Michael A. Hoffman II
Encyclopedia
Michael Anthony Hoffman II, (born 1954, New York
), is an American journalist, conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier who describes himself as a "heretical
writer." Hoffman is the managing editor of the newsletter Revisionist History.
leader Melchior Hoffman
.
Hoffman was educated at the State University of New York at Oswego
. He is the author of several books and articles (including for the UK-based magazine Fortean Times
). Hoffman moved from New York to Idaho
in 1996. Hoffman now writes mainly on World War II
revisionism
, current affairs, the alleged occult roots of Freemasonry
and "Talmud
ic Judaism
."
cryptocracy's orchestration of American history." He believes that this cryptocracy
runs American history, controlling culture and thought via ritualistic psychodrama
s and killing sprees. A detailed explanation of this hypothesis is found in Hoffman's Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare. Examples of such "psychodramas," in Hoffman's view, include Route 66
(which connects various centers of Satanic
importance), and the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, in which Hoffman sees ritualistic elements.
Hoffman also argues that the gnosis of this ruling cabal are slowly being revealed through movies such as They Live
and The Matrix
and other forms of symbolic and subliminal communication which Hoffman terms twilight language
.
, but is instead based on the oral tradition
as represented by the Mishnah
, the Gemara
and derivative rabbinic halacha. Hoffman supports the Karaites, a Jewish sect who reject the Talmud, as "a group which, historically, has been most hated and severely persecuted by orthodox Jewish rabbinate." According to the back cover of Judaism Discovered, Hoffman contends that Orthodox Judaism has more in common with Babylonian paganism than Israelite Biblicism.
. Hoffman doubts that execution gas chamber
s existed in the Nazi camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, and claims that the term "Holocaust" is Orwellian
Newspeak
imposed beginning circa 1978 in order to confuse and distract from debates about the numbers of Jewish deaths that can be attributed to Nazism. Hoffman doubts that six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and asserts that most of the Jewish deaths in WWII were from typhus
, malnutrition
and shootings perpetrated by some units of the SS on the Eastern front.
Hoffman believes that Hitler did indeed have as a goal, at least philosophically, the extermination (Ausrottung) of the Jewish people, but Hoffman also argues that the primary means of extermination—the execution gas chambers of Auschwitz—have not been scientifically proved to have existed or been operable, and that "eyewitness" testimony failed under cross-examination at the 1985 "Great Holocaust Trial" of Ernst Zündel
in Toronto
.
Hoffman has been influenced by the research of Holocaust deniers Charles D. Provan
, Carlo Mattogno
, Germar Rudolf
and Brian Renk.
Hoffman rejects the label "Holocaust denier," and argues that the label is applied unfairly, and with an emotional rather than empirical basis, to those who research controversial issues related to WWII and Judaism—according to Hoffman, applying the same partisan logic, those who doubt the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception
would be stigma
tized by journalists and academics as "Immaculate Conception deniers."
in America; he claims that a widespread history of white slavery has been overlooked by most historians. In his book They Were White and They Were Slaves, Hoffman describes a social structure situating poor whites as holding the lowest post in colonial and post-colonial America, citing a quote from Eugene D. Genovese
in "Toward a New View of America" (pp. 79, 81-82, 84, 90-91), in which a former black slave in South Carolina, Ella Kelly, refers to the poor whites as the bottom rung, black slaves occupying the middle, and the white planters as the ruling stratum. {cf. Hoffman, pp. 43–44}
Hoffman has summarized his thesis as follows: "The de facto enslavement of whites began with the enclosure
acts (privatization of formerly public grazing lands known as commons), which made paupers of much of the English yeoman
ry and created an army of homeless and unemployed citizens demonized by official history as England's fabled 'criminal underclass' (the criminal overclass escapes this withering scrutiny). The history of white slavery in Britain is found in the practice of 'kid-nabbing' (kidnapping
) and the laws and customs that permitted enslavement aboard ship of abducted farmers and laborers taken from such notorious "crimping" ports as Glasgow
. Malthusian scarcity paradigms were later invented out of fear of the insurrectionist potential of whites dubbed 'surplus poor,' who, in the seventeenth century, were shipped to British America and the West Indies as slaves, to toil unto death (not seven years) on sugar and tobacco plantations as soon as colonies were established (Georgia
was envisioned as a white slave dumping ground and Virginia
initially had more white slaves than black ones)." ("Movie 'Amazing Grace' Makes a Hero out of an Oppressor of White Slaves").
Hoffman's book "They Were White and They Were Slaves" was cited heavily in Jim Goad's "Redneck Manifesto" as part of a larger discussion of race and the white underclass in America.
Michael Barkun
has characterized Hoffman as a "Holocaust denier and proponent of multiple conspiracy theories", while Mattias Gardell
writes, "Antisemitism is prominent also in the worldview of Michael Hoffman II, one of the counterculture
's more original conspiracy researchers". Robert Jan van Pelt
calls Hoffman a Holocaust "negationist."
