Many German families have long grappled with the unsettling question: What did grandpa do during the war? Now, the answer may be just a few clicks away — but it might not be what they hoped to hear.
In March, the US National Archives posted online digital scans of roughly 12 million membership cards from Adolf Hitler's Nazi party. The records, seized by American troops after the Nazis were defeated in World War II, had previously only been available on microfilm. Since the mass online release, secrets buried for decades have suddenly become just a simple search away.
German media outlets Die Zeit and Der Spiegel quickly launched online tools to help Germans navigate the archive. "Was grandpa a Nazi?" asked headlines across the country.
Since then, hundreds of thousands of Germans have searched the records for names of ancestors, well aware they may face unpleasant truths. One of them, Corinna, 60, learned that her father had joined the Nazis in 1935 — two years after Hitler seized power. Her 26-year-old daughter Helena found proof in the digitized archive.
"When my younger daughter told me about it on the phone, and then sent me a screenshot of the file, I was quite surprised," said Corinna, who asked that AFP not use her last name. She knew her father had been wounded fighting in France and Russia with the German army, but he had never mentioned Nazi sympathies. She always believed he was a lifelong member of the Social Democrats, Germany's labor party, coming from a mining family in the western Saarland region.
Decades of Silence
While the German state has gone to great lengths to remember and atone for the country's Nazi past, including the Holocaust, German families have often preferred not to mention the war — or even lie about it. By the time Hitler's Third Reich was defeated in 1945, more than one in ten Germans had joined the Nazi party.
Historian Johannes Spohr, who has long helped families trace their ancestors' Nazi past, said that after the war, this generation "made it clear through the atmosphere within the family that certain things should not be discussed." Many ex-Nazis "often didn't just remain silent, as is often claimed, but also told a different version of history," often portraying themselves as victims of Nazism or even members of the small anti-Nazi resistance movement.
Recent polls have shown that an implausibly high percentage of Germans — between 11 and 18 percent — think their grandparents tried to help those persecuted by the Nazi regime, Spohr noted. The real figure, according to latest historical research, is less than one percent, he said.
Complex Questions
Felix Puelm, a 42-year-old history professor, told AFP that he discovered his now-deceased grandmother had joined the Nazis in 1940 when she was 19. By then, he said, "she had already seen that the Nazis started war on the neighbouring countries" and "seen a great deal about where things are headed." Yet she still made her decision.
Puelm said he wished he had known earlier and been able to "ask more questions" of his grandmother before her death. His grandparents showed no sympathy for Hitler's regime after the war, "but they hadn't revealed everything they did at the time," said Puelm, who works at Thailand's Silpakorn University.
Spohr said the date someone joined the Nazis can provide clues about their level of commitment. "If someone joined in the 1920s or early 1930s, before Hitler came to power, it tends to indicate a conviction, that they really wanted to actively fight for the cause," said Spohr. From 1933 onward, more people may have acted out of opportunism, to secure jobs or otherwise benefit from the Nazi hierarchy. "There were certain professional fields where there were a lot of party members, for example civil servants and teachers," the historian told AFP. "And you can certainly say that there was a kind of social pressure — but nobody was forced to join the party."
Puelm told AFP that the new window into the Nazi archives might lead more Germans to reflect on the current rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany, which now leads most polls. He said he hoped revelations might prompt "many families to take the time to consider the reasons that lead them to join such a party."
