Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich

This was clearly a prejudiced book, written to prove a point. If you take that way, it was fine; if you are looking for a history, you won't find it. All the points are made and documented; but, even though I think many of the points are good, there was a lot more to the war than is presented or considered here. That said, he makes a good, solid case, and suggests some interesting interpretations.
Fun read for a chemist or other technical type.

This was interesting and well written. Anyone trashing this author's style needs to take into account it was translated and the author incorporates his experience with storytelling in his approach, which actually makes it a nice fluid read.

What a research job! Mr. Ohler scoured the copious amounts of paper kept by the leaders of the Third Reich and what he found was amazing - in more ways than one. First, how could this not have been common knowledge 60 years ago? Second, it explains why Germany lost the war when it was nearly already won before it began.

Not only were the leaders of the Third Reich 'blitzed,' but much of the population, unknowingly, became addicted to a legal drug, Pervitin, which was actually methamphetamine. It was sold in pill form and even placed inside chocolate candies. Soon, the Nazi's realized the added bonus of Pervitin when used by soldiers - they could stay awake for days at a time. Soon, it became mandatory for soldiers in the field to be equipped with Pervitin.

Mr. Ohler uncovered letters from soldiers to their families - requesting Pervitin and more Pervitin. It was obvious from these letters that the consumers understood the advantages of it but not the danger. Soon, millions of Pervitin pills were flying out of the government labs directly to men at the front.

Although it is not entirely clear when Hitler himself became a fan of Pervitin which, yes, led to stronger stuff. Hitler's personal physician, Morrell, became more important than any general or SS leader. For a couple of years, he never left Hitler for one day.

Too late, the man in charge of Pervitin, Ranke, the Reich's defense physiologist (whatever that means) discovered the widespread abuse of Pervitin and attempted to signal a warning. By then, most of Hilter's top men were addicted to Pervitin and many to cocaine and heroin. German's cornered the market on these drugs, ordering pounds at a time. At the height of the war, 833,000 Pervitin tablets PER DAY were manufactured.

By the start of WWII, Goring had a serious addiction to morphine and began to make a series of military blunders that may very well have led to Germany's loss of the war.

The revelations never let up - truly a brilliant work.

Ohler writes a fast paced narrative exposing a hidden history of the influence of drugs that fueled the Nazi Army to super human feats during WWII. Crystal meth was a main drug that helped soldiers to stay awake for days and push forward. Ohler deals with Hitler's health of being injected with concoction of drugs that his Dr. Morrell developed. Who knew that Hitler after his assassination attempt in July 1944 was dependent upon cocaine? A fascinating read that I highly recommend to read.

In light of current opioid crisis here in the US, this informative non-fiction examination of mass drug manufacturing and distribution across German military is timely indeed. It's deeper exploration of Hitler's failing health and the theory that it was intrinsically connected to drug addiction is fascinating.

The author's translator has served him very poorly. Another reviewer has remarked that certain passages appear to be machine-translated, and I do believe this is the case. What's witty and trenchant in the original has been rendered tacky and clumsy in the translation. The problems begin with the title: The original is "The Total High", a direct reference, likely recognized by many German-speakers, to Goebbels' 1943 "Total War" speech, and which became a slogan of sorts for Nazi propaganda.

As to the narrative, Ohler goes a bridge too far more than once: His take on the French collapse in 1940 is a glaring example. All too often the author plays fast and loose with the facts, showing that he's a novelist, not an historian.

For those intent on acquiring this book in its compromised English-language version, skip to the end. (Try to) get past the awkward translation, and Ohler's depiction of the German dictator as junkie rings true, and it's worthwhile reading.

Super interesting take on what was going on behind the scenes of the Third Reich and Hitler's leadership - there was some serious drugs enhancing performance, effectiveness and even strategy. Fascinating.

Modern inorganic chemistry had its birth in Germany in the early 20th Century. Much of this was motivated by the needs of the First World War. Blocked by the Allies, and unable to import needed supplies for the pharmaceutical and armaments industries, German chemists set to work synthesizing the missing compounds.

Cut off from Chilean deposits of sodium nitrate needed to make explosives, German scientists worked on a way of fixing atmospheric nitrogen, available from the atmosphere, into a compound that could be used as an industrial feedstuff. In 1910, Fritz Haber developed the process named after him for producing ammonia (NH3), and Germany was again able to make explosives.

German scientists also pioneered the making of synthetic fuels from coal during WWI, although this was not as important a factor in the war as it was to be a few decades later, in WWII, when Germany needed millions of gallons of fuel to power the mechanized Wermacht and the Luftwaffe.

In the world of medicine, German scientists developed diamorphine, later trademarked as Heroin. Several times as potent as morphine, Heroin was widely used to treat wounded soldiers, and became a popular over the counter drug as well. After the war, it became a popular drug in the civilian market as well, with people using it not just for pain relief, but for relief from the poverty and depression of the Weimar era. It was estimated that 40% of all medical doctors were addicted to it.

