Germans confront past with Nazi party membership lists available online

This online access to Nazi party membership lists comes at a crucial time. As the generation that lived under the Third Reich gradually disappears, it is now their grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are daring to ask the long-taboo question: what role did my grandfather or and grandmother play under the Nazis?

Germany is often held up as a model for its remembrance culture. But an intimate reckoning with its Nazi past remains far from complete. In 2020, only 3 percent of Germans surveyed by Die Zeit said their ancestors had supported National Socialism – a figure that speaks volumes about the silence that still lingers within families.

FRANCE 24's Anne Mailliet, Caroline du Bled, Leyla Sobler, Raphaël Kominis and Nick Holdsworth report.