Norman Ohler on Hitler and Drugs in the Third Reich

Hitler’s military forces achieved immense success in the early years of World War II by making the Blitzkrieg (or “Lightning War”) central to their offensive strategy. Norman Ohler, author of Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, tells the story of how methamphetamine enabled this success, sometimes over the opposition of medical and military skeptics, and how its value diminished as the war dragged on. Even more fascinating is the story Ohler tells about Adolf Hitler’s extraordinary consumption of oxycodone, cocaine and an ever evolving concoction of hormones, steroids, vitamins and quack remedies administered by injection by his personal physician, Dr. Theodor Morell. Initially helpful in enabling Hitler to perform and project strength, the drugs ultimately fed his megalomania and delusion and quite likely shaped the decisions he made in the latter years of the war, when Dr. Morell became his most frequent and trusted companion.

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