Trzecia Rzesza na haju. Narkotyki w hitlerowskich Niemczech

by Norman Ohler, Bartosz Nowacki (Translator)

Berlińskie zakłady chemiczne produkujące na masową skalę metamfetaminę, której jakości nie powstydziłby się sam Walter White z serialu "Breaking Bad", heroina sprzedawana w aptekach jako lek przeciwbólowy, oddziały straceńców na kokainowych gumach do żucia czy przesłuchiwania więźniów za pomocą meskaliny – to tylko kilka wstrząsających realiów hitlerowskich Niemiec.

Kiedy Niemcy w 1940 roku napadły na Francję, żołnierze Wehrmachtu byli pod wpływem 35 milionów dawek pervitinu. Preparat ten, którego składnikiem czynnym jest metamfetamina, zwana dzisiaj crystal meth, w zasadzie umożliwił wojnę błyskawiczną i stał się w nazistowskim państwie prawdziwym ludowym narkotykiem. Narkotyki zażywali również najwyżsi dowódcy Trzeciej Rzeszy. Göringa z powodu jego zamiłowania do morfiny przezywano "Möring", a rzekomo będący abstynentem Hitler codziennie potrzebował zastrzyków opioidu silniejszego od heroiny.

"Trzecia Rzesza na haju" to jedna z najbardziej kontrowersyjnych książek o hitlerowskich Niemczech w ostatnich latach. Ta pierwsza obszerna analiza narkotykowej rzeczywistości Trzeciej Rzeszy, oparta na sprawdzonych danych, zmienia nasze postrzeganie całej epoki.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, Audiobook, World War II, Germany, Drugs

357 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2015

About the author

Norman Ohler is a German author and screenwriter.

He is the son of Wolfgang Ohler.

Reviews

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not often I think of drugs (being anti) but when I do, it's things like breaking bad, Ewan Mcgregor swimming in a toilet to retrieve his fix in Trainspotting, Al Pacino in Scarface snorting half of Bolivia, or Sid Vicious holed-up at the Hotel Chelsea wondering what planet he is on. But the worst human being of the 20th century tops the lot of them. Or, at least according to Ohler anyway. Prior to the bullet entering his head, that sent him on a rendezvous with the devil, Hitler had something else entering his body. His bloodstream to be precise, along with most of the German forces, a staggering amount of drugs. This the man who strongly believed in purity of body and mind. A teetotaller and vegetarian living on a diet that included Spinach soup and herbal tea. The funny thing is, he was more concerned about Joseph Goebbels smoking than he was about his own organs, which were destroyed in the second half of World War 2 by an concoction of chemicals that turned him into a super-junkie, all thanks to his Physician Theodor Morell, who barely left his side. You could even say Morell played a big part in Germany's failure to win the war. Hitler so overly confident whilst pepped-up on god knows what, giving orders that drastically resulted in huge losses left, right and centre. Had the bullet not killed him, then no doubts his love for Narcotics would have done, that or execution.

Norman Ohler's book was quite simply astonishing, one of the best pieces of non-fiction I have had the pleasure to read. Packed to the rafters with facts and statistics I couldn't believe. The narrative, not a page wasted, demonstrating than you can turn a history lesson from a borefeast into a
full-on intoxicating, gripping and enthralling eye opener. Along with the text, the book contains some great images, photos and actual medical records, that just add more to what was already there. One of my faves being an advertising campaign for methamphetamine chocolates, featuring a housewife with a big smile on her face gazing into the box of chocs with the slogan underneath 'Making housework more fun' - 'Hildebrand chocolates always delight!'.

Starting of with a history of how drugs slowly started to creep into German society, to the Manufacturing process on an epic scale of drugs believed to give Germany the edge in battle, to the war itself, and an in depth look at Hitler and Morell throughout the latter years of WW2 spent in various bunkers, Ohler records the Nazi public image of clean and healthy living, like so many other aspects of Nazi propaganda, as actually the reverse of the truth. Most of the statements released saying the Führer is fit and well were blatant lies. I always thought Hitler was either mad or on drugs, turned out it was both. He took to the needle like a duck to water. The use of methamphetamine for example was the norm, Ohler argues, particularly in the form of Pervitin. The drug, he says, was manufactured in huge quantities, millions of tablets were ordered for the western campaigns. This does seems an impressive figure, until you recall that more than two and a quarter million troops were involved, making an average of around 15 tablets per soldier for the entire operation, which doesn't seem that great. Of course, although the book was researched well using reliable source and historical text, no one will ever know the true extent of how rife drug abuse was within the Reich during the war, leading to some critics to call Ohler's work total nonsense.

For example, whenever Morell notes that he had injected Hitler with an unnamed substance marked 'X' in his notebooks, Ohler assumes it was an opiate or some kind. Yet Dr. Morell, concerned to stay alive should Hitler end up dead, always made a effort to record when he supplied the Führer with opiates. These occasions were very few, or so it says anyway. Would Hitler not have voiced his contempt for Göring’s well-known morphine addiction had he been an addict himself? Not necessarily true, as would he really spread the news like wild fire he was a junkie, whilst raging a war and trying to keep the spirits up within his ranks?. Nor is there any solid evidence that the physical deterioration Albert Speer and others perceived in Hitler in the last months of his life was the result of his having to go cold turkey when the drug supply ceased. His tremors were the result of Parkinsons, as many writers have concluded. But again, the Parkinsons theory is sketchy.
Would prolonged excessive hard drug use result in tremors and blurred speech?, a resounding yes.
Hitler's ranting and raving certainly points to something interfering with his earlier calm self.
Gaunt, with weak limbs, a hunched over Führer was lost in oblivion. As the world closed in on him, some within his inner circle claim he had aged about 20 years between 1943 and 1945.

You know what, I don't care if it's partly historically inaccurate, The most important thing for me was loving every minute reading it. I like to believe it all true, I like to think of Hitler getting shots of Animal glands and other genetically modified substances, I like to think of the pepped-up German forces staying awake for days on end fighting against an invisible army, even after the war was declared over because they couldn't stop moving. I like to think of housewives doing the hoovering and washing up whilst high as a kite, and most important of all, I like to think of Hitler losing his rag, shaking and sobbing like a baby when he couldn't get his fix. Ohler oblivious had one eye on making it as readable as possible, it might seem over the top in places, but was written superbly well.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hitler was a meth head. Seriously. A genuine meth head.

Not content with merely being a genocidal maniac, a rubbish tactician and the twentieth century’s biggest asshole, the Fuhrer was also a methamphetamine and oxycodone addict, getting both drugs and sundry other dodgy chemicals regularly mainlined into his track-marked arms by his personal doctor/sycophant Theodor Morell.

This addiction, and Nazi Germany’s generalized abuse of powerful uppers and downers (particularly uppers) is the focus of Ohler’s intriguing book Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany, which presents a Germany where soldiers and workers alike quaffed buckets of what are now strictly controlled drugs.

I’m always willing to believe the worst about the Hitler and the Nazis, but the revelation that drug abuse was widespread in the Reich was surprising considering their constant harping on about racial and bodily ‘purity’. Exactly how widespread this abuse was is genuinely shocking. I knew that tank crews were given amphetamine laced ‘panzerchokolade’ (and that modern militaries have done similar things with pilots) but the level of hard drug use across both Germany’s military and civilian public was epic.

Submarine crews were given cocaine, oxycodone and methamphetamine tablets to keep them awake for up to four days, causing delusions, paranoia and disorientation. Soldiers and tank crews were hopped up on meth to the point of having heart attacks and psychological issues. Doctors, students, factory workers, housewives, pretty much every part of German society was represented among the ranks of meth users and abusers. The drug -under the band name of Pervitin - was easily obtained over the counter, and people were free to down as much of the stuff as they liked.