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
), is an American journalist, conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier who describes himself as a "heretical
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
writer." Hoffman is the managing editor of the newsletter Revisionist History.
Education and employment
Of German and Italian descent, in his book Judaism Discovered he claims ties to the 16th-century AnabaptistAnabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
leader Melchior Hoffman
Melchior Hoffman
Melchior Hoffman was an Anabaptist prophet and a visionary leader in northern Germany and the Netherlands.-Life:Hoffman was born at Schwäbisch Hall in Franconia before 1500...
.
Hoffman was educated at the State University of New York at Oswego
State University of New York at Oswego
State University of New York at Oswego, also known as SUNY Oswego and Oswego State, is a public university in the City of Oswego and Town of Oswego, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario...
. He is the author of several books and articles (including for the UK-based magazine Fortean Times
Fortean Times
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing and then I Feel Good Publishing , it is now published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. As of December 2010, its circulation was approximately 18,000...
). Hoffman moved from New York to Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
in 1996. Hoffman now writes mainly on World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
revisionism
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
, current affairs, the alleged occult roots of Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
and "Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
ic Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
."
Views on cryptocracy
Hoffman's self-described vocation is "researching the occultOccult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
cryptocracy's orchestration of American history." He believes that this cryptocracy
Cryptocracy
Cryptocracy, from the ancient Greek κρυπτός and κραττείν , refers to a type of government where the real leaders are hidden, or merely unknown. A puppet government or figurehead, whether aware or not of their status as such, usually figures into this type of government in concept...
runs American history, controlling culture and thought via ritualistic psychodrama
Psychodrama
Psychodrama is a method of psychotherapy in which clients utilize spontaneous dramatization, role playing and dramatic self-presentation to investigate and gain insight into their lives. Developed by Jacob L. Moreno, M.D. psychodrama includes elements of theater, often conducted on a stage where...
s and killing sprees. A detailed explanation of this hypothesis is found in Hoffman's Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare. Examples of such "psychodramas," in Hoffman's view, include Route 66
U.S. Route 66
U.S. Route 66 was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926 -- with road signs erected the following year...
(which connects various centers of Satanic
Satanism
Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
importance), and the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, in which Hoffman sees ritualistic elements.
Hoffman also argues that the gnosis of this ruling cabal are slowly being revealed through movies such as They Live
They Live
They Live is a 1988 science fiction/horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Frank Armitage ....
and The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
and other forms of symbolic and subliminal communication which Hoffman terms twilight language
Twilight language
Twilight language may refer to:*A conspiracy theory proposed by James Shelby Downard and embraced by Michael A. Hoffman II*The Twilight Language, a polysemic language and communication system associated with Tantric traditions...
.
Views on Jews and Judaism
In his books Judaism's Strange Gods (2000) and Judaism Discovered: A Study of the Anti-Biblical Religion of Racism, Self-Worship, Superstition and Deceit (2008), Hoffman argues that modern-day Jewish Orthodoxy has little to no relation to the Old TestamentOld Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
, but is instead based on the oral tradition
Oral tradition
Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...
as represented by the Mishnah
Mishnah
The Mishnah or Mishna is the first major written redaction of the Jewish oral traditions called the "Oral Torah". It is also the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism. It was redacted c...
, the Gemara
Gemara
The Gemara is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah. After the Mishnah was published by Rabbi Judah the Prince The Gemara (also transliterated Gemora or, less commonly, Gemorra; from Aramaic גמרא gamar; literally, "[to] study" or "learning by...
and derivative rabbinic halacha. Hoffman supports the Karaites, a Jewish sect who reject the Talmud, as "a group which, historically, has been most hated and severely persecuted by orthodox Jewish rabbinate." According to the back cover of Judaism Discovered, Hoffman contends that Orthodox Judaism has more in common with Babylonian paganism than Israelite Biblicism.
Views on the Holocaust
Hoffman's views on the Holocaust include many elements of Holocaust denialHolocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. Hoffman doubts that execution gas chamber
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
s existed in the Nazi camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, and claims that the term "Holocaust" is Orwellian
Orwellian
"Orwellian" describes the situation, idea, or societal condition that George Orwell identified as being destructive to the welfare of a free society...
Newspeak
Newspeak
Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel, it refers to the deliberately impoverished language promoted by the state. Orwell included an essay about it in the form of an appendix in which the basic principles of the language are explained...
imposed beginning circa 1978 in order to confuse and distract from debates about the numbers of Jewish deaths that can be attributed to Nazism. Hoffman doubts that six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and asserts that most of the Jewish deaths in WWII were from typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
, malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
and shootings perpetrated by some units of the SS on the Eastern front.
