Hans Hoffmann (born 2 December 1919) was an SS-''

Rottenführer ''Rottenführer'' (, ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was first created in the year 1932. The rank of ''Rottenführer'' was used by several Nazi paramilitary groups, among them the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA), the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) an ...

'' and member of staff at

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...

. He was prosecuted at the

Auschwitz Trial The Auschwitz trial began on November 24, 1947, in Kraków, when Poland's Supreme National Tribunal tried forty former staff of the Auschwitz concentration camps. The trials ended on December 22, 1947. The best-known defendants were Arthur Lie ...

Biography

Born in Indija, Hoffmann was a German national with

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

n citizenship. He worked as a locksmith. Following the invasion by Nazi forces, Hoffmann was drafted into the Yugloslavian army, and was taken prisoner by Germany. He joined the SS on October 21, 1942, and was deployed to Auschwitz, where he initially worked as a guard. Later he was assigned to the

Politische Abteilung The ''Politische Abteilung'' ("Political Department"), also called the "concentration camp Gestapo," was one of the five departments of a Nazi concentration camp set up by the Concentration Camps Inspectorate (CCI) to operate the camps. An outpos ...

(camp

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

) in the main camp. In October 1944, he was deployed to Birkenau, where he worked as an interrogator. Hoffmann was tried by the

Supreme National Tribunal The Supreme National Tribunal (; NTN) was a war crime, war-crime tribunal active in Polish People's Republic, communist-era Poland from 1946 to 1948. Its aims and purpose were defined by the State National Council in decrees of 22 January and 17 Oc ...

at the Auschwitz Trial in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

for his role at the camp, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Due to an amnesty, he was released from prison on 14 July 1956.

Bibliography

* Cyprian T., Sawicki J., ''Siedem wyroków Najwyższego Trybunału Narodowego'', Poznań 1962 1919 births Possibly living people People convicted in the Auschwitz trial Gestapo personnel Immigrants to Yugoslavia {{Nazi-stub World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Yugoslav collaborators with Nazi Germany Yugoslav emigrants to Germany Yugoslav people imprisoned abroad