Michael A. Hoffman II

Last updated
Michael A. Hoffman II
Born
Michael Anthony Hoffman II

(1957-01-02) January 2, 1957 (age 66)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater State University of New York at Oswego
OccupationAuthor
OrganizationIndependent History & Research
Known for
Website revisionisthistory.org

Michael Anthony Hoffman II (born January 2, 1957) [1] is an American author. He has been described as a conspiracy theorist [1] [2] and, by the Anti-Defamation League and other sources, as a Holocaust denier and antisemite. [2] [3]

Contents

Biography

Hoffman was born to a Catholic family in Geneva, New York. His father, the chief of physical therapy at Clifton Springs Hospital, was German-American. His mother was Italian-American. [1] According to biographical information on the back cover of his book Judaism Discovered, Hoffman studied at the State University of New York at Oswego under Dr. Richard Funk and Dr. Faiz Abu-Jaber, father of Diana Abu-Jaber.

Hoffman was reportedly taught at an early age about William Morgan, whose disappearance in 1826 resulted in the formation of the Anti-Masonic Party. He said that he learned from his maternal grandfather that elections in the United States were rigged by organized crime. From this, Hoffman was said to have deduced that "[n]othing is as it seems to be," which in turn led to a "life long vocation, researching the subterranean workings of the occult cryptocracy's orchestration of American history". [1]

Hoffman claims to have operated an organic farm and to have lived among the Amish for several years. In 1995, Hoffman moved with his family to northern Idaho. There, he hoped to establish a museum that would detail the "Communist holocaust against Christians" (i.e., the persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union), "the holocaust against the Germans", (i.e., the bombing of Dresden and other major German cities in World War II), and the "Holocaust against Japan" (i.e., the bombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki). [1]

Hoffman has written articles for the UK-based magazine Fortean Times , [4] as well as the Lutheran newspaper Christian News of New Haven, MO, which is published by Otten. [5] He has claimed to have worked as a reporter for the Albany, New York, bureau of the Associated Press. His interests include the alleged occult roots of Freemasonry, the command ideology of the Cryptocracy, Fortean phenomena, and the sacred texts of Orthodox Judaism. [6]

Views

Holocaust denial and the Jews

Hoffman has been described by the Anti-Defamation League as a "Holocaust denier and anti-Semitic ideologue". [3] Other authorities to call him a Holocaust denier include Michael Barkun of Syracuse University and Michael Whine. [2] [7] [8] Mattias Gardell has asserted: "Antisemitism is prominent... in the worldview of Michael Hoffman II". [1]

Hoffman has worked on the projects of neo-Nazi Tom Metzger and of the Holocaust deniers Willis Carto, David Irving, Ernst Zündel, and Herman Otten. [9] Hoffman was the Assistant Director of the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), a Holocaust denial organization for a period. He retains a connection with it. Stephen A. Atkins, in his book, Holocaust Denial as an International Movement (2009), wrote that Hoffman's newsletter Revisionist History promotes Holocaust denial and Hoffman contends that "the real Holocaust of World War II was deaths caused by the Allies." [7] He quotes Hoffman denying the existence of gas chambers: "[T]here is no material scientific proof for the existence of Nazi homicidal gas chambers. There are no autopsies available from any source showing that even one Jew died as a result of Zyklon B (hydrocyanic acid) poisoning, among the millions who are alleged to have been killed in this manner." [7]

The Great Holocaust Trial: The Landmark Battle for the Right to Doubt the West's Most Sacred Relic (1985) is a sympathetic account of the 1980s Canadian trials of Ernst Zündel. At the time, Zündel was required to appear before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal for "spreading false news", by distributing the Holocaust-denying pamphlet Did Six Million Really Die? in Canada. Hoffman's book argues that Holocaust denial material should be completely legal to publish.

On his YouTube channel in 2016, Hoffman said: "Judaism’s focus is on self-worship, people who worship themselves, and this is where I see a corollary with Nazis and with what Hitler was doing." He has claimed that Judaism has a positive view of pedophilia and advocates the hatred of non-Jews. [3] He has claimed that early Jewish texts are equivalent to teachings "from the church of Satan". [10]

Irish slavery myth

Hoffman is the author of They Were White and They Were Slaves: The Untold Story of Enslavement of Whites in Early America. [11] The book was self-published in 1993. [12]

According to Derrick Jensen, Hoffman is "overtly racist" and "attempts to make the case that the enslavement of whites by commercial interests in Britain and the Americas was worse than the enslavement and genocide of Africans... perpetrated by those same interests." [11] Jensen said "Hoffman's analysis is seriously flawed" but that "his scholarship is impressive, and the story he tells is both interesting and horrifying". [11]