This changed with the rise of the Nazis, who instituted a severe program of control of drug addiction and addicts- at least those addicts who lacked access to power. Being addicted was associated with the Jews, who the Nazis attempted to portray as being responsible for drug use. Wiping out either was wiping out both. Addicts were first treated, then imprisoned, and eventually executed during the war.

But not all drug use was looked down upon. Popular writers have discussed the use of stimulants like benzedrine by German soldiers, and much has been written and speculated about drug use by Hitler and his close associates. Goering was said to be strongly addicted to opiates, and Hitler was constantly attended to by a quack physician who was constantly injecting him with vitamins and stimulants, swabbing his gums with cocaine and administering other drugs.

Most notorious of all, though, was the use of Zyklon B, a compound that, on exposure to water, releases deadly hydrogen cyanide (HCN) gas. Originally developed as an insecticide for use in delousing clothes and similar applications, it gained its notoriety at Auschwitz, where it was used to kill over a million prisoners- mostly Jews.

But one drug stood out over all the others in its use in Nazi Germany, and it’s a drug that most people, and probably most historians, are unaware of. It was called Pervitin, and it was used by soldiers, office workers, industrial workers, housewives- in fact by pretty much the entire German population. It was sold as a remedy for depression, for tiredness, for those needing a bit of pep, students needing to concentrate on their studies, and every other imaginable use. You could even buy chocolates with the active compound in them.

That active ingredient was yet another product of the inventiveness of the earth 20thC German chemical industry, first discovered in 1893, termed N-methylamphetamine, better known today as methamphetamine, or simply meth. The same product being cooked up in trailers and warehouses by criminals today was once the most popular over the counter drug in Nazi-era Germany.

German phamecutical inventiveness of that era wasn’t just limited to Heroin and Pertivin. There was also Eukodal, a powerful synthetic narcotic that Dr. Morrell regularly injected into the declining Hitler, along with an ever increasing range of stimulants, tranquilizers, and painkillers. It’s still around today, under the name Oxycodon- one of the most dangerous and abused of the modern synthetic narcotics.

It was the stimulants like Pertivin, though, that probably played the largest role in the Nazi war machine. The Wehrmacht used them to allow soldiers to fight for extend periods and to get injured soldiers back on the line. Ordinary soldiers obtained their own supplies from family back home- letters from writer Henrich Böll, quoted here, describe a near-constant series of requests letters to home, pleading for more Pertivan to help him deal with the stress and physical demands of the war.

Author Ohler has delved deep into wartime archives and other records to discover a wealth of new information on just how deeply the third reich was dependent on the pharmaceutical industry. His narrative is built around two threads: The increasing demand for, and use of, drugs by the military, and the decline of an increasingly addicted and drugged Hitler at the hands of his personal physician Morrell. The result is a narrative at once fascinating, compelling, and shocking. This is a story that has not previously been told in such depth, and that makes it a must-read for students of WWII.

Ohler is a journalist rather than a historian, and this turns out to be the source of both the positive and the negative aspects of the book. He writes in a breezy and highly readable style, keeping us glued to his text even when he's dealing with technical matters. His prose is vivid and often waxes poetic, though it must be said that his descriptions sometimes seem more a product of imagination than research: "Those bright blue eyes, once so hypnotic, were now dull. Crumbs stuck to his lips."

About half the book deals with the use of stimulants in the German military. He feels that the surprising success of the 1940 Ardennes offensive was due in large part to methamphetamine distributed to the troops, and many historians would agree. At times he may be going a bit too far though, such as in finding a pharmacological reason for the famous stop-order at Dunkirk, attributing it to Göring's opiate addiction. And it might have been appropriate to put military drug use in context: this was not a German monopoly but was common in British and other armies at the time, and still is today (more cautiously, let us hope).

The other half of the book is about "Patient A," aka Adolf Hitler. In recent years, historians have debunked the old idea that his doctor was keeping Hitler doped up on a variety of noxious substances, especially narcotics. See the excellent book Was Hitler Ill, by Eberle and Neumann.Was Hitler ILL?: A Final Diagnosis But Ohler goes back to the old view, imagining Dr. Morell giving him almost daily injections of Eukodal (an opioid similar to todays Oxycontin). The evidence for this is dubious at best, based on often illegible records, which often refer to injections of "x" which Ohler thinks was Eukodal. And Ohler claims that Hitler's decline in 1945 was due to the Eukodal supply running out on January 2 of that year, resulting in withdrawal symptoms. This seems scarcely credible. Yes, the German pharmaceutical industry was in bad shape, but when Göring was captured he had a supply of 24,000 doses of opioids, and it's hard to believe that the Fuhrer himself would have been reduced to cold turkey withdrawal.

Summary: a well-written book, but don't believe everything you read.

