Nazi search engine shows if ancestors were in Hitler's party

Nazi search engine shows if ancestors were in Hitler's party59 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleBethany BellViennaChristian RainerChristian Rainer says he found the name of his grandfather "within a few seconds"A new German online search engine is helping people to discover if their ancestors were members of the Nazi Party.Christian Rainer, from Austria, told the BBC he found the name of his grandfather "within a few seconds"."I found out that he became a member of the Nazi Party around 21st of April 1938, just a few days after the Anschluss," when Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to Germany, he said.The online tool allows people to search through several million Nazi Party membership cards, the "NSDAP-Mitgliederkartei"."He applied to become a member of the NSDAP (Nazi) Party, just five days after it became legal in Austria," Rainer, the former editor of the Austrian news magazine profil, said.The search tool was set up by the German newspaper, Die Zeit, in cooperation with archives in Germany and in the United States.Rainer never met his grandfather, who died shortly before he was born in 1961."I always knew that he was close to the Nazis, but I was surprised that it only took him five days" to join them, he said."He was an academic," Rainer added. "He should have known in 1938 who the Nazis were."The search engine was important, Rainer said, not only for what it told him about his grandfather, but because it also helped clear other members of his family, including his father."I was happy I didn't find anyone else from my family, especially not my father. I had never suspected him of being a Nazi. He was drafted into (the Wehrmacht) in 1941 and wounded few times," he said.Die Zeit said the response to the search engine has been "overwhelming".It has been "accessed millions of times and shared thousands of times" since it was launched at t...