The book's espousal of the Irish slaves myth is considered by Liam Hogan (interviewed by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2016) to be responsible for the notion being absorbed by white supremacists. [13]

Cryptocracy

Hoffman is the author of Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare which outlines his conspiracy theory of a shadow government or "cryptocracy" [1] that gains power through manipulation of symbols and twilight language. Examples of such "psychodramas," in Hoffman's view, include Route 66 (which connects various centers of occult significance), and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, in which Hoffman sees ritualistic elements. [1] The theory of masonic symbolism in the assassination of President Kennedy was first articulated by James Shelby Downard, with whom Hoffman co-authored King/Kill-33 which became the inspiration for a song by Marilyn Manson. [14]

Hoffman also states that this ruling cabal is slowly revealing the truth through movies such as They Live and The Matrix and other forms of symbolic and subliminal communication. [1] Hoffman has appeared on the Alex Jones radio show to discuss his theories. In a 2002 lecture in Sandpoint, Idaho, Hoffman analyzed the 9/11 terror attack in terms of human alchemy and psychological warfare. [15]

Publications

Hoffman is the author of these self-published books:

Hoffman has also written the introductions for modern reprints, which he also published, of:

Related Research Articles

Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust denial involves making one or more of the following false claims:

The Institute for Historical Review (IHR) is a United States–based nonprofit organization which promotes Holocaust denial. It is considered by many scholars to be central to the international Holocaust denial movement. Self-described as a "historical revisionist" organization, the IHR promotes antisemitic viewpoints and has links to several neo-Nazi and neo-fascist organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Irving</span> British author and Holocaust denier

David John Cawdell Irving is an English author and Holocaust denier who has written on the military and political history of World War II, with a focus on Nazi Germany. His works include The Destruction of Dresden (1963), Hitler's War (1977), Churchill's War (1987) and Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich (1996). In his works, he argued that Adolf Hitler did not know of the extermination of Jews, or, if he did, he opposed it. Though Irving's negationist claims and views of German war crimes in World War II were never taken seriously by mainstream historians, he was once recognised for his knowledge of Nazi Germany and his ability to unearth new historical documents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernst Zündel</span> German Holocaust denier (1939–2017)

Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel was a German neo-Nazi publisher and pamphleteer of Holocaust denial literature. He was jailed several times: in Canada for publishing literature "likely to incite hatred against an identifiable group", and on charges of being a threat to national security; in the United States, for overstaying his visa; and in Germany for charges of "inciting racial hatred". He lived in Canada from 1958 to 2000.

A number of organizations and academics consider the Nation of Islam (NOI) to be antisemitic. The NOI has engaged in Holocaust denial, and exaggerates the role of Jews in the African slave trade; mainstream historians, such as Saul S. Friedman, have said Jews had a negligible role. The NOI has repeatedly rejected charges made against it as false and politically motivated.

The Nizkor Project is an Internet-based project run by B'nai Brith Canada which is dedicated to countering Holocaust denial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel Shamir</span> Holocaust denier

Israel Shamir, also known by the names Robert David, Vassili Krasevsky, Jöran Jermas and Adam Ermash, is a Swedish writer and journalist, known for promoting antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

The Journal of Historical Review was a non-peer reviewed, pseudoacademic, neo-Nazi periodical focused on promoting Holocaust denial. It was published by the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), based in Torrance, California. It ran quarterly from 1980 until 1992, and then bimonthly from 1993 until publication ceased in 2002. A supplement, IHR Newsletter, was published alongside the journal.

Serge Thion was a French sociologist. A former researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research, he was dismissed from his position at the center for Holocaust denial activities.

The Adelaide Institute was a Holocaust denial group in Australia and is considered to be antisemitic by the Australian Human Rights Commission and others. The Adelaide Institute was formed in 1995 from the former Truth Mission that was established in 1994 by Fredrick Töben, later a convicted Holocaust denier. Töben directed the Institute until his incarceration in 2009 in South Australia for contempt of court. Peter Hartung assumed the role of director of the Adelaide Institute. On assuming the role from Töben, Hartung defied the Federal Court by publishing the revisionist material that led to Töben's three months jail time. In June 2009, the Adelaide Institute was linked with an American white supremacist, James von Brunn, charged with killing a security guard in Washington's Holocaust Museum.

Barbara Kulaszka was a Canadian lawyer who practised law in Brighton, Ontario, known for her work with far-right causes, defending alleged Nazi war criminals and Holocaust deniers, and free speech cases.

Michèle Suzanne Renouf is an Australian-born British political activist. An article in The Sunday Telegraph in February 2009 described her as a "one-time actress" and "former model and beauty queen" who since the late 1990s "has attended and spoken at Holocaust 'revisionist' conferences and written papers on the subject".