Soldiers’ lives and health (both physical and psychological) were given scant regard in the pursuit of enhanced performance, and Ohler thought-provokingly links the characteristics of meth use - aggression, hyperactivity, arrogance and unpredictability - with the successful Blitzkrieg tactics the Nazis used to invade France and Russia.

If the fish rots from the head, Hitler and his cronies in the Reich leadership were rotting fish heads par excellence. Goering was known even among his colleagues as an opiate abuser and a lush, and when he finally surrendered he was carrying a briefcase that contained 24,000 (!) opiate tablets, an amount which I’m guessing would have seen the drug-fiend of a Reichsmarschall through a moderately quiet weekend.

Ohler reveals late-war Hitler as a craven addict, receiving multiple daily injections from his personal doctor who filled his veins with everything from bull testicle hormones to methamphetamine. The Fuhrer’s inner elbows caked over with scabs from his track marks, and like any hardened IV drug addict his veins became harder and harder for his doctor to find as his need for his poison escalated.

Blitzed also details Germany’s central involvement in the creation of the drugs it later abused. Before the war Germany was a leader in chemical research, creating numerous new compounds such as methamphetamine and methadone and was at one stage responsible for a massive portion of world cocaine and heroin production.

Blitzed is an appalling but fascinating trip into a less understood aspect of life in the Third Reich. Ohler occasionally draws a long bow in blaming Hitler’s decisions on his drug use, but is careful to emphasize that the man was a monstrous, murderous egotist regardless of his chemical intake. I’d recommend Ohler's book to anyone with a passing interest in WW2 or the history of addictive drugs - it's a page-turning trip through the many hypocrisies and cruelties of Nazi Germany.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hitler and the Third Reich: From Teetotaller to Junkie

What are the images we have of the German army from WWII? Manic Blitzkrieg attacks rolling over neighboring countries. For awhile the whole world thought they were just simply a superior fighting force, as Hitler claimed. The element was surprise—shock and awe—and a kind of audacity. And what images do we have of the war-time Hitler? Ranting, raging, increasingly out of control, a dictator and a despot, possibly insanely evil. But how is it these two sets of images are connected? Novelist Ohler in a sense researched the answer to this question, but instead of writing a novel about it, as he had originally intended, he writes a non-fiction account of The Third Reich as both accomplishing astonishing military achievements and spectacularly crashing to defeat, fueled by. . . drugs.

Particuarly the drug Pervitin, which was distributed nation-wide for the purpose of manically ramping up production, 24/7, and particularly for the military, that needed to march at breakneck pace trampling Belgium and France and Poland and many others on little or no sleep. Pervitin, essentially a version of the crystal meth that Breaking Bad’s Walter was cooking up, both energized and finally enervated Hitler and many in an entire country, though this drug was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to Der Fuhrer, apparently, as in his later years he was being injected sometimes multiple times a day with a fairly crippling dose of more than 80 substances, many of them mind-altering.

History books sometimes barely acknowledge Hitler’s increasing dependence on drugs, and it’s essentially been somewhat of a footnote, as ideology trumps pharmacology, and reasonably so, I think. Mein Kampf alone makes it clear what his murderous and twisted intentions are. And of course without claiming ideology is irrelevant to the process, Ohler’s claim is that drugs were an important part of the cocktail that first emboldened and enlivened Germany’s war effort, and then poisoned Germany (as it “poisoned” the world) mid-last century.

Blitzed has a best seller title (like Mary Roach ‘s Gulp, Or Bonk) (he credits Michael Stipe of REM for the title!) and it has some occasionally sensationalized and purple prose, (“Remorselessly the needle penetrated his skin, the plunger was pulled back, the stuff shot into his veins, and he escaped again into self-delusion.”), so I'll admit that aspect of it seems sometimes troubling, and it sometimes feels like a cross between novel and scholarship (as do many popular history books), but on the whole he is mightily persuasive, and has the sources to back him up in his sensational claim.

The focus of the story is actually Otto Morel, Hitler’s personal physician, who increasingly attended even top-secret meetings in case The Boss needed a boost right then and there. Ironically, Hitler was known as a tee-totaller, a vegetarian, the very image of German purity, demanding the same of “his” people. But Hitler made possible the addiction to Pervitin of his fighting army, and increasingly Hitler and his high command also became addicted and disabled.

We get a good look at Hitler’s rampant drug use, and his typically 3 hour a night sleep schedule, and increasingly manic bunker isolation, losing energy and his mind, and eventual physical collapse, but Morel was there as his main Man, his hook-up, the very person who both kept him alive and nearly killed him. That Hitler would fail to fully understand the effects of the toxic stew he was ingesting is amazing. That it influenced his military and political judgement is undeniable. Hitler, shot up by Morel with a stew of vitamins and hormones and drugs, needing an even greater boost, eventually got hooked on Eukodal, whose active ingredient is an opiod called Oxycodon, synthesized from the raw material of opium. As with any addiction, it feeds you and feeds on you in the process of addiction and self-destruction.

In the process of detailing the decline it sometimes gets tiresome, but it iis peppered with numerous anecdotes taken from the medical diary of Morel and other umpublished sources. Some of them are sensational, too: Leni Reifenstahl given morphine enemas by the good doctor Morel, Morel also helping to addict Hitler’s young lover Eva Braun, hiding the physical effects (On Hitler) of the young Eva Braun’s violent sexual practices, and so on.

But Blitzed makes clear that between autumn 1941 until the end, Hitler did not enjoy a sober day, all the time insisting in his arrogance that he be the Supreme Commander of the Army. The drugs, Ohler insists, do not diminish Hitler’s guilt; his objectives and maniacal commitment to genocide and world domination, his complete self-absorption, all were present from the first and just solidified through the drugs.

The manic search for a miracle drug to help the army with a push to The Final Victory in a time when it was clear they were inevitably defeated, came to DIX, a combination of Pervitin (crystal meth), cocaine and Eukodal, but by then it was too late to count on a pharmacological final solution, if ever it was even possible. Some of the drugs were tested on concentration camp inmates. Nazi medical experiments and drug trials, known to me, are well documented.

Fascinating and compelling research story from Ohler, a best-seller in Germany, and possibly at some point here. I know I'll never see this period of history in the same way.

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written and fascinating. I'll review it more tomorrow after I take some pills.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nowhere were the 1920s more roaring than in Berlin - cocaine and morphine were available over the counter and cheaper than alcohol, and everyone was escaping reality, particularly since life in the Weimar Republic, with its mass unemployment and hyperinflation, was such a nightmare! Then these drugs started to be outlawed for obvious reasons (physical/mental health damage, addiction, death, etc.) and the Nazis came to power in 1933, supposedly ushering in an era of abstinence and sobriety, mirroring their Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler.

In Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany, Norman Ohler reveals the shocking extent with which the Third Reich was riddled with hardcore drugs, from Hitler to the ordinary German hausfrau, and what a major factor certain drugs like Pervitin, played in the war.

Pervitin - or crystal meth as it’s known today - was seen as a performance enhancer, to help you become more productive and overcome fatigue. Two tablets would keep you wired for 48 hours, which proved enormously useful once war broke out and the Wehrmacht began advancing on France. German soldiers kept popping Pervitin and went days without sleep, marching endlessly round the clock towards Paris. Ohler doesn’t claim Pervitin was behind Blitzkrieg’s success but the implication is there - it certainly seemed to help a great deal and it would explain the speed with which the Germans conquered France.

The most fascinating part of the book is Hitler and his escalating drug use thanks in large part to his enabler/private doctor, Theodor Morell. Hitler went from vegetarian teetotaller at the start of the war to full-blown junkie at the end who was having 8 to 10 injections and 120 to 150 tablets a week! The list of drugs he was on is incredible - cocaine, morphine, strychnine, Pervitin, meth, and Eukodal (a more powerful strain of heroin), to name just a few! He was also being injected with all manner of bizarre concoctions derived from animal parts - hardly vegetarian!