This book is shocking and explains how the Germans were able to roll over Europe and take over so quickly. Hitler was a wreck - we know he was an idiot, but he was really a drugged up mess. An interesting insight into WWII.

In his book Blitzed, Norman Ohler describes how the Third Reich was saturated with drugs. Germany was a pharmaceutical giant. Today’s well known companies like Merck and Bayer produced cocaine opiates and methamphetamines to be consumed by millions.
I had been enslaved, by the German occupiers of Poland, in four forced labor ( Blechhammer, Brande, Gross-Masselwitz, Klettendorf and one Nazi Concentration Camp ( Waldenburg ) for three years, my school years (from the age of fifteen to the age of eighteen.) One of my “employers” was IG Farben, a company whose Nobel-winning scientists discovered vital medicines. IG Farben became a Nazi collaborator. The Nazis starved my body and kept my mind in a blind alley. I had been cut off from any source of information. I had no calendars, no newspapers, and no radio. I was not aware of how much drug use there was in the Third Reich, as described in this book BLITZED. Only after the end of WWII did I learn about the infamy of the Third Reich. Since May 1945 (when I was liberated by the Russian Army) I have been reading for seventy two years the history of World War II. I do not recall ever reading about the drug Pervitin in Germany.

As a vegetarian and teetotaler myself, I had to like Hitler’s advocating clean living, like vegetarianism and non-smoking. However, in the year 2000, the FBI declassified documents pertaining to Hitler. In one of the documents, Dr. Ferdinand Sauerbach, Hitler’s personal physician in 1937, stated that the German dictator was showing signs of growing megalomania. Hitler was mentally unbalanced in any clinical sense. He may have been a genius, but he was insane at the same time. Dr. Theodore Morell, one of Hitler’s physicians, prescribed for Hitler an array of seventy-three medications. It included tonics, vitamins, sedatives, stimulants, hypnotics, hormones, a variety of opium, steroids such as cortisone, cocaine, and methamphetamines. All those had a deleterious effect on his ability to judge and to reason. Hitler’s irritability and restlessness was reflected in his appearances when his cheeks flushed with rage, when his body trembled, and when his eyes popped out. In BLITZED we see that Hitler was not only an evil man but a junkie as well.

BLITZED is well researched; it is definitely a captive, informative, educational and enlightening read! This book should be on the reading list of anybody interested in the history of the Third Reich and WWII. In today’s news here in the U.S. “Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50.” So, BLITZED is quite relevant nowadays.

THE OBVIOUS TIME TO RESEARCH AND CREATE THE MANUSCRIPT INTO PRODUCTION INDICATES GREAT EFFORT TO PRESENT A PICTURE OF ACCURACY AND CHEMICAL ADDICTION OF THE ENTIRE NAZIS REGIME AS WELL AS THE CITIZENS OF GERMANY "ATTEMPTING" TO RECOVER FROM THEIR LOSS OF NATIONALISM POST WW 1. CHEMICAL SUPPORT INITIALLY WAS FRUITFUL; AS WITH ALL CHEMICAL ADDITION AND LONG TERM USE PLUS IMPRUDENT USE OF NON MEDICALLY RESEARCHED ENZYMES AND VITAMINS OVERLOAD WILL ALL WAYS PRODUCE PSYCHOSIS. VERY WELL DOCUMENTED STUDY SPIRALING INTO INSANITY.

Written in a breezy, Rolling Stone article style, with copious footnotes and citations from sources of original material in Germany and US, including National Archives. Interesting from the perspective of military history, and sheds some insight into the success of tanker attacks throughout France and early military successes of Hitler's uniformed services.

Setting aside the bleedthrough of the author's feelings about his subject matter, it was a worthwhile,brief, read, with new material, and significant ink given to Hitler's personal physician and what he allegedly was injecting/providing to his patient. Much of this is conjecture as the records are enigmatic and incomplete, not surprisingly.

I found the military aspect more well supported academically and appreciated this portion of the text.

Probably 25% of the Kindle version pages are dedicated to footnotes and citations. This is a brief text.

NOTE: Recommend physical text over Kindle version. Many charts, photos, records included are difficult to enlarge or see well in the Kindle, and a reader may wish to go back and forth to the citations and footnotes, an activity which is still challenging in a Kindle.

Blitzed

Norman Ohler is an award-winning novelist, screen-writer, and journalist. He spent five years researching this book in numerous archives and spoke to eyewitnesses. This 2015 book has 292 pages for its ‘Contents’, four chapters, ‘Notes’, ‘Bibliography’, ‘Photo Credits’, and ‘Index’. The Third Reich was saturated with drugs, Germany was a pharmaceutical powerhouse. Methamphetamine was used by millions of troops for elevated energy and feelings of invincibility. Drugs played an important role in their life. In the 1930's methamphetamine was popular (Chapter 1). It wasn’t restricted until 1939. Today it is illegal or strictly regulated, but remains popular all over Europe. The abandoned and decaying Temmler factory once produced pure methamphetamine as a performance-enhancing drug. Pain reducing pill go back centuries.

