Adolf Hitler during WW1Photo bycommons.wikimedia
In an explosive blockbuster, facts about the use of the long-rumored narcotic by others in the Nazi dictatorship were revealed by mining the medical records of Adolf Hitler’s physician, among many other sources.
Ohler discovered that many in the Nazi dictatorship used drugs regularly, from the troops of Wehrmacht (German armed services) back up to Hitler personally, in his finest book “Der Totale Rausch” (The Total Rush), which was recently translated into English as “Blitzed.”
Use Of Methamphetamine In The German Army
Methamphetamine use, sometimes known as methamphetamine use, was notably widespread: Millions of pills of the medicine Pervitin were given to Wehrmacht soldiers before the 1940 invasion of France, which was a success. Pervitin was created by the Berlin-based Temmler pharmaceutical business and released in 1938 under the brand names “wonder pill” and “anti-depressive.”
It was even briefly sold over the counter. Otto Ranke, an army physician, conducted Pervitin trials on ninety university students and concluded — in light of his findings — that the medicine would aid Germany in winning the war. The Wehrmacht soldiers could march farther and without stopping by using Pervitin, which allowed them to stay awake for extended periods.
And over 35 million pills of Pervitin, as well as Isophan (a slightly altered variant created by Knoll pharma) of the pills, were distributed to the front lines in 1940 as part of a so-called “stimulant directive,” which propelled the Nazis’ war machine.
It should be remembered that Germans were not the only ones who used performance-enhancing medications during World War II. To overcome combat exhaustion, Allied troops were known to be using amphetamines (speed) in the form of Benzedrine.
Ohler’s Research
According to Ohler’s research, each Nazi leader preferred their specific medication. When his work was released in German, Ohler clarified in an appearance with VICE: “Not all of them used every drug.
Variously, more and less. One of them, Chief of Aviation Supply and Procurement Ernst Udet, was addicted to methamphetamine. Others were under the influence of powerful anesthetics, such as Göring, whose name was “Möring” due to morphine.
The acclaimed novelist and filmmaker Ohler originally intended to write a book about long-rumored drugs used by the Nazis. His plans were altered when he discovered the thorough documents that Dr. Theodor Morell, Hitler’s doctor, had left behind.
The Result Of Morell’s Documents
He ultimately decided to focus on fact rather than fiction after years of research into Morell’s documents at the Federal Archives in Koblenz, the Center for Contemporary Culture in Munich, and the National Archives in D.C.
After the treatment, Heinrich Hoffman, the official Reich photographer, Morell, a dubious minor character in earlier biographies and chronicles of Hitler’s administration, supposedly met the Führer. They started a committed, mutually reliant relationship that would continue for more than nine years after Morell administered Hitler a bacteria-based treatment that relieved Hitler’s digestive problems.
According to Morell’s notes, the doctor administered opiates, stimulants, and sedatives to Hitler virtually every day during this period. Morell was able to assemble a clientele of influential people in Nazi Germany due to his connection to Hitler; his letterhead referred to him as the “Führer’s Personal Physician.”
Drugs Used By Hitler
To general multivitamin and hormone treatments using different disgusting animal parts, like bulls’ testicles, he even purchased a sizable Czech enterprise (formerly owned by Jews). Adolf may not have taken Pervitin, but it was probably one of the few drugs he didn’t test.
Ohler claims that Morell administered 800 injections to Hitler throughout his career, many of which included repeated dosages of Eukodal, a German name again for the synthetic opioid oxycodone. Morell allegedly gave Hitler the first dose of Eukodal before such a crucial conference with the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, among many others, in July 1943, when things began to go ill for the Axis early in the war.
By the summer of 1945, just before Hitler and his new bride Eva Braun (also a client of Morell’s) died by suicide in their Berlin bunker, Ohler had concluded that the Führer was probably experiencing withdrawal because Morell couldn’t locate medications in the ravaged city.
Ohler has made it clear that his novel does not attempt to attribute the Nazis’ crimes to their drug use. Even though some of Hitler’s actions throughout the war may have been connected to the narcotics he was using, he notes that the implementation of comparable policies started in the 1930s, before the onset of severe drug use, and that the fundamentals for the horrifying Final Solution, for instance, were spelled out in Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.”