A Nazi in the Family

In the back of the theatre with a full box of Kleenex – I bawled through the entire Schindler’s List movie in my late teens (Thank-you Itzhak Perlman). I poured over Anne Frank’s diary and read The Book Thief [Markus Zusak] and Art Spiegelman’s Maus - each only once as horrer invaded and my heart ached

The most recent QuinTrees Family Story of Polish-Ukrainian-German ancestry intersected with several European conflicts. The Schleswig Wars, The Seven Weeks War, The Napoleonic War, World War I, The Russian Revolution and World War II all featured in disrupting the peace of family life. Then there it was:

...a Nazi in the family.

There were several in fact.

Immediate Gen X, Canadian raised reaction was – oh no. My own Oma lived her preteen years in Holland during the German Occupation. My husband’s grandfather fought in Italy. My heart screamed “this ancestral family were in the wrong, serving an evil agenda.”

I tempered my reaction and acknowledged this judgement call as an inherited trauma.

When studying DNA and genealogical consequences the topic of epigenetic effects¹ via gene methylation was introduced. Studies showed that the children and grandchildren of an individual exposed to conflict suffer anxiety and other illnesses due to the transmission of trauma intergenerationally² or trans generationally³. In simple words, trauma can be inherited.⁴

As a genealogical writer, one will encounter bad apples⁵, black sheep⁶, victims, the truly evil and those who fought on ALL sides of many conflicts. It is important to relay the facts without judgment and with consideration.

Having a Nazi ancestor of member of NSDAP⁷ can be a tricky discovery in any family lineage. Things to remember are that membership in movement that causes harm to another does not automatically mean that one was committed to the ideology and beliefs of the party. Some adherents sought social conformity, some joiners sough employment and others complied to avoid their own persecution.

Context is key. Many times motivations cannot not be affirmed with the passage of time. For any ‘dark’ discovery in a family history the author suggests the following instructions be extended to the readers:

1) read and digest the facts

2) avoid assumptions and generalizations

3) understand that first hand information is usually missing

4) acknowledge that this history has had implications for the family, others and yourself.

5) make reparations – contribute financially or with volunteer support to a group that helps

those impacted or extends education to avoid future events

Humans are glorious, surviving, succeeding and reproducing – which is why we can celebrate our family lineage. Humans are also cruel, destroying, failing and standing in the way of others’ human right to exist. Honour the first statement. Speak out and perform acts of resistance against the later.

1. Epigenetic markers are chemical tags (such as methyl groups) attached to DNA and proteins

that alter who genes are read. They are not a change in the sequence itself.

2. Intergenerationally inherited trauma – passed genetically direct from parent to child

3. Trans generationally inherited trauma – passed genetically through grandparent to granchild or

even through multiple generations

4. Raza, Hussain and others, “Exposure to war and conflict: The individual and inherited epigenetic

effects on health, with a focus on post-traumatic stress disorder.” Abstract. National Library of

Medicine (www.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10910933/: accessed 18 October 2025); citing

Frontiers in Epidemiology, Volume 3, 15 February 2023.

5. Bad Apples, idiom, ‘one bad apple spoils a group’, referring to a person whose actions/behaviours

and/or attitudes are deemed negative, create problems or hurt others.

6. Black Sheep, idiom, ‘black sheep in a family of white sheep’, referring to a person considered a

disgrace, failure or outcast because they are different from the rest of the group.

7. NSADP – National Socialist German Workers’ Party, far-right political party supporting Nazi ideals.

Suzanne Mainprize

BA(Mus), PLCGS

www.quintrees.ca