Morphine was isolated from opium poppies in the early 19th century, so too cocaine. Both were available without prescription (p.7). Acetylsalicylic acid came from willow bark. Heroin was derived from morphine. After WW I Germany became a leader in drugs (p.9). Alcohol played an important part in the early days of the NSDAP (p.13). The Nazis banned drugs and users (p.15). Cigarette advertising was restricted (p.17). Dr. Theodor Morell became Hitler’s doctor and treated him for poor digestion (p.24). The Temmler factory patented synthesized methamphetamine, Pervitin (p.29). The Japanese used this for their kamikaze pilots. Pervitin boosted confidence and alertness (p.31). It compensated for withdrawal symptoms (p.32). Pervitin use was widespread (p.38). Chapter 2 discusses the Army’s Medical training. A sleeping soldier is useless, a tired soldier ineffective (p.46). Pervitin prevented this but not mistakes. It switched off inhibitions (p.53). The side effects were recognized (p.60). Laws did not apply to the military.

Pervitin drove the Wehrmacht to victory (p.71). The well-planned German advance did not stop for supplies or sleep (p.75). Hitler stopped the army from advancing to let the Luftwaffe finish off the enemy. But clouds and the RAF stopped them and allowed the saving of Allied soldiers at Dunkirk (p.81). The side effects were heart problems and high blood pressure (p.88). A multivitamin was also produced (p.89). One official objected to the use of Pervitin (p.98). Chapter 3 discusses the drug use of Hitler. His physician kept detailed records (p.105). Hitler’s health declined from autumn 1941. This presumedly was caused by a huge amount of stress and a vegetarian diet (p.107). Hitler was given injections daily (p.114).

At the end of 1941 some realized victory was no longer possible (p.119). The Russians were superior in numbers and getting better equipped. Then Hitler declared war on the US! He further withdrew from reality (p.124). After the assassination attempt Hitler was treated with cocaine (p.159). The German armies were losing on all fronts (Chapter 4). Pervitin was still in use. The German Navy experimented with small one-man torpedo launchers (p.192). They were given “pep pills” (p.206). Drugs were tested on prisoners for brainwashing and consciousness control (p.209). These experiments were continued by the US Navy (p.211). Drug shortages affected Hitler (p.217). Hitler’s Nero decree to destroy Germany failed because of a lack of resources (p.221). Hitler’s suicide was imitated by over 100,000 others (p.225).

This history book warns against a leader who uses or is addicted to drugs. The long term use of amphetamines leads to psychosis. The other lesson warns against a too-powerful leader whose mistakes can’t be corrected. It seems easier to remove a leader in a parliamentary system than in a presidential system. This also applies to a leader of a corporation. One in poor health may not be equal to the challenges of changing conditions. Do books on Blitzkrieg War mention the use of amphetamines?

This book thoroughly revises what we knew about the Nazis and WWII. It's amazing that the extent of the drug use of Hitler and the Nazis is only coming to light now. The Nazis Blitzkrieg has often been attributed to the German's strength and strategical prowess when in fact, we now know that this is part of the Nazi myth they promoted since in reality the army was propping up their soldiers with widespread meth use. In the same vein, the myth of Hitler as a teetotaler and a man of strong character and a teetotaler is thoroughly debunked. Instead we see him as an abject addict to meth, oxycodone and even cocaine. Sadly, the drugs fueled his delusional visions of victory and heightened his psychopathic characteristics, leading to even more slaughter and tragedy This book is a gripping read and includes a number of helpful graphics. It's sad to note that the drugs created by the Nazis are still creating havoc today. .

An utterly fascinating look at a part of history that is often overlooked, the reliance of not only soldiers but ordinary people on amphetamines under the Third Reich. One can speculate that the German citizens took the pills to deal with the horrible things they were doing or ignoring. But Norman Ohler is more interested in how the confluence of German pharmaceutical science came at the right time as a value on always being ready to work (ie not sleeping), military campaigns that required 19 straight hours or more of fighting, civilians who internalized these messages. I have to say that legalization and cultural support rarely caused the proliferation of meth heads as we now know, but there were enough problems that they made amphetamines a prescription only drug before the end of the war. Even relatively clean addiction messes people up. The Fuhrer and his top aids had no trouble getting prescriptions, of course. And the drugs were given to battalions before they went into battle. Still there is evidence that Hitler was using just before he lost and it may have affected the timing, if not the outcome of the war.

Much of this book centers on one doctor, Theodor Morell, the personal physician of Adolph Hitler. To be sure most of the material the author uses regarding Hitler come from the Dr’s notes, which he daily wrote concerning Patient A. What the reader discovers is an ambitious man, who the author refers to as the fat doctor. Morell becomes a sycophant and the rules of responsible medicine seem to elude him. He is determined to become valuable and indispensable to Hitler and to make a ton of money in the process.

