New German search engine lets people check whether their relatives were Nazis

A screenshot from the homepage of Die Zeit's new search tool. (Zeit via CNN Newsource)

A new search engine that allows users to search Nazi party records in order to find out whether their ancestors were card-carrying members has been accessed millions of times since it was launched earlier this month.

The huge database has been made available by the German newspaper Die Zeit in a bid to “end the silence born of misplaced shame,” according to an editorial from the publication. It is run in conjunction with archives in Germany and the United States.

Founded after World War I, Hitler’s party did not really gain in popularity until the economic collapse of the Great Depression. There was a sharp rise in support for it during the 1930 elections, and when Hitler was elected three years later he abolished all other parties, creating a mass movement that controlled all aspects of German life.

By the late 1930s, the “vast majority of Germans supported Hitler and the Nazi state,” according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

According to Die Zeit, 10.2 million Germans joined the party in the 20 years from 1925 and at its height at the end of World War II it had about 9 million members.

In the final days of the war, the Nazis sought to destroy the party’s vast collection of membership cards but they were saved at the last minute and later handed to the Americans. They were then stored in the Berlin Document Center but were later transferred to the German Federal Archives, with copies also at the US National Archives, the newspaper reported.

A spokeswoman for Die Zeit told CNN the new site had been accessed millions and shared thousands of times.

Christian Staas, head of Die Zeit’s history department, told CNN that there had been an overwhelming response to the search engine. He explained that an average of 75,000 people approach the German Federal Archives for this information each year, and when the US National Archives made the records available online, the demand was so heavy that the website went down temporarily.

Die Zeit gained access to those records and, with the help of AI, developed a “convenient search option,” said Staas. “This level of interest does seem relatively new, and I’m sure the fact that most former NSDAP (Nazi party) members, or people involved in Nazi crimes or war crimes, are no longer alive makes it easier for many people to ask questions about their own family history.”

“In opinion polls, only very few Germans say their ancestors supported the Nazi regime, and quite a lot believe their families opposed Hitler. That obviously can’t be true. Perhaps our search engine helps people arrive at a more realistic view of the past,” he added.

Some of those who searched the records shared their reactions with Die Zeit after finding out that their suspicions were confirmed.

“My feelings are all over the place right now,” wrote one, identified only as Katha1927, who had suspected both their grandfathers had joined the party. “I’m wondering which entry date I find worse: 1931 –- so early, already so convinced? Or 1941 –- even though they already knew so much?”

Another, listed as “dudettes,” said: “For over 40 years I wondered if my great-grandfather was a member. He was a railroad engineer during the Nazi era and always flew into a rage whenever the topic of the war came up. Question answered. Thank you, ZEIT. Even though it hurts terribly.”

One person identified as “Aunt Horst” said their family research had always previously focused on a Jewish branch, which they said was “wiped out by the Shoah.”

The respondent said they discovered “the ‘Aryan’ husband of a Jewish great-aunt,” who joined the Nazi party in 1933. “His wife, whom he likely divorced, was murdered in May 1942 by truck exhaust fumes in Kulmhof (extermination camp),” they wrote.

Christine Schmidt, co-director of the Wiener Holocaust Library in London, described the search engine as a “boon for scholarship on the Nazi period.”

“At its peak the Nazi party had some 8 million members,” she said, “with people joining for a variety of reasons: a sense of economic desperation, the appeal of nationalism and charismatic leadership, or because of their own antisemitism.”

She said the accessibility of the archive’s data “represents a significant step forward in terms of national and international reckoning with this period and the horror that resulted from it,” adding that “in an age of increased misinformation about the history of the Holocaust, this is also a reminder of the power of original documentation and their evidentiary capacity in the face of denial or distortion of the facts of the period.”

Lianne Kolirin, CNN