Hitler’s “treatments” began in 1941 which is coincidentally when the war started to go south for the Nazis. After the surprising triumph of Blitzkrieg - which he had no part in and was as astounded as the Allies - Hitler demanded he have full control of the armed forces and his decisions may not have been improved by making them on a cocktail of Class A drugs! Morell may have inadvertently helped the Allies by turning Hitler into a drug addict and destroying his health. Again, Ohler isn’t foolish enough to make drugs the singular cause for the major turning points of the war but he does make a very strong case for their importance when considering them.

The book is filled with remarkable stories. One of the most memorable is the creation of the Neger combat vessels, one-man U-boats which were intended to be hit-and-run attackers and which turned out to be little more than metal coffins for most of their German pilots, who’re still at the bottom of the sea. Some of the survivors almost went mad from chewing cocaine gum and popping meth pills to stay awake for 10 days in a row in order to navigate their near-useless subs in the underwater blackness! It was an insane plan only the desperate and strung-out could’ve come up with!

Norman Ohler’s Blitzed isn’t just a meticulously researched and informative read but also utterly compelling, written in an accessible style with a novelist’s eye for pacing. More than that, it’s an important book that will undoubtedly change the way historians and the public view Hitler, the Third Reich and the Second World War going forward. An absolutely outstanding and first-rate book, Blitzed is a must-read for anyone interested in learning about the sensational and little-reported-on druggie underside of the Nazis.

[Geevee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blitzed is a lively, intriguing and dare one say enjoyable book. It is not as the title perhaps suggests a account of drugs in Nazi Germany but more a powerfully suggestive story of narcotics usage within the Germany military and SS including Hitler as a junkie.

The background that Norman Ohler describes is one that incorporates Germany's prominent and in some aspects world-leading research, manufacture and distribution of opiates and opioids. Linking to this is the Nazi regime's exploration of mind and body using science, pseudo-science and human testing - read here for testing on concentration camp prisoners to German soldiers, sailors and airmen, and indeed Hitler himself.

Characters central to the story are Hitler and his personal doctor, Dr Theodor Morell and the vast menu of drugs including but not limited to cocaine, heroin, morphine, methamphetamine and branded concoctions such as the meth based Pervitin. Norman Ohler also provides some fascinating insight into drugs supply, manufacture and distribution in a country involved in and ultimately destroyed by Total War. His research and information on keeping German troops awake and functioning in combat and operations is interesting alongside the management of Hitler's health and drug regime.

So why do I give this book three stars? It is not a bad book - and in my usage of GR ratings 3 stars is a strong book that I enjoyed. So it is more what stops Norman Ohler's Blitzed being a 4 or 5 star. Simply, for me, whilst I understand and recognise the place drugs now had in the German military and with Hitler, I don't subscribe to the overarching viewpoint that the drugs created and changed battles, operations and command decisions alone. Playing a part yes, but the canvas of the German war against East and West is too vast and varied for the end results to be all about the drugs: war economies, technology, manpower, logistics, signals and comms, policy, alliances and much more saw Hitler and Nazi Germany fall.

Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany is a book that adds to the wider understanding of the war and deserves to be read, but it should not be seen as the full answer to Hitler's decisions, behaviours and Germany's painful and costly downfall.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this fascinating account of drug use in the Third Reich, author Norman Ohler takes us on a journey through the history of Germany and explains how, and why, it became a centre of pharmaceutical research. Although the National Socialist Party presented themselves as clean cut, and Hitler praised abstinence, it is clear that much of the Nazi hierarchy – including Hitler himself – were very reliant on drugs and, indeed, that their use was widespread both in the armed forces and in civilian life.

Between the wars, Berlin, in particular, exploded in cultural excess and escapism, with drug use becoming prevalent. Ohler examines the use of a drug, called Pervitin, in particular. So widespread was this drug that it was even included in chocolates, advertised for housewives needing a little help to cope with the housework. It was known as the ‘people’s drug’ and was said to banish sleep and hunger, while promising euphoria. Now, it is better known by the name of crystal meth…

Pervitin is linked to a senior staff doctor, named Professor Dr Otto F Ranke, director of the Research Institute of Defence Physiology. Ranke was involved in suggesting the drug could boost the performance of the army, which were under incredible pressure to perform, with Hitler making unprecedented demands. Indeed, the author suggests that the real enemy were not the British or Russian troops, but tiredness, and Pervitin offered a cure for exhaustion. Too late, Ranke saw the danger signs of addiction and side effects, but by then the army were marching for days and, while witnesses saw the invaders as virtually super-human, the troops themselves also began, dangerously, to believe in their own image.

Speaking of delusion, a large part of this book looks at Patient A, or Hitler, and his relationship with his personal physician, Dr Theodor Morrell. Unlike Stalin, who was happy to leave running the war to his Generals, Hitler wanted to be in charge of everything. He gradually lost touch with reality – his delusions and fantasies causing him to be dangerously reckless. Meanwhile, afraid of being ill and unable to attend meetings, Hitler demanded that Morrell keep him healthy and active. He may have failed at helping Hitler stay healthy, but he was always there with a ‘pick me up’ in the form of an injection, if Hitler felt tired, unwell or out of sorts. Ohler tells of one meeting with Mussolini when, fortified by medication, Hitler ranted incessantly for over three hours – calling the meeting a resounding success when, in fact, nobody else had managed to interrupt his endless flow of words.

This really is a very readable account of a fascinating period in history. The amount of drugs that Hitler was taking by the end of the war is truly staggering – indeed, when he travelled by train, there had to be regular stops so that Morrell could administer injections. Side effects of drugs used by both Hitler himself and the armed forces, who had tablets doled out to them like sweeties, eventually saw the initial excitement of enthusiasm, energy and excitement, collapsing in paranoia and exhaustion. This is an interesting and little explored aspect of the war, which really leaves you reeling in disbelief. I highly recommend this as a very engaging read.

[Book Clubbed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nazis on meth? Sounds like a video game I played in the early 2000s.

[Jill H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly fascinating look at Nazi Germany, which although preaching the ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity, was rife with drugs. In order to carry out the Fuehrer's military plans, which became more delusional as the tide of war changed, the ground troops had to undergo rapid and exhausting marches/movements (think the Ardennes) to catch the Allies off guard and unprepared. The Blitzkreig was born and with it the necessity for super-human resilience. How better to drive troops to the edge of physical limits than than the use of meth related drugs?

Any reader who is familiar with Hitler's "pet" doctor, Theodor Morell, knows that he kept Hitler wired to the hilt with drugs and "vitamins"; sometimes as many as 30 IV shots a day. As the war progressed, Hitler became more and more dependent on these shots and the obvious result was bizarre behavior and impossible military expectations. In order to meet these demands, Morell began advocating for the use of meth (in the form of the drug called Pervitin) by the ground troops and it was successful, to a point. Millions of units were shipped and were popped like candy. As with any drug of this type, addiction resulted and the initial euphoria took more and more supplies of Pervitin to keep the soldiers on their feet. (It should be noted that the Luftwaffe avoided the use of of Pervitin as it interfered with their depth perception). The big drug conglomerates could not keep up with the demand, so Morell started his own company even though he was not a pharmacist or chemist and his mix of drugs was frightening. The author could not find statistics that proved that these deadly mixtures were causing deaths by overdoses as well as combat but his research certainly indicates that this was the case. The author also suggests that the general German public was also using Pervitin although this claim is harder to prove.

