 7786 D, 7789 C) and an examination of the entire book in full, from 336 sides, had not yet taken place, she could answer not answer sufficiently numerous questions and demands. Therefore permit us to address some questions again to the Federal Government. We ask the Federal Government:... |
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</blockquote> |
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<blockquote> |
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3 a) How does the Federal Government react in particular politically, given the background of Joachim Hoffmann's former affiliation with the Military Historical Office for Research, on the publication of "Stalins war of extermination 1941--1945 " and expressions on "Auschwitzproblem", contained in it, and the statements, that for "affair of the gassing" "no proofs could be found", the number of six million of murdered Jews, is attributable to "a number from Soviet propaganda" "and" actually "Stalin bears as much guilt in the Russia campaign as Hitler" |
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</blockquote> |
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Answer of the Federal Government on the request of the delegates Annelie Buntenbach, Volker Beck (Cologne), Winfried Nachtwei and the parliamentary group ALLIANCE 90/GREEN - print 13/5559 |
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Attitude of the Federal Government to the preventive war thesis |
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<blockquote> |
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It is unmistakable that the preventive war thesis of Joachim Hoffmann as well as the remarks over the so-called Auschwitz problem and over the so-called affair of gas in the relevant scientific Literature, as far as this can be determined, are unanimously rejected. It stands firmly in today's level of knowledge that the Germans Preparations for the attack starting from 22 June 1941 against the Soviet Union was not accomplished in view of a preventive strike. The question over Soviet intentions, whether the Russian archives will bring to light new realizations, must await the opening up of these archives to be deployed.<ref name='German Bundestag: Print 13/5773 of 11.10.1996'> {{cite web|url=http://dip.bundestag.de/btd/13/057/1305773.asc |title=Deutscher Bundestag: Drucksache 13/5773 vom 11.10.1996 |accessdate=2007-03-01 |date=11.10.1996 |language=German }}</ref> |
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</blockquote> |
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=='Dissecting the Holocaust' German trial for racial persecution== |
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Hoffman testified as an expert witness for the defense in the criminal trial of the publisher, editor and authors of Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte (Dissecting the Holocaust) in Tübingen Germany, for the crime of racial persecution. In his expert opinion defending the book Hoffman cited himself: |
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<blockquote> |
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To this day the total number of Jewish victims is generally given as 6 million. According to the current opinion of the German experts on contemporary history, this figure was first provided to the Americans by SS Sturmbannführer Dr. Hoettl in spring 1945, and repeated at the IMT in Nuremberg on November 26, 1945. It must be noted, however, that this selfsame figure was demonstrably first put forth in the foreign press as early as January 4, 1945, several weeks prior to the January 27, 1945, liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp (with its alleged 4 million victims) - put about by none other than the infamous Soviet Minister of Propaganda, Ilya Ehrenburg. Thus it was Ehrenburg who came up with the figure of six million. <ref name='Denial of the Holocaust and Immoral Equivalence'> {{cite journal|title=Denial of the Holocaust and Immoral Equivalence|journal=Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism|date=August 1, 2003|first=Deborah|last=Lipstadt|coauthors=|volume=No. 11 |issue=3 Av 5763|pages=|id= |url=http://www.webcitation.org/5N2WMVHGn|format=|accessdate=2007-03-02}}</ref>[cf. Joachim Hoffmann, Stalin’ s War of Extermination 1941 – 1945, Theses & Dissertations Press, Capshaw, AL, 2001, pp. 189f.] |
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</blockquote> |
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Hoffman further claimed to the court that |
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<blockquote> |
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Regarding Ehrenburg himself, it must be mentioned that in 1941 Stalin had given him the general order to incite a boundless national and racial hatred against all Germans.<ref name='Denial of the Holocaust and Immoral Equivalence'> {{cite journal|title=Denial of the Holocaust and Immoral Equivalence|journal=Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism|date=August 1, 2003|first=Deborah|last=Lipstadt|coauthors=|volume=No. 11 |issue=3 Av 5763|pages=|id= |url=http://www.webcitation.org/5N2WMVHGn|format=|accessdate=2007-03-02}}</ref> Ehrenburg's years-long unbridled frenzies of hatred culminated in his call to "put an end to Germany" and in an effort which he described as "modest and honorable", namely "to reduce the population of Germany", towards which end the only thing left to decide was whether it would be better "to kill the Germans with axes or with clubs". |
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</blockquote> |
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The prosecution argued that the phrases in the book "supposed annihilation camp", "Auschwitz club", "Holocaust religion", "identity-forming group phantasies", "supposed genocide", "established Holocaust scene", "lead ad absurdum" to deny the Nazi murder of Jews and therefore qualify as race persecution. According to the States Attorney, the expert witness Dr. Hoffmann was not competent to judge whether the book was scientific as a jurist and his expert report should therefore be disregarded. The publisher Grabert should be sentenced to 9 months prison with possibility of parole. |