The author writes of Hitler’s dependence on different drugs to include amphetamines and cocaine when he is injured in a failed assassination attempt. Hitler despised those who were addicted to any substance yet he did not refuse any of Morell’s injections that could be anything from vitamins to amphetamines to opioids. What is clear is that Hitler felt he needed Dr. Morell,

The author also writes about the role of amphetamines in German soldier’s lives. They are given large quantities of amphetamines, produced by big German drug companies like Bayer and Merck, to help them remain awake for long periods. The problems inherent in this were the after effects of not sleeping for days on soldiers. Even pilots were offered amphetamines. The sheer amounts offered to troops was startling.

This book is absolutely engrossing, Every chapter, whether it deals with Hitler’s personal addictions which the author feels led to his complete loss with reality, to Dr. Morell’s side deals to make money, or the German Navy’s research into mixing opioids and methamphetamines are all well researched and well written.

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler offers an interesting, new insight into Hitler's Nazi regime. Mr. Ohler explores the idea that drugs, particularly methamphetamines, played a much larger part in the Nazi party than previously known.

It was already widely known that Germany became a pharmaceutical Mecca of sorts in the 1920s and that even before, Germany was known for it's chemists. Modern morphine and heroin were both developed by German chemists. Morphine was, and still is, a boon in the battlefield, allowing even badly injured soldiers to continue fighting. By the 1920s, cocaine and morphine were available freely to anyone without a prescription. Berlin had become the ultimate party town.

The Nazi regime initially rejected the use of drugs and alcohol, creating their own "war on drugs." However, in 1937 a German pharmacist named Hauschild changed everything when he began working on a stimulant developed by the Japanese and his enhancements led to synthesized methamphetamine, which was trademarked Pervitin. The German pharmaceutical factory, Temmler, immediately began production.

By 1938, Pervitin was heavily marketed as a treatment for a wide variety of ailments - a modern day snake oil of sorts. It was widely used by people from all walks of life since it was available over the counter and Ohler explains that it set the stage for Hitler to create an army that needed little sleep and had no appetite - as long as soldiers kept taking the Pervitin issued to them by the military.

I found this book to be well written and extremely interesting. It's filled with documents and photographs that seem to bolster his assertions. He delves deeply into Hilter's own heavy drug use, as well as Eva Braun's - all carefully administered under the guise of medical treatment by his personal physician.

Of course, what goes up must come down and history has shown us the end result for Hitler and the Nazi regime. But how he managed to attain such power over so many has long been debated. Mr. Ohler's book provides a piece of the puzzle and will likely be very interesting to WW2 history buffs.

While reading Blized, two things became very obvious to me. First, Norman Ohler isn't a trained historian - according to the marketing material, he's primarily written novels and nonfiction pieces for newspapers and magazines. Not that this is a negative in any way. In fact, his breezy style makes the subject matter much more accessible to a popular audience. Second, Ohler is clearly fascinated by the subject matter. In his acknowledgement section, he describes initially researching the Nazi/Drug connection with the intention of writing a movie script, but as the years passed, it turned into a nonfiction book.

Blitzed, as its subtitle suggests, describes the prevalence of drug use in Nazi Germany. Among the civilian population and the army, Pervitin (a form of methamphetamine) was exceedingly popular, and Ohler details this particular phenomenon. But Blitzed also delves deeper into Hitler's personal relationship with the drug Eukodol, as well as his personal doctor who injected it into his veins on a regular basis. Ohler uses the notes of this personal doctor to give as a new view of Hitler's rise and fall.

Blitzed is the kind of book that will intrigue general readers, but it will likely peak the interest of WWII buffs as well. It's not written as a historical dissertation, so I'm sure there are people out there who will nitpick and furrow their brows at some of Ohler's thoughts, ideas, and conclusions. Though, at the very least, it offers a new perspective on the end of the war, which also happens to be exceedingly interesting. I highly recommend Blitzed - it's one of those books which I'll be talking about for years to come.

The Third Reich is such an inexplicable phenomenon--and is so bound up in the uniquely infamous career of one man, Hitler--that it appears inexhaustible as a source of fascination and reflection.

German journalist and novelist Norman Ohler has done extensive research into the phenomenon of drug use in the Third Reich. The result is informative and insightful. Even readers familiar with the Nazi regime and its notable personalities will find much to reflect upon.

Ohler outlines the history of drug manufacture and usage in Germany, preexisting the Nazis. He sees it intertwined with the tragic aftermath of the Great War. The Nazis' control over all aspects of national life included strict laws against illicit drug use. At the same time, what was acceptable or unacceptable among drugs was muddled.

Ohler presents the development and marketing of Pervitin in pre-World War II Germany. This synthesized methamphetabmine was offered as a cure-all. Direct advertising to the public extolled its capacities to unleash surges of energy that could overcome depression and other common complaints. It was even featured in chocolates for homemakers.