I would highly recommend this book for an unusual and inside look at a subject seldom discussed at any length in other histories of the Reich.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is to history what Fox News is to journalism. It can be entertaining, but don’t be surprised when facts are shunted aside in an attempt to bolster a story line.

Really, the lurid cover and title of the book pretty much set the stage for what is to follow. Other reviewers (many of whom seemed to love the book, which to my mind is a rather sad commentary on modern standards for nonfiction) have gone into great detail about the main points of the book, so I won’t repeat them. However, just let me state that despite the book’s simple chronological structure, at times it often seemed muddled and repetitive.

Then there is the prose, honed for dramatic effect and generalization, damn temperance and those pesky things called facts. Here’s a representative bit:

“Hitler allowed himself the luxury of Eukodal [a morphine derivative] in the Spartan, windowless concrete hole of his headquarters. We can only surmise how often he took the drug. Twenty-four applications are recorded by the end of 1944. But was that all?”

Ohler devotes fully half of the book to detailing what Hitler’s private physician may (or may not) have given Hitler, stating in parts of the book that Hitler had become completely dependent on drugs and that his judgement was impaired by and his megalomania fueled by the concoctions he was injected with or ingested:

“The medication kept the supreme commander stable in his delusion, built up an unassailable rampart, an impregnable defense that nothing could penetrate.”

But later, Pohler does a reversal and indicates that, no, Hitler had always been a megalomaniac, and that the main function of the drugs was to keep him alert:

“His drug use did not impinge on his freedom to make decisions. Hitler was always the master of his senses, and he knew exactly what he was doing. He acted always in an alert and cold-blooded way.”

Well, sorry, but you can’t have it both ways. That passage came as a jolt after the author spent nearly the first two-thirds of the book building up the case that Hitler was a drug addict who had descended into an isolated fantasy world.

Similarly, the portrayal of the military’s use of methamphetamines during the invasion of France, and by the Luftwaffe and Navy suffered from Pohler’s hyperbolic analysis. As a historian who reviewed this book for The Guardian noted:

“The use of methamphetamine was common, he [Pohler] argues, particularly in the form of ‘Pervitin’. The drug, he says, was manufactured in huge quantities: 35m tablets were, for example, ordered for the western campaign in 1940. This seems an impressive figure, until you recall that more than two and a quarter million troops were involved, making an average of around 15 tablets per soldier for the entire operation. Given the concentration on supplying tank crews with the drug, this means that the vast majority of troops didn’t take any at all.”

I waivered in giving this book a rating. On the one hand, the author was pursuing a completely fresh line of inquiry in what has become an industry unto itself: the endless examination of Hitler and Nazi atrocities. Plus, Ohler does have a novelist’s sense of drama, which makes for entertaining reading, and he has a knack for description, particularly when he depicts the various “lairs” and bunkers that Hitler sequestered himself in. Thus, I was tempted to give this book three stars (“liked it”). However, the annoyance I felt at the over dramatization of material, the sloppiness of the author’s reasoning, and his continuous speculation in the absence of hard facts tempted me to assign it one star. Two stars, then, as I didn’t absolutely hate the book and managed to finish it, but I can’t recommend it, either.

[E. G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

--Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany

Acknowledgements
Bibliography
References
Picture Credits
Index

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, despite the author's infectious zest and admirable research I'm not sure I share his conviction of the importance of his findings in influencing many events of world War Two. This essentially is that Nazi Germany was fuelled by narcotics and in particular a drug called Pervitin which essentially was crack cocaine in pure form. The argument that the blitzkrieg of France couldn't have happened without Pervitin is probably the most convincing of his arguments though equally it might be said it couldn't have happened without the colossal ineptitude of the French general staff or without the Tiger tank. When he extends his argument to the Luftwaffe I found it hard to imagine how crack cocaine might help a pilot in a dog fight. Not that I've ever taken crack cocaine! The author also states as part of his argument that the Spitfire was far superior to the ME 109 which it wasn't. Most agree they were well-matched in terms of capabilities with the German aircraft having by far the superior fire power until later in the war. I was far less convinced by his argument that all the old biographies of Hitler need to be revised to include his drug habit. The author tends to exaggerate Hitler's loss of reasoning after he became hooked on morphine, citing the decision to counterattack the Allies in the Ardennes as one prominent example. However, this wasn't an especially crazy decision given the circumstances and his insane history of decision making and the counterattack was even succeeding until the skies cleared and the RAF was able to operate again. Hitler's reasoning was insane long before he took any drug into his body. I'm not convinced drugs made him any more insane. Nevertheless, a fascinating read.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Guardian article

Opening: Methamphetamine, the Volkesdroge (1933-1938): National Socialism was toxic, in the truest sense of the word. It gave the world a chemical legacy that still affects us today(*): a poison that refuses to disappear.

How dirty one feels at the end of certain books, would love to be able to scrub my brain clean with a hard brush. This is a very good rendition of the chemical factories, and how Hitler's rants were drug fueled affairs. Blitzed is worth a read but it weighs in at slightly a less affair than the hype would have you believe.

(*)Affects German generational families trying to inflict fascist culture on today's willfully ignorant AmeriKKKans.

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptional. Explains quite a lot about the Nazis, and about Hitler.

There's a certain pleasure in reading how decrepit Hitler became during the war. It is only disappointing to then read how he was pumped full of hormones and opioids every day or so, making him feel better.

There are some narrative assumptions, as you tend to get with these historical books, but I'll take that over a dry recounting.

[Steven Z. · Rating 4 out of 5]

With thousands upon thousands of books written about Nazi Germany and its “Fuhrer,” Adolf Hitler, one wonders if there is a relevant area of research that has not been mined thoroughly. The appearance of Norman Ohler’s BLITZED: DRUGS IN THE THIRD REICH provides an affirmative answer. A regime that prided itself on its anti-drug mantra was led by a man usually pumped full of drugs by his personal physician Dr. Theodor Morell. The premise of Ohler’s work, first published in Germany in 2015, is that the Nazis provided the world with a chemical legacy that remains a major problem today – opioid – methamphetamine addiction. The Nazis allowed the use of Volksdroge, “the people’s drug” unencumbered until the passage of the Reich Opium Law in 1941. Today, the substance is known as “crystal meth,” and is consumed by over 100 million people worldwide, though in most places it is illegal or strictly regulated.

Ohler’s thesis presents the Nazi dichotomy. It publicized and demanded that all should possess a constitution pure of drugs that could affect the mind and body. Hitler, was portrayed as a vegetarian teetotaler who would not allow any foreign bodies to enter his system. On the other hand, the Furhrer would become dependent on a series of short-term stimulants from 1936 on that would progress to an intravenous diet of animal extracts, and after 1943 hard drugs like Eukodal, whose active ingredient is oxycodone. These pseudo medications were administered by Dr. Theodor Morell, a specialist in skin conditions and sexually transmitted diseases who would pollute the Nazi leadership with his concoctions and use Hitler’s dependency on his treatment to try and construct a “hormonal” industry called the Ukrainian Pharma-Works” in areas seized by the Wehrmacht.

According to Ohler, the original rise of crystal meth took place in Nazi Germany. The German chemical industry received a major boost in the 1930s under the direction of Dr. Fritz Hauscheld, the head of pharmacology at the Temmler Chemical Works who job was to discover a “performance enhancing drug” for the Third Reich. The discovery of morphine made a different scale of war possible as men too injured to fight could now return to the battlefield. Temmler’s research would patent the drug Pervitin (“speed”), Germany’s first methamphetamine that produced feelings of euphoria, energy, self-confidence, and strength. Temmler’s successful marketing campaign would result in the drug as a panacea for a number of issues from fatigue to a low sex drive. The drug became a fixture in German society in the late 1930s.

