Joachim Hoffmann
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 written several books and is associated most closely with virulent anti-soviet and anti-russian oriented theories of holocaust denial. His book 'Stalin’s War of Extermination' equates the actions of Soviet Jews with those of the Nazis.
'Dissecting the Holocaust' German trial for racial persecution
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Template:Totaldispute 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:
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. [1][cf. Joachim Hoffmann, Stalin’ s War of Extermination 1941 – 1945, Theses & Dissertations Press, Capshaw, AL, 2001, pp. 189f.]
Hoffman further claimed to the court that
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.[1] 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".
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 as 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.
The court found that phrases such as "supposed", "presumed", "victim of the Jews", "imputed forethought", "furious phantasies", 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. [2][3] [4]
References
- ^ a b Lipstadt, Deborah (August 1, 2003). "Denial of the Holocaust and Immoral Equivalence". Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism. No. 11 (3 Av 5763). Retrieved 2007-03-02.
{{cite journal}}:|volume=has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ "Trial Over Grundlagen zur Zeitgeschichte". Rudolf's revisionist website. Retrieved 2007-03-01.
- ^ "Expert Report JOACHIM HOFFMANN". Retrieved 2007-03-01.
- ^
Dissecting the Holocaust. ISBN: 0967985625.
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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