Ohler argues that "Pervitin was a perfect match for the spirit of the age. When the medication conquered the market there actually seemed to be a reason for thinking that all forms of depression had come to an end." He declares that delusional, incomprehensible aspects of daily life in late-1930s Germany could be alleviated by sanctioned, group reliance on a powerful high."Methamphetamine bridged the gaps, and the doping mentality spread into every corner of the Reich. Pervitin allowed the individual to function in the dictatorship. National socialism in pill form."

Inevitably, pervitin found its way into military applications. What better application than in the blitzkriegs, lightning wars that shattered military opponents and shook the world. However, the burst of terrifying energy could not be sustained.The hangover was grievous.

Ohler transitions to a detailed examination of Hitler's drug use. His relationship with Dr. Theo Morell was a topic of interest at the time and remains so. Numerous authors have explored the Fuhrer's precipitous decline amid extensive drug use. Ohler writes that Hitler is in no way exculpated by his drug dependency. He appears to find it significant not only to understand some aspects of Hitler's increasingly erratic behavior, but also as illuminating of the madness gripping the national socialist state as a whole.

Even in translation from the original German, 'Blitzed' is at once highly crafted and readable. Ohler's analysis may over-determine the importance of drug use as a driver of the Third Reich. Nonetheless, he demonstrates that it is a factor to be reckoned with in order to obtain a comprehensive picture. Public psychology is a key element of the phenomenon of the Nazi regime. It's not entirely quantifiable or susceptible to conventional historical analysis. As a result, Ohler's combination of painstaking research and novelistic flair is notably effective.

German journalist Norman Ohler has written a very interesting book, "Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich", which reads a bit like a novel. According to Ohler, Germany was almost deluged with meth in the 30's and 40's and everybody was taking it. Soldiers gearing up for long battles, top Nazis, including Hitler, taking it to keep working, defense workers taking it increase production of war materiel. And along with the meth, packaged as Pervitin and other brands by major German producers, cocaine and morphine was also common, though the latter two were "outlawed" by the Nazi government.

Why the need for "enhanced" workers? Wehrmacht soldiers heading west into France, Belgium, and Holland in 1940 - at the end of the "Phony War" - were often up for four or five days, after consuming Pervitin, far outclassing the Allied soldiers who tired out in normal fighting. Pilots were also dosed with Pervitin, to keep them flying longer. But soldiers and pilots built up tolerance to the drug, and factories in the Third Reich were hitting a record pace in producing the drug.

Ohler also writes about Dr Theo Morrell, Hitler's doctor, who kept him dosed with Pervitin and other drugs. Hitler trusted Morrell, who was also into "vitamin treatments". Hitler was dependent on Morrell and his treatments til his final days in the bunker.

One thing Ohler does not write about - and I wondered when I was reading the book - was whether Wehrmacht Waffen-SS officers were given these meth preparations when they were murdering Jews and partisans in the killing fields of Poland and Russia. I do know these soldiers were given drink to help them along, but I wonder if they were also high on Pervitin?

This is a hard book to review because, frankly, I don't know how much is true. There's a long bibliography and some of what Ohler covers - Dr Morrell, in particular - I'd read before. But were the housewives and the workers and the soldiers really blitzed out? I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and recommend the book, to the curious.

This is an interesting if uneven book about the abuse of performance enhancing drugs by the Third Reich. Methamphetamines and opiates fueled not just an army but a country, leaders and householders alike. But ultimately no drug is a wonder drug and the dark side is ugly and horrific.

I recently watched a television show about this subject so was somewhat familiar with the contentions. My problem with the book is that it alternates from reading like a term paper to reading like a novel. POnderous sentences like "thrown back entirely on his own devices, just as the opiate laudanum consumed Goethe in his study, Serturner made an astonishing discovery; he succeeded in isolating morphine, the crucial alkaloid in opium,a kind of pharmaceutical Mephistopheles that instantly magics pain away.' makes this book a struggle at times to read. He provides both a broad overview of the wartime pharmaceutical industry before focusing on Hitler and his doctor. Obviously having a soldier who had superhuman stamina and was impervious to pain as the unachieved goal. The author does not discuss whether or the extent to which drug abuse contributed to the atrocities performed during the war. Intoxicants can certainly lower inhibitions but can they make someone do something that they would not otherwise be inclined to do? While it certainly doesn't excuse actions,the issue of abuse coupled with propaganda and social pressure makes for interesting speculation. the book contains forty pages of notes and references and feautres black and white photographs.

Hitler was a Hypochondriac. A Cocaine user. A megalomaniac whose own pride turned the time of the advancing German Army. Doctor Morell, his personal physician, use his understated power of persuasion and knowledge of drugs and vitamins to fuel Hitler's insatiable desire to be healthy and in to form.