The drug was a perfect match for the spirit of the age. By 1936 Hitler had successfully overcome many of the limitations placed on Germany by the Versailles Treaty. Unemployment was a thing of the past and by 1938 Germany had seized the Rhineland, achieved Anschluss with Austria, and stolen the Sudetenland from the Czechs at Munich. For Hitler his burgeoning popularity was like a drug addict who could not give up his expansionist drug and by mid-1939 had moved on to Danzig. The German people had to maintain this pace of change. Fresh demands were made on the labor force and the military – the slogan “Germany Awake” needed methamphetamines for the country to “stay awake.” According to Ohler, “spurred on by a disastrous cocktail of propaganda and pharmaceutical substances people became more and more dependent….Pervitin allowed the individual to function in the dictatorship. National Socialism in pill form.” (39)

Ohler raises a number of questions; did civilian use of Pervitin carry over to the military? Did German soldiers need the drug to fight effectively? Did the addictive drug influence the course of World War II? The answer in all cases seems to be yes. Relying on a significant amount of research, particularly Dr. Morell’s patient notes Ohler traces the development, production, and dissemination of Pervitin as World War II approached. He describes how it was employed in achieving the Blitzkrieg against France and the Low Countries in April and May, 1940. The speed of the German military was key, and commanders would not tolerate rest or fatigue. Pervitin, is at a minimum partly responsible for the German success. Dr. Otto F. Ranke, the Director of the Research Institute of Defense Physiology was completely on board with making these pills available to commanders and their soldiers. With no real guidelines as to how Pervitin was to be used they were distributed in the millions to German soldiers.

Ohler weaves the course of the war effectively as he traces drug use as it related to Germany’s progress on the battlefield, and how, after 1942, mounting German problems affected Hitler. Ohler weaves the Holocaust and the Nazi ideology of blaming Jews for the lack of purity of the German population that he had described in Mein Kampf, major battles and military decisions, and Hitler’s interaction with people throughout the narrative. Further he describes the chemical changes in the nervous system of German soldiers through the ingestion of the drug as they went into battle. What was clear is that the energy and euphoria could last only so long before fatigue set in and German advances were hindered by the need to rest their soldiers. The same can be said of Hitler, as Morell developed a vitamin concoction called Vitamultin which he injected the Fuhrer with daily, resulting in similar after effects that German soldiers suffered from. Morell was able to convince the General Staff of its benefits and a number of them would soon become his patients, as did many other Nazi officials.

Hitler’s medical decline began in the autumn of 1941 as the war began to turn against the Reich. Germany had invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 and it was supposed to take three months to complete the action. “As soon as he encountered genuine Russian resistance that couldn’t be removed with a sweep of the hand, ‘the greatest commander of all time’ retreated further and further into his world of make believe. The microcosm of the Wolf’s Lair (Hitler’s eastern command center) was nothing more than a hubble made of concrete and steel.” (111) For the first time in the war Germans suffered great losses in a very short period of time – even the doping that had been deployed for Operation Barbarossa was ineffective as once the Pervitin wore off, troops had to rest. Hitler fell ill for the first time in years in August, 1941 and when Morell’s concoctions of vitamins and glucose failed to work he raised the ante by injecting steroids and other opiates. He did prevent another illness, but in the future Morell resorted to prophylactic injections of new hormonal substances. “From autumn 1941 onward, more and more concentrated animal substances began to circulate in his bloodstream” in order to reinforce his body’s defenses. The result was that “Hitler’s natural immune system was soon replaced by an artificial protective shield.” (114) From then on Hitler’s military directives parted company from reality as he would not accept rational arguments from his generals.

As the war continued to go against Hitler’s “alternative reality” he became more and more dependent on opioid drugs. Hitler was dependent on Dr. Morell, who was dubbed the “Reich Injection Minister” by Hermann Goring. “The medication kept the supreme commander stable in his delusion….Any doubts were swept away by his chemically induced confidence. The world could sink into rubble and ashes around him, and his actions cost millions of people their lives – but the Fuhrer felt more than justified when his artificial euphoria set in.” (163)

Ohler describes the period after 1943, as Hitler’s heavy opiate phase. As the war turned increasingly bad for Germany, the Merck and Company facility in Darmstadt was destroyed in December, 1944, so Merck could no longer produce Eukodal. Hitler’s health would deteriorate and to survive he took strong narcotics which erected a pharmacological barricade around himself. The delusional system that Hitler created for himself, would not allow him to remain clear of drugs. “Under no circumstance did Hitler want to come down from his megalomaniac Fuhrer trip, in spite of the disastrous military situation.” (174) By the spring of 1945, Morell no longer had any potent substances to administer as he had done in the past. As time evolved the Fuhrer most certainly went through a period of withdrawal. Some historians believe he was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, but in retrospect it is hard to determine a definitive diagnosis.

A part from Hitler the drug crutch influenced German naval policy. Admiral Hellmuth Heye argued for one man torpedoes and two man submarines to inflict damage on allied shipping. To accomplish this task drugged men were required as these were kamikaze missions. Ohler describes the drug mixtures created that would have been fine for an addict like Hitler, but could not be tolerated by the average soldier. Medical experiments to prepare Germans to carry out their weapons pipe dreams were carried out in Sachsenhausen and Auschwitz concentrations camps resulting in the death of numerous victims. Ohler describes in detail Hitler’s deterioration once drugs were not available and he would succumb to a nasty withdrawal like most drug addicts.

A number of important historians support what Ohler’s research has unveiled. The late Hans Mommsen, one of the leading German historians of the Nazi era, Ian Kershaw, the foremost Hitler biographer, and Anthony Beevor, the well-known military historian all recognize that Ohler, a German journalist, novelist, and filmmaker has written “a serious piece of scholarship,” and one that is very well researched.” (“The Very Drugged Nazis,” by Anthony Beevor, New York Review of Books, March 9, 2017)

[Radiantflux · Rating 5 out of 5]

121st book for 2018.

Berlin, during the Weimar year was a party town, full of of all the fun drugs–cocaine, opium, uppers and downers. Apparently the party didn't end after the Pure Ayran Race came into town. Ohler, documents in surprising detail how the whole Nazi war machine ran on crystal meth (Geiles Krystal as Jesse P from BB would say). This was one reason the the French couldn't keep up with the Germans in their Blitzed Kreig across their country. They will have to stop soon and take a break reassured Churchill his French counterparts - No we don't was the reply from the high-as-a-kite German commandos.

Hitler himself, who portrayed himself as a virtual of purity (alcohol, cigarettes, even meat was for weaker men) starting demanding daily injections of Eukodal (a close cousin of Heroin) once the war against Russia started failing, later adding crystal meth to the mix. Gotta keep up appearances!

Poetically, a couple of months before the war's end, Allied bombing raids destroy most of Adolf's drug supply and he has to go cold turkey as the final days of the war rage around him. As the Russian troops close in on him all that's left is a last meal of spaghetti with tomato sauce and cyanide for desert.

5-stars.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

World history told through a pharmalogical lens.

Ohler's extraordinary history of drugs in the Third Reich starts with a survey of Germany in the inter-war period, tracing both the civilian and military usage of the newest pharmacological advancement: Pervitin, aka crystal meth. In a convenient capsule form, this chemical compound was advertised to help with every possible mental and physical ailment - there's even an advert for meth-infused chocolates for your sweetie! This incredible chapter opens the book, and we realize just how saturated the landscape was with these drugs. It naturally leads to the question of just how many and how addicted the population was... a number that we can't truly know, but surely is a factor in the collective psyche of the people during this surge of national socialism.
The military began using Pervitin, and various doping agents early on, experimenting on the soldiers to reduce hunger (less rations) and fight fatigue (less sleep). It worked so well that is rolled out to all military as the Third Reich began to grow.

