Hans Hoffmann was an SS

Schutzstaffel

The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...

-Rottenführer

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 , the Schutzstaffel and was senior to the paramilitary rank of Sturmmann.The insignia for Rottenführer...

and member of staff at Auschwitz concentration camp

Auschwitz concentration camp

Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...

. He was prosecuted at the Auschwitz Trial

Auschwitz trial

The Auschwitz trial began on November 24, 1947, in Kraków, when Polish authorities tried 41 former staff of the Auschwitz concentration camps. The trials ended on December 22, 1947....

.

Born in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Hoffmann was a German national with Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

n citizenship. He worked as a locksmith. Following the invasion by Nazi forces, Hoffman 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

Politische Abteilung

The Politische Abteilung , also called the "concentration camp Gestapo", was one of the five departments of a Nazi concentration camp set up by the Concentration Camps Inspectorate to operate the camps...

 (camp Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

) 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

Supreme National Tribunal

The Supreme National Tribunal was a war crime tribunal active in Poland from 1946 to 1948, with jurisdiction over fascist-hitlerite criminals and traitors to the Polish nation.The tribunal presided over seven high-profile cases ....

 at the Auschwitz Trial in Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

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