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

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.