Blitzkrieg was guided by methamphetimine. If not to say that Blitzkrieg was founded on methamphetamine.

How did the German army blaze across Europe so quickly? Because they were super high and did not sleep.

After the general survey of the offensive, Ohler turns his attention specifically to Patient A, Adolf Hitler, and his personal physician, Theodor Morell. Ohler states that Hitler's drug use, and his relationship with his doctor have been relegated to historical footnotes far too long. These two factors should undoubtedly be considered when understanding the larger context of decisions in WWII. He bases this on Morell's personal notes and on archival materials recovered after the fall of the Third Reich.

It started with Pervitin, the drug du jour. Many high ranking officials took part. Morell's own interest and research began in vitamins and hormonal therapies, and he introduced many of these infusions to Patient A and others, right along with the methamphetamines. Over time, as the War waged on, the uppers continued, but there was also a need for pain relief and calming. Enter Eukodal, an opioid. Hitler became dependent quickly, and Morell became a fixture by his side, administering multiple infusions and doses a day - vitamins, hormones, and various other additions to the shots and pills. Morell seemed to have no scruples about the growing addiction, and also treated Mussolini, Goebbels, Göring, as well as Eva Braun.

The icing (powder?) on the cake was the cocaine. Plagued by headaches, Hitler needed more - but Morell was unsure about adding more to the cocktail. A new doctor stepped in, introducing Hitler to a 10% cocaine solution swab applied directly in the nose.

Hitler: "Please don't turn me into a cocaine addict."
Dr. Giesing: "A real cocaine addict only snorts dry cocaine."

A shocking story, clearly set out by Ohler for an engaging reading experience. This is a whole new layer of the events of WWII. Highly recommended.

[Ilana (illi69) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich

Originally reviewed August 6th, 2021*

The following is a “new and improved by AI” version of my original review, posted on this day, August 23, 2025.

I found this book tremendously enlightening. It made sense of much of the behaviour of the Nazis during WWII. That they were on stupendously high doses of speed goes far towards explaining such inhuman attitudes. I took an unhealthy amount of pleasure in imagining just how miserable and unwell the führer must have been once he became dependent on his doctors’ dubious injections—reduced to a hollow junkie, still parading as the model of “clean living,” while rotting from the inside out.

This book strips the mythos bare. It exposes the Nazi war machine not as some dark genius, but as a chemically-fuelled frenzy—built on methamphetamine. It explains so much of their inhumanity: the manic delusion, the unsustainable aggression, the detachment from reality.

I admit I took grim satisfaction in picturing the führer himself: wracked with pain, kept alive by toxic injections, a dictator high on lies until the very end.

The book is more than history; it’s a reminder that every empire built on deceit and chemical delusion eventually collapses—hard.

⸻

*August 6, 2021, as it turns out, was just three weeks before neighbours I had called out as literal fascists proved me right by calling the police to have me interned in a psychiatric hold. It lasted three months, including a two-week period in isolation, supposedly because of COVID measures. During those two weeks my phone was taken away and it was made purposely difficult for me to ensure even basic necessities were covered—like following through with ANNA MARIA VARRIANO and CHRISTINE SOUCIE, two of my Saint-Henri neighbours.

Anna Maria had “kindly” offered to take care of my animals that morning in late August 2021, when I was swept away by ambulance to the psych ward—after a third neighbour, CATHERINE (a retired Air Canada employee and former flight attendant), falsely accused me of spitting on her. She was over twenty feet away from me when I spat on the ground.

I didn’t know at the time that the SPCA fosters animals when their humans require hospitalization. Had I known, I would never have left Mimi (my tuxedo cat) and Charley (my 7 lb Chichi dog—a Chinese Crested & Chihuahua mix) with those people. They rehomed my animals without my knowledge or consent and later put in writing, via a lawyer’s letter, that they believed I was abusive—listing a pack of demonstrably false claims as justification.

Mimi and Charley were like children to me. I was being pressured to leave an apartment I’d lived in for over 20 years by landlords who disliked that my long-term tenancy meant a form of rent control. The landlord openly disapproved of me being on disability and thought it was his place to judge me and compare me to his “abusive mother” (as his own wife told me). They fought a war of attrition to drive me out. I stayed because I had never had a stable home in my life, and was incapacitated by severe, constant migraines—but I still did my best to be “an ideal tenant.”

After the forced psychiatric imprisonment, forced antipsychotic injections, and being forced to move without my emotional support animals, I made two serious suicide attempts. That I didn’t bleed during the first is a medical impossibility—but I didn’t. That I then survived 60 Fiorinal 30C capsules (1,800 mg of codeine) washed down with half a bottle of Jäegermeister on July 7, 2022, is another anomaly. So is the fact that my kidneys stabilized after only three weeks of thrice-weekly dialysis.

I have since visibly regenerated and experienced phenomena I’ve documented in photos and videos—light effects that can’t be dismissed as “lens flare.” Think: a cathedral of light on Easter Sunday 2025, captured in my kitchen with nothing but halogen bulbs. Daily strange light patterns had become normal by then, but nothing of that order.

For why this all matters now, see my latest post: “Deliberate Obstruction, Perfect Timing, and the Line in the Sand” on TotallySurreal.com (link to follow)

[Dimitri · Rating 2 out of 5]

The variable shortness of the chapters, some a mere page-turn long, makes for a blitzed reading experience indeed!

Built upon the interwar boom in over-the-counter pharmaceutics, the 1940 Blitzkrieg was kept on its feet for 17 days at the cost of a good night's sleep for all participants and a handful of heart attacks among middle-aged officers swimming on the freshly conquered beaches.

Tanker chocolate and pep in pill form remained de rigeur for long-shift jobs such as bomber runs, fighter escorts and navy patrols, but the snow rabbits in Russia seem to have went cold turkey once the war of movement turned into a war of rodents.

This I would have liked to hear more about, but what do we get ?

The body odour of monomanic hack Morrell and his Patient A pervades the pages. What goes into the pills, how many does Adolf swallow per day, how many injections does it take for an expert prick like Morrell to adminster daily as to ruin every vein within reach ? We've heard the story of how drugs ruined whatever little strategic sense Hitler possessed in àll his biographies, never mind that John Toland needed 737 pages to first mention the doctor.

[paper0r0ss0 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lavoro storiografico di stampo giornalistico, a mio parere, ben fatto. Un'ampia serie di note e una bibliografia sostanziosa sorreggono il tutto. Il fattore tossicologico, il doping di Stato, nella parabola nazista e' stato piu' volte trattato, qui si ha la possibilita' di inquadrare meglio il tutto, a partire dal potente apparato chimico-industriale tedesco di fine '800 capace di sintetizzare per primo e su scala planetaria le droghe "moderne" per i piu' disparati utilizzi. Oppioidi, morfina, cocaina, metanfetamine e chi piu' ne ha piu' ne metta vengono sfornate e ancor piu' incredibilmente somministrate come un fiume in piena. Che spregiudicatamente il successivo regime nazista vi abbia visto una proficua leva bellica non stupisce piu' di tanto. Il famigerato Pervitin ha costituito per molta parte la spina dorsale della spinta espansionistca del Reich e il rifugio temporaneo della rovinosa caduta. Molta parte del libro e' dedicato alla relazione tra Hitler stesso e il suo medico personale Morell, configurabile come quella tra un tossicodipendente e il proprio spacciatore. L'autore, tedesco, e' molto attento nel precisare di non voler attribuire alla tossicodipendenza del fuhrer le sue malefatte, ma la domanda su come il doping sfrenato abbia influito, come si suol dire, sorge spontanea.

