The question arises sooner or later in many families: Was your own grandfather or grandmother a member of the NSDAP? A new digital source makes research much easier. Again “Mirror” reported, has the US National Archives Large parts of the NSDAP membership files are now freely accessible on the Internet for the first time.

Millions of data sets – including names, dates of birth, joining date and membership numbers – can be freely searched. The database contains around 16.3 million digitized index cards. It goes back to stocks that were confiscated by the Allies after the Second World War.

However, the search can initially seem confusing for users. The database does not lead directly to individual index cards, but to digitized microfilms, often with thousands of pages. There are practical tips on how to use it Historian Martin Clemens Winter from the University of Leipzig as well a Reddit user compiled.

This is how the search works: five practical tips

Anyone who uses the database should take some technical features into account. Historians and initial user reports compiled by “Spiegel” show that small search tricks can be crucial.

1. Enter name correctly

The indexes usually list people in the format LAST NAME, FIRST NAME. Searching works best with quotation marks, for example:

• “MÜLLER, KARL”
• alternatively without a comma: “KARL MÜLLER”

This means that only exact hits are displayed.

2. Open the hit list correctly

After searching, a click usually leads to a microfilm document with many pages. A hit list often appears on the right, which leads directly to the relevant places in the document.

Important: The database searches entire microfilms, not individual index cards.

3. Combine with places or addresses

Location can also help narrow down results. Example:

• “MÜLLER, KARL” “LEIPZIG”

This allows possible party members from a specific location to be identified.

Automatic text recognition often recognizes numbers more reliably than names. Dates of birth are usually entered in the format DD.MM.YY, for example:

If you find a map, it’s worth taking a look at the pages before and after it. The lists are usually sorted alphabetically and, if the names are the same, are also sorted by date of birth. Because automatic text recognition does not always work reliably, relevant cards can be wrong even without a marked hit.

Reddit also points out that research is much easier to do on a computer than on a smartphone. Navigating long microfilms and thumbnails is easier on larger screens.

Different files provide different information

The online collection contains two different membership files. This is also pointed out on Reddit.

• Local group index (MFOK): around 6.6 million cards with detailed information, such as occupation, marital status, address, local group or district.
• Central card index (MFKL): around 4.3 million cards from the central party administration, mostly with basic membership data.

Depending on which file a hit comes from, the information can vary in extent.

If the search doesn’t turn up anything

A missing hit does not automatically mean that someone was not a NSDAP member.
There are several reasons for this:

• Parts of the file have been lost (around 20 percent).
• Text recognition can misread names.
• Many people supported the regime without being party members.
• At times there were admission stops or long waiting lists.

If you want to do more in-depth research, you should therefore include other archives, such as the Federal Archives, which also stores Wehrmacht documents, denazification files or documents on the SA and SS.

Historical background of the indexes

By 1945, around 8.5 million Germans had joined the NSDAP. The party created several index cards for each member, including a central index in Munich and regional district indexes.

According to the report, the fact that a large proportion of these documents were preserved at all is considered a historical coincidence. Shortly before the end of the war, the files were to be destroyed. A Munich paper factory director resisted the order and instead hid the documents in waste paper.

After the war, the US Army confiscated the holdings and used them in the so-called “Berlin Document Center” for denazification procedures. They were only returned to Germany in the 1990s and are now kept in the Federal Archives.

Historians warn against prematurely interpreting individual finds. The indexes are initially raw historical material. However, the date of entry in particular can provide clues: Anyone who joined the party before 1933 was considered an early supporter of National Socialism. Later memberships, however, could also have opportunistic reasons.