\nHuge crowds at the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg. – Everett\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A spokeswoman for Die Zeit told CNN the new site had been accessed millions and shared thousands of times.<\/p>\n
Christian Staas, head of Die Zeit\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Die Zeit gained access to those records and, with the help of AI, developed a \u201cconvenient search option,\u201d said Staas. \u201cThis level of interest does seem relatively new, and I\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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\u2019t be true. Perhaps our search engine helps people arrive at a more realistic view of the past,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Some of those who searched the records shared their reactions with Die Zeit after finding out that their suspicions were confirmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy feelings are all over the place right now,\u201d wrote one, identified only as Katha1927, who had suspected both their grandfathers had joined the party. \u201cI\u2019m wondering which entry date I find worse: 1931 \u2013- so early, already so convinced? Or 1941 \u2013- even though they already knew so much?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another, listed as \u201cdudettes,\u201d said: \u201cFor 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
One person identified as \u201cAunt Horst\u201d said their family research had always previously focused on a Jewish branch, which they said was \u201cwiped out by the Shoah.\u201d<\/p>\n
The respondent said they discovered \u201cthe \u2018Aryan\u2019 husband of a Jewish great-aunt,\u201d who joined the Nazi party in 1933. \u201cHis wife, whom he likely divorced, was murdered in May 1942 by truck exhaust fumes in Kulmhof (extermination camp),\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
Christine Schmidt, co-director of the Wiener Holocaust Library in London, described the search engine as a \u201cboon for scholarship on the Nazi period.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt its peak the Nazi party had some 8 million members,\u201d she said, \u201cwith 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the accessibility of the archive\u2019s data \u201crepresents a significant step forward in terms of national and international reckoning with this period and the horror that resulted from it,\u201d adding that \u201cin 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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