Otto Hofmann (March 16, 1896 – December 31, 1982) was an Austrian SS-Gruppenführer and an official of Nazi Germany's "Race and Settlement Main Office". Although after the war, in 1948, Hofmann was sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes, he was pardoned on 7 April 1954. Thereafter, he worked as a clerk until his death in 1982.
Hofmann was born in Innsbruck, Tyrol. Hofmann, the son of a merchant, in August 1914 volunteered for service in the First World War. In March 1917, he was promoted to lieutenant. In June 1917, he was taken prisoner by the Russians. However, Hofmann escaped from captivity and returned to Germany. Hofmann completed his pilot training before he was released in 1919 to civilian life. After short-term operation in a Freikorps, he trained as a wine salesman and was active from 1920 to 1925 in wine wholesale. He then started his own business as a wine representative.
In April 1923, Hofmann joined the NSDAP (member: 145,729) and in April 1931 he joined the SS (member: 7,646). From 1933 forward, he worked full time as an SS officer. On 29 March 1933, he ran unsuccessfully in the general election. In 1931, the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt) or (RuSHA), was created by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and SS-Obergruppenführer Richard Walther Darré. In 1939, Hofmann was co-editor of the journal "Biologist". From July 1940 to April 1943, he was chief of the RuSHA. In this capacity, he participated in the "germanization" of the captured territory of Poland and in the Soviet Union. This involved the resetting of Germans in the Nazi occupied Eastern territories and ejecting the native families from those lands.
He was responsible for conducting the official Race test on the population of the occupied territories for racial selection. The office was also responsible for the abduction of Polish children to Germany and for the SS - kin care. He was present at the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942, for the so-called, "Final Solution of the Jewish Question". In April 1943, Hofmann was transferred to Stuttgart as SS and Police Leader for South-Western Germany (Württemberg, Baden and Alsace). He was the commander of the prisoners in the local Military District V.
From 1940-43 Hofmann was chief of the RuSHA within the SS. In this capacity he took part in the Wannsee Conference headed by Reinhard Heydrich. There members of the Nazi hierarchy discussed policies which were later enacted and led, in part, to The Holocaust. After the war in March 1948, Hofmann was put on trial for his actions as chief of the Race and Settlement Main Office. He was charged with Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes. Although in 1948 Hofmann was sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes, on 7 April 1954 he was pardoned. He was dismissed from Landsberg Prison. Thereafter, he was a clerk in Württemberg until he died in Bad Mergentheim on 31 December 1982.
Otto Hofmann (16 mars 1896 - 31 décembre 1982) était un SS-Gruppenführer autrichien et un dirigeant nazi du "bureau pour la race et le peuplement" (Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt ou RuSHA). Il était présent à la conférence de Wannsee qui planifia l'holocauste contre les juifs. Hoffman est né à Innsbruck, dans le Tyrol autrichien.
Il fut pilote de chasse pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. Vendeur de vin de formation, il devint membre de la SS en 1931. De 1940 à 1943 il dirigea le bureau pour la race et le peuplement, (RuSHA), un organisme de la SS. À ce titre il prit part à la conférence de Wannsee le 20 janvier 1942.
En 1943 il prit le poste de chef de la SS et de la police pour le sud-ouest de l'Allemagne, à Stuttgart. En 1948 lors du procès du RuSHA à Nuremberg, Hofmann fut condamné à 25 ans de prison pour crimes de guerre, mais fut gracié en 1954. Il mourut en Allemagne, à Bad Mergentheim. Dans le film américain Conspiracy de 2001, le personnage d'Hofmann est joué par Nicholas Woodeson.