Joachim Hoffmann (1 December 1930 – 8 February 2002) was a German historian who was the academic director of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office. Life Joachim Hoffmann was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, in 1930. In the latter stages of World War II Hoffmann's family fled to western Germany to avoid the advancing Red Army. There the family settled in Berlin. From 1951 Hoffmann studied modern history, eastern European history and comparative ethnology at the Free University of Berlin and University of Hamburg. In 1959 he received his PhD in history for his study Die Berliner Mission des Grafen Prokesch-Osten 1849–1852. From 1960 until 1995 Hoffmann was working in the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office, where his field of expertise was the "Armed Forces of the Soviet Union". In his later years he held the post of scientific director. In these years he was also awarded prizes for his work, such as the "Dr. Walter-Eckhardt" Award (1991) and the "General Andrej Andrejewitsch Wlassow" Cultural Prize (1992). After Hoffmann had retired in 1995, he continued to work as an independent author. He died in Freiburg in February 2002. Work Hoffmann published a number of books and articles mainly on the German-Soviet war (1941–1945). Most of his works were based on little-known topics like Deutsche und Kalmyken 1942 bis 1945 (Germans and the Kalmyk people) (1977), Die Ostlegionen 1941 bis 1943 (1981) and Kaukasien 1942/43 - Das deutsche Heer und die Orientvölker der Sowjetunion (Caucasus 1942/43 - The German army and the eastern peoples of the Soviet Union) (1991). Also in 1984 he published the book Die Geschichte der Wlassow-Armee (History of the Vlasov Army) (1984). A Russian version of the book was published by YMCA Press in 1990. From the middle of the 1980s, Hoffmann was involved in the debate about alleged Soviet preparations for an attack on Germany since the summer of 1940. In 1995, right after he had retired, he published his work Stalins Vernichtungskrieg 1941–1945 ("Stalin's War of Extermination"). Controversies Hoffmann has been criticised by historians for his uncritical attitude to the Nazi regime, and its war in the Soviet Union. Most critics concentrate on his last book, Stalins Vernichtungskrieg 1941–1945 (Stalin's War of Extermination). In particular, his skepticism over the use of gas chambers to execute concentration camp inmates, as well as his claim that the death toll of six million Jews