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The court found that phrases such as "supposed", "presumed", "victim of the Jews", "imputed forethought", "furious phantasies", [[Holocaust_denial | denied the Holocaust]] and therefore qualified as the crime of race persecution. On June 15, 1996, judge Burkhardt Stein from Tübingen County Court ordered the confiscation and incineration of all books Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte and the destruction of all means for manufacturing them. |
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<ref name='Trial Over Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte'> {{cite web|url=http://www.webcitation.org/5N1fkh5Bv |title=Trial Over Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte |accessdate=2007-03-01|publisher=Rudolf's revisionist website |archiveurl= }}</ref><ref name='Expert Report JOACHIM HOFFMANN'> {{cite web|url=http://www.webcitation.org/5N1gH9NWw |title=Expert Report JOACHIM HOFFMANN |accessdate=2007-03-01 }}</ref> |
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<ref name='Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte'> |
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{{cite book |
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| last = |
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| coauthors =Germar Rudolf,Joachim Hoffmann et al |
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| title =Dissecting the Holocaust |
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| date = |
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| id =ISBN: 0967985625 }}</ref> |
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<ref name='Holocaustleugnung'> {{cite web|url=http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaustleugnung |title=Holocaustleugnung |accessdate=2007-03-04 |publisher=de.wikipedia.org |language=German }}</ref> |
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==Intellectual Supporters and Promoters== |
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[[Germar_Rudolf | Germar Rudolf]] is the editor of the book who requested Hoffmann's aid, and whom he defended in his court testimony. Rudolf fled to the United States to avoid prosecution under European laws against [[Holocaust_denial | Holocaust denial]]. He was able to operate a web site from there and attempted to claim political asylum. He was deported in 2005. He is now in prison in Stuggart. His and other self defined "revisionist" web sites promote Hoffmann's works. |
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Rudolf explains himself the principal tenets of "revisionism" for visitors to the site: |
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<blockquote> |
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Revisionists agree with establishment historians that the German National Socialist State singled out the Jewish people for special and cruel treatment. In addition to viewing Jews in the framework of traditional anti-Semitism, ''the National Socialists also saw them as being an influential force behind international communism and behind the so-called international "finance capital,"'' which they held responsible for the worldwide economic crisis and for the impoverishment of German workers. During World War II, ''Jews were considered to be enemies of the German State'' and a potential danger to its war efforts, ''much like the Germans, Italians, and Japanese were viewed in the U.S.'' <ref name='Denial of the Holocaust and Immoral Equivalence'> {{cite journal|title=Denial of the Holocaust and Immoral Equivalence|journal=Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism|date=August 1, 2003|first=Deborah|last=Lipstadt|coauthors=|volume=No. 11 |issue=3 Av 5763|pages=|id= |url=http://www.webcitation.org/5N2WMVHGn|format=|accessdate=2007-03-02}}</ref>Consequently, Jews were stripped of their rights, forced to live in ghettos, conscripted for labor, deprived of their property, deported, and otherwise mistreated. Many tragically perished.</blockquote><blockquote> |
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In contrast to establishment historians, ''Revisionists claim that the German State had NO policy to exterminate the Jewish people (or anyone else) in homicidal gas chambers or by killing them through abuse or neglect.'' Revisionists also maintain that ''the figure of six million Jewish deaths is an irresponsible exaggeration'', and that ''no execution gas chambers existed'' in any camp in Europe which was under German control. ''Fumigation gas chambers, both stationary and mobile, did exist to delouse clothing and equipment to prevent disease at POW, labor, and concentration camps and at the fighting front. It is highly likely that it was from this lifesaving procedure that the myth of extermination gas chambers emerged.'' |
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</blockquote><ref name='rudolfs site'> {{cite web|url=http://www.webcitation.org/5N1j53RS2 |title=THE HOLOCAUST CONTROVERSY |accessdate=2007-03-02 |last=rudolf }}</ref><ref name='Germar in jail'> {{cite web|url=http://www.webcitation.org/5N1jQWXIz |title=vho.org |accessdate=2007-03-02 |last=rudolf }}</ref> |
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Another self defined "revisionist" website [[Institute_for_Historical_Review | Institute for Historical Review]] |
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promotes Hoffmann's works.<ref name='Revising the Twentieth Centurys Perfect Storm'> {{cite web|url=http://www.webcitation.org/5N1kYyqua |title=Revising the Twentieth Century's 'Perfect Storm' |accessdate=2007-03-02 |coauthors=Daniel Michaels |publisher=Institute for Historical Review }}</ref> The reviewer on that site, Daniel Michaels, focuses on Hoffmann's equation of Jewish/Soviet crimes to those of the Nazi's, the equivalency principle of revisionism: |