[TheBookWarren · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.50 Stars (Rnd ⬆️) — The deplorable and inexorably devious ways of the Third Reich May in fact never stop escalating. Seemingly, the horror show that was Hitler & his evil, circle of duplicate cowardice knows no bounds of depravity or put simply, shitty-ness!

This incredulous yet nonfictional account of the use of drugs in the Nazi regime and the role the played throughout their rise, reign & fall is really nothing short of astonishing. It is the kind of book you read whilst subconsciously shaking your head at a slow bit constant rate.

What I found most interesting was the utmost extremism of hypocrisy. The Nazi’s simultaneously shamed, isolated & killed those whom found themselves under the spell of drugs, whilst using them as a means of ascent - one that obviously and thankfully helped lead to their eventual downfall.

The authors research here is an immense achievement in-and-of-itself, in fact its intimidatingly rich & full of exquisite detail.

This is a must read for anyone with a passing interest in history, psychology, true crime or any literature at all, if you haven’t had the pleasure, what are you waiting for?

A truly monumental achievement in its revelation & the authors prose is so free-wheeling & well paced that despite the content being so powerful and rich, you’ll breeze through the pages like a tornado through a hay bale.

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drugs, Nazis, insanity—what an interesting and dangerous combination. In Blitzed Norman Ohler tells the story of the deep entanglement of drugs and Nazi Germany. Along the way many pharmaceutical company names (still quite evident in a drive through central New Jersey) get mentioned. The history is fascinating and disturbing. The Blitzkrieg that won the initial phases of the war on the western front was largely possible by an army on crystal meth. Able to stay awake and push on for days, they moved with a speed believed impossible, even as Hitler himself touted a drug-free pure race. The army, air force, and navy all came to rely on performance-enhancing drugs to give them the edge over the allies.

Ohler then delves into the descent of Hitler himself into hard drug use. By the onset of the war, and Ohler makes the point that Hitler’s cruelty and master plan cannot be attributed to narcotics, der Führer’s health was not great. He found a personal physician, Theodor Morell, who was building his own fortune by developing drugs as the war wore on. Morell gave Hitler daily injections, starting with vitamins, to address his various ailments. Over time these injections moved on to include Eukodal, an opiate related to heroin, that eventually led to addiction. The use and abuse of Eukodal was widespread among the Nazi leadership. Drugs were tested on concentration camp inmates under threat of death to see how far they could push themselves.

A sad historical tale with a tragic ending, Blitzed is nevertheless compelling reading. As I note elsewhere (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World) especially in an era of worldwide reemergence of right-wing politics books like this are both necessary and frightening. I generally don’t read books about war, but this combination of topics was so inherently fascinating that I just couldn’t help myself. It is a book that raises far more questions about human behavior than it can possibly answer.

[Nigeyb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany by Norman Ohler is a fascinating account of the role drugs played in Nazi Germany and which claims claims that German soldiers and civilians commonly used methamphetamine, and also that Hitler was a drug addict.

Methamphetamine was a legal prescription drug marketed as Pervetin produced by the Berlin-based Temmler pharmaceutical company and glowingly endorsed by addicted doctors. It seemed like a miracle at first and was taken by civilians and the armed forces alike.

Pervitin became colloquially known among the German troops as "Stuka-Tablets" (Stuka-Tabletten) and "Herman-Göring-Pills" (Hermann-Göring-Pillen). Side effects were so serious that the army sharply cut back its usage in 1940, but not before it allowed them to Blitzkrieg their way across France and catch the allies unawares.

Historian Lukasz Kamienski says "A soldier going to battle on Pervitin usually found himself unable to perform effectively for the next day or two. Suffering from a drug hangover and looking more like a zombie than a great warrior, he had to recover from the side effects." Some soldiers turned very violent, committing war crimes against civilians; others attacked their own officers.

There's also a lot of detail on Hitler's own drug regime, all administered by his personal physician Theodor Morell, who was Hitler's constant companion. His medication, above all Pervitin and Eudokal, an analgesic morphine derivative, propelled Hitler into a world of delusion in which the defeats and disasters of the last two years of the war could be brushed aside as irrelevant.

Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany appears to be thoroughly researched and certainly explains a lot. It's also a fascinating read.

[Greta G]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

[Ints · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sākšu uzreiz ar atrunu, grāmatu saņēmu no izdevniecības apmaiņā pret godīgu atsauksmi. Otrais pasaules karš mani vienmēr ir interesējis. Iespējams, tādēļ, ka skolā gāju vēl PSRS laikos un tur vismaz uz Uzvaras dienu uz skolu nāca expartizāni un stāstīja par savu pieredzi cīņā pret fašistiem. Šo grāmatu izlasīšanai paņēmu labprāt.

“Nacisti dēvēja sevi par morālās deģenerācijas pretiniekiem. Tomēr, kā atklāj Normana Olera aizraujošais bestsellers, viss Trešais Reihs bija narkotiku caurvīts: kokaīnu, heroīnu, morfiju un, pats galvenais, metamfetamīnu izmantoja visi, sākot no rūpnīcu strādniekiem un beidzot ar mājsaimniecēm! Turklāt tas bija būtisks karaspēka izturības elements, daļēji skaidrojot vācu uzvaru 1940. gadā.”

Jau no seniem laikiem karavadoņiem ir zināms, ka cilvēkus pirms kaujas vajag stimulēt. Ierastās vairoga malas košļāšanas vai apreibināšanās ar dažādām narkotiskām vielām ir simptomātiski notikušas visā cilvēces vēsturē. Trešajā Reihā stimulantu izmantošanu izdevās padarīt par masveida pasākumu, apvienojot zinātni, rūpniecību un moderno loģistiku. Nebija jau tā, ka es par šo tēmu neko nezinātu, bet manas zināšanas līdz šim aprobežojās tikai ar modernajiem pētījumiem, kuru mērķis ir radīt superkaravīru, tādu, kurš nomodā varētu pavadīt vairākas diennaktis, nezaudējot savas kaujas spējas, bet nudien nebiju iedomājies, ka visam šim militārās farmakoloģijas sapnim iesākumi meklējami Vācijā. Piemēram, pervitīns bija pietiekami uzmundrinošs līdzeklis, lai karavīru uzturētu možu un kaujas spējīgu pāris diennaktis. Es gan nemestos uzreiz piekrist autoram, ka zibenskarš bija iespējams tikai šīs un citu stimulantu dēļ, bet noteikti, ka kādās epizodēs tas spēlēja savu lomu.

Šīs grāmatas autors ir labi piestrādājis un izpētījis daudzus avotus, no kuriem galvenais ir Hitlera ārsta Morela personīgie pieraksti par sava pacienta ārstēšanas metodēm. Īsumā, Hitlers vismaz pēc autora sniegtās informācijas ir bijis īstens politoksikomāns, kurš ar ārsta gādību tika ārstēts ne tikai ar aknu ekstraktiem vien, bet regulāri tika pie eikodāla (oksikodona (opiāts)) devas, jeb x vielas, kā to pierakstīja pats dakteris. Šāda faktu konstatēšana liek autoram un lasītājam pavisam citādi paskatīties uz Fīrera lēmumiem Otrā Pasaule kara gaitā. Tas izskaidro daudzus lēmums un kontekstā ar laika biedru dienasgrāmatām, ļauj saprast, ka ne vienmēr tie ir pieņemti pie pilnas saprašanas. Būt fīreram nudien nav pateicīgs darbs un pavisam traki ir, ja tavs dakteris pret gāzēm vēderā izraksta un injicē opiātus. Dakteri Morelu gan nomāca pašam savas rūpes, jaunais statuss palielināja dzīves izmaksas un tādēļ nācās attīstīt savu, kā teiktu mūsdienās, uztura bagātināju biznesiņu. Šai biznesā dakteris Morels savas zāles vācu virspavēlniecībā nomārketēja ne sliktāk kā Stīvs Džobss aifonu. Ja tev bija daktera zāļu kārbiņa, tad tu biji Fīreram pietuvināto pulciņā. Un tas nekas, ka drapēs sevī apvienoja gan farmokoloģijas, gan pūšļošanas labāko praksi. Ja tās lieto pats Hitlers, kas gan tur varētu būt bīstams parastam vācu cilvēkam?