The German Pharmaceutical companies created (by the millions) these little pills which fed the German soldiers a non stop diet of Pervitin. The man (and woman) on the street took these little pills in massive amounts, to fuel their zest for life-- to banish post partum blues, to ease inhibitions, to stay awake for days. ALL of this came with a price, which was never mentioned, until it became apparent that Pervitin (Meth) was creating mind-blown zombies as much as it was creating a fierce non-stop war machine.

Had the Stop order at Dunkirk NOT been issued, would the outcome of the war have been different? This book seems to infer that yes, it WOULD have been.

"Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich" leaves the reader dumbfounded -- who knew that this unstoppable army, feeling and acting invincible -- was fueled on drugs? Destroying everything in its wake, this army confounded, destroyed and struck terror into the hearts of the Allies who did NOT know what to expect from this massive army heading towards them like non-stop replicating automatons.

Exceptional descriptions of the manufacture, components, use and effects of this drug fill this book -- as well as the tests on unwilling participants. Hitler's suicide and Morell's eventual capture.

"Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich" is an INTENSE narrative, and eye-opener, a fantastic glimpse into the drug-fueled Third Reich and the Amry that almost won..

Army was a massive Drug-Dependent war machine that (fueled by its massive Pervitin consumption)

Norman Ohler puts forth a straightforward thesis: Nazi Germany, top to bottom, military included, suffered a generalized addiction to opioids, particularly methamphetamine, marketed as Pervitin; the chief dopehead was Hitler; the head doper was Theodor Morell, Hitler’s personal physician. Ohler cites reams of original research dug out of Nazi files (Nazis were big documentarians) to support his proposition. In many ways, he presents a very appealing case, something like, if you will allow, The General Theory of Nazi Inhumanity, or The General Theory of German Blindness, depending on whether you can’t allow yourself to believe rational people capable of committing massive atrocities, or you wish to excuse how a nation could allow millions to be slaughtered in fulfillment of a political ideology.

This doesn’t discount the value of Ohler’s research and presentation, but it does mean readers need to approach it cautiously and not allow themselves to be sweep up in it as a unifying theory. The real value here may be that Ohler, a novelist outsider, gives impetus for historians of all disciplines—medical, military, political, and social—to take a closer look at drug use in pre- and Nazi Germany and perhaps eventually incorporate it into their more expansive and inclusive histories and biographies of the times and the people.

In his text, supported by hundreds of footnotes, Ohler covers the development of the drug industry in Germany preceding the rise of the Nazis and WWII. He shows how methamphetamine captured the imagination of people, got branded as Pervitin, and then smartly packaged and sold to doctors and the general public. Reading Ohler’s colorful recounting, you could easily believe the entire country in the 1930s was guzzling down Pervitin in tablet form and mixed with foods, such as chocolates. If you didn’t know how damaging meth is, you might find the whole affair amusing.

He goes on to show how Pervitin wormed its way into the military as a stimulant for pushing soldiers beyond normal human endurance to create an impression of supermen at war. Ohler’s portrayals of selected military engagements, among them the storming of Poland and the overrunning of France, do give you pause. But no drug works forever, as your body builds tolerances, initiating a vicious and deadly cycle in search of the first ecstatic high. In other words, even if meth may have played a roll in winning some encounters, eventually it became a debilitating addictive failure, as Ohler points out.

Then there is Hitler himself, the man portrayed to Germans as pure of body and the mightier for it; who, with his Nazi cohorts, propagandized for a healthy society and the banishment of drugs, bad eating habits, and nasty “unnatural” sex. Ohler devotes half the book to the Leader and his personal physician, who over time morphed into Hitler’s personal drug supplier, always at his side, always ready with a pill, with an injection of morphine and later on an opioid cousin, Eukodal. That Hitler was in the thrall of medical concoctions to mitigate any number of unsettling maladies, especially of the alimentary canal, is well known. Many also accept he became an addict. Ohler posits complete and debilitating addiction that extended to Hitler’s thought processes and decision-making ability; in short, Hitler behaved irrationally. Though Ohler takes a paragraph to militate against the pages of evidence he has presented, the impression a reader takes away is the opposite, that in fact Hitler became unhinged and borderline insane, particularly in the 1940s, concluding in a complete break from reality and the fanatical about destroying his own country.

So, readers interested in Hitler, in Nazi Germany, in German military performance in WWII, and the destructive effects of rampant drug use, all will find Ohler’s book informative and riveting. However, until historians of all types take up his lead and more closely scrutinize what he has brought forcefully to the forefront, that Germany descended into a suggestible stupefaction to condone murderous ways and stepped into the abyss at the beckoning of a madman, as opposed to rational people behaving knowledgeably in all ways contrary to that rationality, well, this will have to await much further study.

A most informative book. But I was disappointed to see no mention of Dr. Max Jacobson aka "Dr. Feelgood."

Twice in his life, Jacobson treated national and world leaders with his concoctions of quack ingredients plus methamphetamine. Once was in the 1960's when he treated JFK, among others, and kept him functional. The first time was in Berlin, where he set up a practice in Berlin administering his feelgood injections to celebrities and glitterati in Berlin.

