Blitzed

By -
This cover is hard to look at
Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, by Norman Ohler

I don't know who purchased this book at my work, but it was immediately snatched up by staff and passed around, so I had to wait my turn.  It's not all that long for a history book, and it's packed with eye-opening information.  Ohler has two main threads: drugs in the German social landscape, especially in the military, and then Hitler's personal drug use.

Recreational drugs like cocaine and heroin were popular in Weimar Germany, and the Nazis put a lot of effort into stamping out drug use -- at least at first.  German drug manufacturers then came up with a very pure form of methamphetamine, and this, marketed under the name Pervitin, seemed like the perfect pick-me-up for the new Germany.  It was modern, and scientific, and supported the fast-paced new lifestyle!  It became immensely popular (you could even get meth-laced chocolates for your lady friend!).  The military, in particular, was looking for ways to make German soldiers capable of grand new things, and, well, the Blitzkrieg was pretty much entirely fueled by meth.  By the end of the war, military leaders were dosing soldiers with whatever they could get in hopes of victory; Nazis were  the most drugged soldiers in history.

Ohler then investigates the relationship between Hitler and his personal doctor, Morell.  Hitler was vocal about his abstemious and vegetarian diet, but he was looking for ways to support his strength, and Morell was into the new science of vitamins.  He would give high-dose vitamins in shots, which sounded like great stuff.  As Hitler demanded more daily, Morell varied the shots with all sorts of interesting things: hormones, glucose, and drugs.  Before long, the Fuhrer was dependent on Morell for daily shots, and the shots had to get more and more potent.  It's amazing to read about, because by 1941, he was getting pretty strong stuff and it only got worse.  In 1943 he started taking regular doses of Eukodal: oxycodone.  The reason he seemed so brave and unbothered by the assassination attempt with a bomb was because he was stoned at the time, but his injuries also precipitated more addictions, to cocaine and then the stuff to distract from the cocaine.

If Ohler is correct, Hitler spent most of the war as high as a kite.  By the end, he was a wreck -- he was slowly dying -- and then as the supply dried up, he went into withdrawal.  Ohler uses Morell's own notes as his source, and they are chaotic and difficult to decipher; Morell was secretive about what went into the shots he made up, and he didn't really want others to know what he was giving Hitler.  But he did keep records of what he did, and it seems clear enough.

Two things struck me about this story: first, how very dangerous a personal physician can be to a powerful person.  The story sounds very much like Michael Jackson's.  Secondly, I've never believed the silly tabloid theories about Hitler's escape to Argentina, but this really makes clear how completely far-fetched such theories are.  The Fuhrer was dying anyway.

And lastly, Nazis gave us crystal meth.  Thanks a lot, Nazis.

A fascinating book that sheds some new light on what was going on in the Third Reich. 

Comments

  1. Hanna @ Booking in HeelsDecember 27, 2017 at 3:12 AM

    I bought this as the third book in a 3 for 2 deal in Waterstones, but I'm getting more and more excited by it. I don't know anything about this topic at all, so it looks really interesting.

    I might bump it up my TBR now I know you liked it! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. JeanDecember 27, 2017 at 9:10 PM

    Oh, yes! I want to know what you think!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I'd love to know what you think, so please comment!

Popular posts from this blog

The Four Ages of Poetry

By -
Image
  "The Four Ages of Poetry," by Thomas Love Peacock I am becoming fond of Thomas Love Peacock.  Besides his unbeatable name, he was a lot of fun.  Peacock was a minor literary figure of the early 19th century; he tried his hand at poetry but mainly succeeded in satire.  I read his short novel Nightmare Abbey last year, but at the time I didn't know that the young hero of the story, Scythrop, was modeled on Peacock's good friend Percy Shelley.  He and Shelley were quite close and Peacock was the executor of Shelley's will. Thomas Love Peacock Percy Bysshe Shelley "The Four Ages of Poetry," a tongue-in-cheek essay on the history and development of poetry, was published in 1820 in a new magazine called Literary Miscellany , which promptly died.  It would probably have been completely obscure and unknown--it nearly is anyway--but for Shelley.  Peacock sent a copy to his friend, who I guess didn't really have much of a sense of
Read more

A few short stories in Urdu

By -
Image
 Back in August, I got hold of a book of Urdu short stories translated into English.  It's a large book, so I wanted to read just the women authors for WIT, and that would still be a good amount.  August got away from me, and I only read one or two stories back then, but I've continued reading them since.  I've now finished all the short stories in the book that were written by women (luckily for me, there are short biographies in an appendix, since I could only tell from the name about half the time).  I'll just highlight a couple: "The Wagon," by Khalida Asghar, is a hallucinatory, apocalyptic story.  The narrator meets three strange men who are watching the evening sky and point out that it has become red.  No one had noticed until they said so, but the sky is now strangely red.  Then a smell arrives, so offensive and sickening that it causes real pain -- but only once it's pointed out.  And finally, a mysterious wagon, which may be the source of the s
Read more

Faerie Queen Readalong I: Redcrosse, the Knight of Holiness

By -
Image
I did it, I read all of Book I!  My minimum requirement was two cantos a day, but I managed three a couple of times.  I'm hoping to read ahead, because I'll be gone for two weeks in the middle of this event and I'd like to be able to prep a post ahead of time...but the schedule is already pretty demanding.  The reading is not terribly difficult, but it is slow.  I keep thinking that I've read a large chunk, only to look back and realize that in fact I have read six verses.  So here we go with analysis... Each book in the Faerie Queene features a knight, and a story, about a particular virtue.  The Redcrosse Knight, to be known as St. George after he accomplishes his feats, is all about Holinesse .  This does not mean that Redcrosse already exemplifies holiness; he doesn't.  Holiness is what he's working towards and struggling with.  His foes symbolize various forms of unholiness, and he falls into their clutches at least as often as he defeats or avoids th
Read more