[2] Hoffmann was born in Vienna in 1928 and moved to France with his family the following year.
The Nazis classified Hoffmann and his mother as Jewish, forcing them to flee Paris in 1940.
They fled to the village of Lamalou-les-Bains in the south of France, where they spent the war hiding from the Gestapo.
[4] A French citizen since 1947, Hoffmann spent his childhood between Paris and Nice before studying at Sciences Po, graduating at the top of his class in 1948.
[7] In 1997, Hoffmann was named the Paul and Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor.