Were grandma and grandpa Nazis? Whats this search engine that allows us to delve into the dark past of our German ancestors

On April 7th, the German weekly magazine Die Zeit launched a tool to consult the archives of NSDAP membership records. In other words, a simple and effective way to find out if your ancestors were members of the far-right party.

Your father, your grandfather, or your great-grandparents – were they members of the National Socialist Party? This is a question that many Germans have asked themselves after World War II, and now it is possible to answer with just a few clicks.

On April 7th, the German weekly Die Zeit launched a search engine that consolidates the NSDAP membership records. Using a search bar, you can enter your last name to discover whether or not your grandparents were Nazis.

A colossal archiving effort: According to the German media, previously, you had to “contact the German or American federal archives” to find the answer to this question. Now, a simple click unveils this taboo that still affects generations that survived the Reich and the German defeat.

“In the beginning, we were able to directly make approximately 4.5 million archive files from the Nazi era accessible. After an update, 8.2 million additional documents are now available by name and place of birth,” explains the newspaper. In total, more than 10.2 million Germans joined the Nazi party between 1925 and 1945.

How does the search engine work? To complete this work, Die Zeit claims to have comprehensively processed and statistically analyzed millions of data from the archives using artificial intelligence.

In some search cases, in addition to the last name, it is necessary to provide the exact date and place of birth of ancestors to filter the results effectively.

Die Zeit also points out that not finding relatives in the database “does not necessarily mean they were not party members.” This is a valid warning, as information about approximately one million members has been lost. The magazine also specifies that results may be incomplete due to gaps in letter ranges (from Fa to G and from Ka to O), or the destruction of certain archives in Vienna (Austria) and Salzburg.