Hoffman believes that Hitler did indeed have as a goal, at least philosophically, the extermination (Ausrottung) of the Jewish people, but Hoffman also argues that the primary means of extermination—the execution gas chambers of Auschwitz—have not been scientifically proved to have existed or been operable, and that "eyewitness" testimony failed under cross-examination at the 1985 "Great Holocaust Trial" of Ernst Zündel
Ernst Zündel
Ernst Christof Friedrich Zündel is a German Holocaust denier and pamphleteer who was jailed several times in Canada for publishing literature which "is likely to incite hatred against an identifiable group" and for being a threat to national security, in the United States for overstaying his visa,...
in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
.
Hoffman has been influenced by the research of Holocaust deniers Charles D. Provan
Charles D. Provan
Charles D. Provan was a Christian theologian, one-time Holocaust denier, and author based in Monongahela, Pennsylvania who later in life rejected Holocaust denial after his investigations led him to conclude that eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust were believable...
, Carlo Mattogno
Carlo Mattogno
Carlo Mattogno is an Italian Holocaust denier.He is the author of numerous books and monographs, several of which have been published in the Journal of Historical Review....
, Germar Rudolf
Germar Rudolf
Germar Rudolf is a German chemist and Holocaust denier.-Background:Rudolf was born in Limburg an der Lahn, Hesse. After finishing secondary education in 1983 in Remscheid, Rudolf studied chemistry in Bonn, completing his studies in 1989. As a student, he joined A.V. Tuisconia Königsberg zu Bonn...
and Brian Renk.
Hoffman rejects the label "Holocaust denier," and argues that the label is applied unfairly, and with an emotional rather than empirical basis, to those who research controversial issues related to WWII and Judaism—according to Hoffman, applying the same partisan logic, those who doubt the Roman Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...
would be stigma
Social stigma
Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
tized by journalists and academics as "Immaculate Conception deniers."
Views of slavery
Another of Hoffman's subjects of study is indentured servitude and slaverySlavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in America; he claims that a widespread history of white slavery has been overlooked by most historians. In his book They Were White and They Were Slaves, Hoffman describes a social structure situating poor whites as holding the lowest post in colonial and post-colonial America, citing a quote from Eugene D. Genovese
Eugene D. Genovese
Eugene Dominic Genovese is an American historian of the American South and American slavery. He has been noted for bringing a Marxist perspective to the study of power, class and relations between planters and slaves in the South. His work Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made won the...
in "Toward a New View of America" (pp. 79, 81-82, 84, 90-91), in which a former black slave in South Carolina, Ella Kelly, refers to the poor whites as the bottom rung, black slaves occupying the middle, and the white planters as the ruling stratum. {cf. Hoffman, pp. 43–44}
Hoffman has summarized his thesis as follows: "The de facto enslavement of whites began with the enclosure
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
acts (privatization of formerly public grazing lands known as commons), which made paupers of much of the English yeoman
Yeoman
Yeoman refers chiefly to a free man owning his own farm, especially from the Elizabethan era to the 17th century. Work requiring a great deal of effort or labor, such as would be done by a yeoman farmer, came to be described as "yeoman's work"...
ry and created an army of homeless and unemployed citizens demonized by official history as England's fabled 'criminal underclass' (the criminal overclass escapes this withering scrutiny). The history of white slavery in Britain is found in the practice of 'kid-nabbing' (kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
) and the laws and customs that permitted enslavement aboard ship of abducted farmers and laborers taken from such notorious "crimping" ports as Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. Malthusian scarcity paradigms were later invented out of fear of the insurrectionist potential of whites dubbed 'surplus poor,' who, in the seventeenth century, were shipped to British America and the West Indies as slaves, to toil unto death (not seven years) on sugar and tobacco plantations as soon as colonies were established (Georgia
Province of Georgia
The Province of Georgia was one of the Southern colonies in British America. It was the last of the thirteen original colonies established by Great Britain in what later became the United States...
was envisioned as a white slave dumping ground and Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
initially had more white slaves than black ones)." ("Movie 'Amazing Grace' Makes a Hero out of an Oppressor of White Slaves").
Hoffman's book "They Were White and They Were Slaves" was cited heavily in Jim Goad's "Redneck Manifesto" as part of a larger discussion of race and the white underclass in America.
Criticism
Political scientistPolitical science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
Michael Barkun
Michael Barkun
Michael Barkun is professor emeritus of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, specializing in political extremism and the relationship between religion and violence...
has characterized Hoffman as a "Holocaust denier and proponent of multiple conspiracy theories", while Mattias Gardell
Mattias Gardell
Hans Bertil Mattias Gardell is a Swedish scholar of comparative religion. He is the current holder of the Nathan Söderblom Chair of Comparative Religion at Uppsala University, Sweden....
writes, "Antisemitism is prominent also in the worldview of Michael Hoffman II, one of the counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
's more original conspiracy researchers". Robert Jan van Pelt
Robert Jan van Pelt
Robert Jan van Pelt is an author, architectural historian, professor at the University of Waterloo and University of Toronto in Ontario and a Holocaust scholar. One of the world's leading experts on Auschwitz, he regularly speaks on Holocaust related topics, through which he has come to address...
calls Hoffman a Holocaust "negationist."