Tomēr ir jāsaprot, ka šī grāmata nav nekāds vēsturnieka pētījums, bet gan autora izveidots naratīvs, kuru šis salicis kopā no sev pieejamās informācijas. Stāstījums ir izcils, lasās, ka ne atrauties. Varētu pat padomāt, ka pati šī grāmata ir papīra formāta metamfetamīns. Grāmatai lieku 9 no 10 ballēm, galvenokārt par tās netipisko skatījumu uz Otrā pasaules kara procesiem un Hitleru kā lēmumu pieņēmēju.

[Zanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nu moins! Te pat nevajadzētu neko komentēt. Visu cieņu autoram par tik rūpīgi veikto materiālu vākšanu un šīs informācijas sava stāstījuma veidā atklāšanu visiem.
... Hitlers savam ārstam: "Es visus vīrus vēsturē atstāšu tālu aiz sevis. Es gribu kļūt pats lielākais, pat tad, ja visai vācu tautai jānosprāgst!" ...

[Mewa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dlaczego tak mało się o tym mówi, choć jest to ważne na drodze zrozumienia potęgi i grozy Trzeciej Rzeszy?
(Przeczytałam drugi raz, bo czemu by nie)

[Pečivo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totální rauš je přesně kniha, podle který bych se chtěl učit dějepis. O druhý světový už toho bylo napsáno tolik, že by se to nevešlo ani na tři obrovský náklaďáky, ale i přesto příchází Norman Ohler v roce 2015 s objevným tématem, který dosud nebylo vědecky dopodrobna rozebráno - náckové & drogy.

Důležitý fakt je, že se nejedná o fikci, ale o literaturu faktu. Fakt. Teda prej, ale já mu to věřim. Ohler popisuje svojí investigativní práci v archivech v Německu a Americe, kde se brodil tisícema dopisů, zápisků a výpovědí, aby dal dohromady tyhle perníkový puzzle a to mi stačí. Svý teze betonuje vyobrazením originálních dopisů a tak je buď dobrej fotošopák a nebo Heinrich Böll jel na frontě perník ve velkým.

Kniha skvěle popisuje vývoj fetování v Německu - z nějakýho důvodu jsem byl od mala hrdej na to, že krom Nagana jsme světu dali i perník, ale prej bohužel. Prej Japonci - ale ve velkým se perník začal rozvíjet ne v devadesátkách v garážích na českejch vesnicích, ale už těsně před druhou světovou v Německu. Krom toho Němci dali světu i heroin. Co já se ještě na starý kolena nedovim.

Paradoxně byla celá nacistická propaganda stavěná na čistý rase - sám Hitler byl jak známo vegetarián a abstinent a drogy považoval za buržoázní mor berlínskýho židovstva 20. let. Hlavně teda kokain. Perník byl v tu dobu v pohodindě, protože to byla energetická tabletka, která dokázala divy a díky který Němci zvládli zabrat Francii rychleji než člověk řekne Francie. Celá ofenziva na západní frontě tak byla dost podpořená peřím a naspídovaný Němci dokázali nespat i několik dní. Zvuk tanků se taktéž dá považovat za kolébku techna.

Ústřední postavou Ohlerova bádání je osobní doktor Hitlera, kterej velmi rád experimentoval s chemií a lidským tělem. Shodou okolností se okolo roku 1941 dostal k Hitlerovi a začal mu píchat vitamíny. Se zvyšujícím se nezdarem Wehrmachtu byl Adolf čim dál tím víc na nervy a aby se hodil do klidu, začal dostávat i koktejly obsahující eukodal. Což je vlastně stejný jak kdyby hulil někde za barákem opium.

Celý to eskalovalo, když si v roce 1944 generál von Tomcruise zahrál na Pavla Zedníčka a předvedl na poradě svůj explodující kufr. V rámci léčby šoku dostal Hitler poprvý dávku kokainu. Tentokrát ne od svýho dvorního doktora, ale od ORL specialisty. Kokain mu chutnal stejně jako obyvatelům Berlína - vůbec se ho nemohl nabažid.

No a pak se střelil do hlavy a skončila kniha a válka. 10/10 - dozvěděl jsem se spoustu zajímavých faktů: například když v rádiu zaznělo, že zemřel vůdce, tak si 100.000 lidí v Německu vzalo život. Nedokážu si představit co by se stalo, kdyby měl twitter.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and informative look at drugs and Hitler and the within Nazi Germany in the army etc. To be clear though it is not a book written by a historian and it contains plenty that is contradictory or exaggerated. But that doesn't invalidate what the author has brought to the fore and forced people to recognise. The problem is that evaluating the importance of narcotics on individuals in history is very difficult, particularly if you don't know what it is like to be addicted or to withdraw. Dr. Morell kept Hitler doped up and, coincidentally, almost immediately after Hitler sent him away he had a sudden collapse of his outward confidence in ultimate victory. Of course there was no chance of victory by that stage but Hitler's sudden collapse of belief is completely recognisable, to anyone who has been addicted to opiates and meth, as the collapse of personality an addict experiences as his body withdraws.

Drugs didn't make Hitler, but they part of him, particularly as the war advanced, they had a role to play, just as the use of stimulants played a part in the early successes of the army in France. They didn't win battles and the Germans were not the only ones use them in WWII or later.

So keep the information in perspective and it makes explicable many things that appear inexplicable.

[Chris Steeden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember a Roger Moorhouse review on this book where he is not completely convinced. He says, ‘In sum, there is some engaging and enlightening material here - but very little that has not been said before elsewhere. All that is provable isn't new; and all that is new isn't provable. "Blitzed" is certainly sensational - but whether it is good history or not is another matter.’ Is he right? Well, I will always bow to Moorhouse’s knowledge. I was dubious about buying the book after the review but when it came up on a Kindle Daily Deal, I thought I’d give it a go. So, I popped a pill and sat down to read.

We are given a brief history lesson of how Germany, back in the 1800s and early 1900s, ruled the roost when it came to drug making. Morphine was produced in huge quantities. In the 1920s it was cocaine. Then there was the hedonistic Weimar Republic that was defeated on 30-JAN-1933 by the National Socialists. ‘Drugs were made taboo.’ ‘National Socialists combined their twin bogeymen, Jews and drugs, into racial-hygiene propaganda that was used in schools and nurseries.’

In 1937 they found a new method of synthesizing methamphetamine. A tablet arrived called Pervitin. The PR around this drug to get it out there reminded me how Oxycontin was pushed. Aggressive and getting doctors to buy into it. Even giving free samples. The military takes up the drug as it keeps you awake and alert. The UK’s Ministry of Defence bought more than 24,000 Provigil pills over 20 years ago to do the same job. Apparently, the Wehrmacht though were the first army to rely on a chemical drug. They ordered 35 million pills. Staggering.

Ohler then concentrates on Hitler himself and his personal physician, Dr Theodor Morell. It was not like Hitler was taking drugs to go out to a drum and bass night. He did seem to have health issues but the drugs administered like Eukodal and cocaine were just keeping him artificially awake and somewhat functional. Like any drug of this type the body needs it again and again and again in ever larger quantities.

As the war progresses and Germany’s defeat is inevitable Ohler paints a portrait of Hitler’s body deteriorating at the same time. Germany and Hitler crumbling to dust together.

This is a good fast-paced read that is very very interesting but does not rise to 4 stars.