SS-Gruppenführer Otto Hofmann of Nazi Germany's “Race and Settlement Main Office,” was present at the Wannsee Conference planning the Holocaust against the Jews. Sentenced to 25 years in prison at the RuSHA Trial in 1948, Hofmann was released on 7 April 1954.

In April 1923, Hofmann joined the Nazi Party (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 (RuSHA), was created by Heinrich Himmler and 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 "Germanisation" of the captured territory of Poland and in the Soviet Union. This involved the resettling of Germans in the Nazi-occupied Eastern territories and ejecting the native families from those lands.

Hoffman 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 Villsmania.

After the war, Hofmann was put on trial in March 1948 at the RuSHA 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 and released from Landsberg Prison. Thereafter, he was a clerk in Württemberg until he died in Bad Mergentheim on 31 December 1982.

Sources: What-Means.Com. This article is availiable under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License