The Canadian Association for Free Expression (CAFE) is one of a number of groups run by neo-Nazi and white supremacist Paul Fromm. Established in 1981, CAFE states that it is committed to the promotion and defense of total freedom of speech, and publishes the Free Speech Monitor ten times a year. Although it began in Ontario, it has also been incorporated in Alberta.

Antisemitic tropes or antisemitic canards are "sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications" that are defamatory towards Judaism as a religion or defamatory towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since the Middle Ages, such reports have been a recurring motif of broader antisemitic conspiracy theories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aftermath of the Holocaust</span> Review of the topic

The Holocaust had a deep effect on society both in Europe and the rest of the world, and today its consequences are still being felt, both by children and adults whose ancestors were victims of this genocide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvia Stolz</span>

Sylvia Stolz is a German Neo-Nazi, convicted Holocaust denier and former lawyer. Denial of the Holocaust is a criminal offense in Germany.

<i>Denying the Holocaust</i> 1993 book by Deborah Lipstadt

Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory is a 1993 book by the historian Deborah Lipstadt, in which the author discusses the Holocaust denial movement. Lipstadt named British writer David Irving as a Holocaust denier, leading him to sue her unsuccessfully for libel. She gives a detailed explanation of how people came to deny the Holocaust or claim that it was vastly exaggerated by the Jews.

The International Conference on Hollywoodism, sometimes known as the Conference on Hollywoodism and Cinema, is a conference held on several occasions in the early 2010s and organized by the government of Iran. By its own description, it "host[s] filmmakers, scholars and activists from around the world to discuss different aspects of world cinema as they relate to human ideals on one hand and the realities of Hollywood on the other." In particular, the conference served to criticize the United States film industry's portrayals of Islam and Iran. It took place in Tehran in February each year, coincident to and within the framework of the Fajr International Film Festival.

The Irish slaves myth is a fringe pseudohistorical narrative that conflates the penal transportation and indentured servitude of Irish people during the 17th and 18th centuries, with the hereditary chattel slavery experienced by the forebears of the African diaspora. Some white nationalists, and others who want to minimize the effects of hereditary chattel slavery on Africans and their descendants, have used this false equivalence to deny racism against African Americans or claim that African Americans are too vocal in seeking justice for historical grievances. It also can hide the facts around Irish involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. The myth has been in circulation since at least the 1990s and has been disseminated in online memes and social media debates. According to historians Jerome S. Handler and Matthew C. Reilly, "it is misleading, if not erroneous, to apply the term 'slave' to Irish and other indentured servants in early Barbados". In 2016, academics and Irish historians wrote to condemn the myth.

This timeline of antisemitism chronicles the facts of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group, in the 21st century. It includes events in the history of antisemitic thought, actions taken to combat or relieve the effects of antisemitism, and events that affected the prevalence of antisemitism in later years. The history of antisemitism can be traced from ancient times to the present day.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Duke University Press. pp. 98–100, 363. ISBN   9780822330714 . Retrieved March 15, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Barkun, Michael (2003). "Millennialism, Conspiracy, and Stigmatized Knowledge". A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. University of California Press. p. 34. ISBN   9780520238053 . Retrieved January 23, 2022. Michael A. Hoffman II, a Holocaust denier and exponent of multiple conspiracy theories...
  3. 1 2 3 "Despite YouTube Policy Update, Anti-Semitic, White Supremacist Channels Remain". Anti-Defamation League. August 15, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  4. Fortean Times, issue no. 30.
  5. Dec. 10, 2012, p. 5
  6. Paul Rydeen, "Through a Hoffman Lens Darkly," Crash Collusion,
  7. 1 2 3 Stephen E. Atkins, Holocaust Denial as an International Movement (Praeger: 2009), p. 178.
  8. Michael Whine, "The Far Right on the Internet" in The Governance of Cyberspace: Politics, Technology and Global Restructuring (ed. Brian D. Loader: Routledge, 1997), p. 212.
  9. Christian News, Dec. 10, 2012, p. 5
  10. "Anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan Teams Up With Notorious Holocaust Denier at Saviours' Day 2019 Conference". Anti-Defamation League. February 17, 2019. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  11. 1 2 3 Jensen, Derrick (2004). "Power". The Culture of Make Believe. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company. p. 78. ISBN   9781603581837.
  12. Hogan, Liam (January 14, 2015). "'Irish slaves' - the convenient myth". Open Democracy. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  13. Amend, Alex; Hogan, Liam (April 19, 2016). "How the Myth of the "Irish slaves" Became a Favorite Meme of Racists Online". Southern Poverty Law Center Hatewatch. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  14. "Kennedy: King Kill 33 - Manson, Holy Wood & JFK - The NACHTKABARETT".
  15. Inside the 9/11 Conspiracy, [Audio CD, 2002].
  16. Originally published in 1985 by the Institute for Historical Review