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<blockquote> |
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''Jews were very much involved in murderous assignments during the war. In addition to Mekhlis, there was Lazar Kaganovich, responsible for the deaths of millions''; General Abakumov, who headed the NKVD/MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs, or secret police), and Generals Reichman and Chernyakhovski, who were especially ruthless. ''Hoffmann hastens to add that the criminal actions of individual Jews should no more reflect on the Jewish people as a whole than the criminal actions of individual Nazis on the German people.''<ref name='Denial of the Holocaust and Immoral Equivalence'> {{cite journal|title=Denial of the Holocaust and Immoral Equivalence|journal=Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism|date=August 1, 2003|first=Deborah|last=Lipstadt|coauthors=|volume=No. 11 |issue=3 Av 5763|pages=|id= |url=http://www.webcitation.org/5N2WMVHGn|format=|accessdate=2007-03-02}}</ref> |
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</blockquote> |
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In addition this quote makes note of the criminal actions of Nazis as individual acts. Denial of an orchestrated plan is another key principal in holocaust revisionist theory.<ref name='Are Revisionists Holocaust-deniers'> {{cite web|url=http://www.nizkor.org/features/revision-or-denial/ |title=Are "Revisionists" Holocaust-deniers? |accessdate=2007-03-04 |work=The Nizkor Project |publisher=The Nizkor Project }}</ref> |
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The [[Institute_for_Historical_Review | Institute for Historical Review]] also published his article 'Wartime bombings of neutral Switzerland' in which he decries that "none of the nations at war so massively and continuously challenged Swiss neutrality, and caused such great loss of life and destruction of property, as the bombers and fighter planes of the United States air force."<ref name='Wartime bombings of neutral Switzerland'> {{cite web|url=http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v16/v16n6p15_Hoffmann.html |title=Wartime bombings of neutral Switzerland |last=Hoffmann |publisher=Institute for Historical Review |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5N2N2RLOE |archivedate=2007-03-02 }}</ref> |
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His work is distributed by Castle Hill Publishers exclusive publishers of Holocaust Denial literature. Hoffmann's 'Stalin's War of Extermination' is featured alongside [[Germar_Rudolf | Germar Rudolf]]: Dissecting the Holocaust, (a collection of essays, which contains within it Hoffmann's defense of the book), [[Arthur_R._Butz | Arthur R. Butz]]:[[ The_Hoax_of_the_Twentieth_Century | The Hoax of the Twentieth Century. The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry ]],[[Germar_Rudolf | Germar Rudolf]], [[Carlo_Mattogno | Carlo Mattogno]]: Auschwitz-Lies. Legends, Lies, and Prejudices on the Holocaust, |
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[[Carlo_Mattogno | Carlo Mattogno]]: Bunkers of Auschwitz. Black Propaganda versus History etc, etc.<ref name='Castle Hill Publishers'> {{cite web|url=http://tadp.org/index2.html |title= Theses & Dissertations Press Imprint of Castle Hill Publishers |accessdate=2007-03-02 }}</ref> |
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'Stalin's War of Extermination' is featured on [[Barnes Review|"The Barnes Review"]] Selected Book List, |
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a creation of American [[neo-Nazi]] [[Willis Carto]]. <ref name='Barnes Review Selected Book List'> {{cite web|url=http://www.barnesreview.org/html/recommended.html |title=Barnes Review Selected Book List |accessdate=2007-03-02 |coauthors=Hoffmann |publisher=Barnes Review |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5N2C09HKS |archivedate= Mar-2-2007 }}</ref> |
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'Dissecting the Holocaust' is promoted through [[Noontide_Press | Noontide Press]] also founded by Carto. |
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<ref name='noontide sales'> {{cite web|url=http://www.webcitation.org/5N2AshjCL |title=noontide press Dissecting the Holocaust |accessdate=2007-03-02 |last=Hoffmann }}</ref> |
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==References== |
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== Selected Works == |
== Selected Works == |
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Revision as of 09:41, 6 March 2007
Dr. Joachim Hoffmann (December 1, 1930, Königsberg, East Prussia – February 8, 2002, Freiburg) was a German historian. From 1960 to 1995 he worked at the Military History Research Institute of the Bundeswehr, finally with the title of scientific director. He has published a large number of books, among the better known is Stalins Vernichtungskrieg 1941-1945 (Stalin's War of Extermination, 1995), in which he claimed that Stalin planned a war of extermination against Germany, just like Hitler had planned against Russia.
Selected Works
- Die Ostlegionen 1941 - 1943. Turkotartaren, Kaukasier, Wolgafinnen im deutschen Heer, 1976
- Deutsche und Kalmyken 1942 - 1945, 3. Auflage 1977
- Der Angriff auf die Sowjetunion, in: Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, mit Jürgen Förster; Horst Boog, 1987
- Kaukasien 1942/43. Das deutsche Heer und die Orientvölker der Sowjetunion, 1991
- Die Angriffsvorbereitungen der Sowjetunion 1941 ,in: Zwei Wege nach Moskau. Vom Hitler-Stalin-Pakt bis zum "Unternehmen Barbarossa" , München und Zürich 1991
- Stalins Vernichtungskrieg 1941-1945, Herbig Verlag, [3rd edition] 1999 ISBN 3-7766-2079-X
- Reviewed by R.C.Raack in Slavic Review Vol. 55, No. 2 (Summer, 1996), pp. 493-494
- Berlin Friedrichsfelde. Ein deutscher Nationalfriedhof, 2001
- Die Tragödie der 'Russischen Befreiungsarmee' 1944/45. Wlassow gegen Stalin, Herbig Verlag, 2003 ISBN 3-7766-2330-6