This week, DER SPIEGEL published an interactive tool that finally makes the Nazi party member base instantly searchable, allowing users to investigate whether their family members were members of the NSDAP and at what time they joined. Our Editor-in-Chief, Dirk Kurbjuweit, reflects on the role of this search tool and his own family history in his Sunday column:

“In my family narrative regarding the Nazi era, there is a light side and a dark side. One grandfather was a member of the NSDAP and the SA. I have a personnel sheet of his that contains the horrific sentence: "Good for hall brawls." That is how the SA—the paramilitary "brownshirts"—deployed him.

So, I knew what to expect when I entered his name into our interactive research tool for the Nazi past. He was the first to appear, having joined the NSDAP in December 1931. You can find the interactive research tool here: spiegel.de/geschichte/n…

My heart didn't start racing until I typed in the name of my other grandfather. In our family, he was considered the "good one," said to have kept his distance from the Nazis. Thus, our family narrative maintained a certain balance: one was bad, the other was alright. This balance didn't help anyone who had been beaten up by the first one, and I think I have always felt a sense of obligation toward that dark legacy. But sometimes, admittedly, I was relieved that a little light shone out of our family history.

Would it now be extinguished? Would the balance collapse? I typed my grandfather's name into my laptop and, even after an extensive search, did not find him. That doesn't mean he was definitely not a party member, as the records are incomplete or may contain errors. Furthermore, I don't know the full details of everything my grandfathers did. We, too, have allowed a certain fog to settle over our family history.

Although that wasn't the case for me: the research tool is intended to help clear such fog.”

(Photo: David Maupilr/DER SPIEGEL)