Kurt Hofmann, originally Emil Hofmann, was born in Jena on April 14, 1896. He served as a soldier during World War I. Afterwards, he worked as a clerk at Carl Zeiss in Jena for over 30 years.
In 1942, he joined the NSDAP and was appointed block assistant for the Jena-Nord local group in May 1944. His house at St.-Jacobsstraße 8 was used by the employment office as a transit camp to house forced labourers.
The German police arrested Hofmann on October 8, 1947 on the orders of the Soviet occupying power. After a week, he was transferred to the Special Camp No. 2. On November 18, 1947, a Soviet military court sentenced him to 25 years in prison for running two camps for foreign forced labourers. On May 5, 1955, he was released from the Bautzen I prison. Kurt Hofmann died in Jena on June 11, 1980, at the age of 84.
In this letter, the responsible NSDAP cell leader informs Kurt Hofmann of his duties. “Blockhelfer” ranked at the bottom of the party hierarchy. Despite their low position, however, the “Blockhelfer” were instrumental to the operation of Nazi tyranny at the local level.
Authorities, political organisations, and companies often wrote reviews in which they cleared the internees of suspicion. With that, they wanted to prove their innocence.