According to the book Dr. Feelgood, Jacobson had his practice during the Nazi rise to power. He was advised by a friendly stormtrooper, whom he'd treated, to leave Berlin before the Brownshirts got him. The Nazis transferred the formulae to Temmler who then went on to make Pervitin.

Blitzed says the Germans found a new way to mass-produce methamphetamine and put it into Pervitin. Granting the truth of this, meth had already been around, as Jacobson demonstrated.

In a list of the 100 most influential persons of the 20th Century, it may be that Dr. Jacobson deserves to be on that list. He deserved a mention in this book.

Much like drugs have destroyed the basic fabric of society in ways that only the future generations will be able to gauge: IF they are not addicted to something that is. We see Nazi Germany become the extreme example of the drug culture. That mixed with a evil ideology is well documented. This book is well written , the only thing that could have made it better were more accounts of people on dope. A huge amount of the book is about Hitler's decent into drug addiction. Which is fine. He was a shell of himself from 1944 onward. If not earlier. However more tales of average German's would have been worth reading about. He does tell us about neger suicide torpedo craft though and other stories. It's all well done here and a warning to everyone about how drugs seem to be the answer to problems but only make things much worse.. This is a fast read and it's well worth your time.

According to this book, no German action by any citizen or soldier during the war wasn't fueled in some way by amphetamines (often disingenuously called "crystal meth" by the author). If we're to believe him, most German doctors took speed pills and were therefore able to write more prescriptions for the women at the factories sorting the pills, who also also took the pills to make them better at sorting the pills!

Look, I get it. The Germans Army gave stimulants to their troops. Parts of this make for a fascinating, if clumsy, read. But the lurid, pearl-clutching prose tries to excite rather than inform, which does a disservice to the topic. Saying "almost everyone" in Germany was on speed in the 1930s isn't helpful or accurate, nor is calling Pervatin an "early version of crystal meth". Is the author unaware that a good portion of the United States is legally on similar drugs?

The author also cherry picks the effects of amphetamines, then either exaggerates them or omits them altogether in order to present the German army as a group of super-charged, unstoppable warriors whose victories in battle were always due to drugs - never bravery, tactical decisions, or weaponry. He also seems unaware that many of the effects of speed can be counterproductive to fighting in a war. Hyper-vigilance is great, but not when you're seeing enemies that ARENT THERE or scratching invisible bugs off of your arms. Being *too* alert can be just as much a hindrance to proper judgement as being half-asleep. Staying awake for three days sounds good on paper, but when you're sleep-deprived and hallucinating that every shrub is cluster of British paratroopers, I'm not convinced that you're that supersoldier. You're just kind of a mess.

You've probably heard that soldiers and pilots and such take stimulants, especially when they have to go without sleep. But this account of the Third Reich drug taking takes it to new levels. Apparently everyone in the military was popping methamphetamines, which had become popular in pill form before the war, as Mommy's Little Helper type drugs, available in any drug store. So even though British and American troops were taking Benzedrine when they could, Hitler's armies were getting really tanked. That's about half the book. The other half is a detailed story of Hitler's drug regime. He found a doctor who appears to be of the same stripe as Michael Jackson's doctor. This character kept the Fuehrer on an increasing number of pills, injections, and "vitamins" until the patient was a complete mess. Really quite a fascinating expose.

As a writer of historical fiction, I respect the author's extensive research into this neglected facet of Nazi Germany. Anyone trying to understand the Hitler government will find "Blitzed," with its extensive bibliography and index, a valuable source of information. It stands by itself among recent* Hitler books. Ably written by German novelist Norman Ohler, it dives deep into the Third Reich’s love affair with drugs, exposing more thoroughly than ever before their widespread use among Germans, from civilians up to and including the Fuehrer, many of his generals, and his coterie of thugellectuals. (The latter included, of course, Hermann Goering, whose odd behavior and ludicrous garb are marvelously described in Blitzed [Pg 94/95]).

Ohler’s novelistic style is allowed free rein only occasionally, with but a few lyrical passages like: “...the big artificial fog device was turned on and the Berghof, that refuge from reality, sank into artificial whiteness like a nightmare version of mystic Avalon, cut off from the world by an opaque veil.” [Pg 150]

Ohler begins with a history of how addictive drugs got a foothold in Germany from the 19th Century forward. The primary drug explored is the 20th Century’s Pervitin, which my spell-check stubbornly believes should be the apropos 'perverting,' instead. It was essentially crystal meth. A second drug, the opioid Eukodal (oxycodone), is also mentioned as a factor in Hitler’s deterioration. Other sections explore the successful military use of Pervitin in Poland and France; life in Hitler’s “Wolf’s Lair” headquarters in East Prussia; the use of concentration camps as cruel test grounds for drugs; Nazi medical and other rivalries; and desperate, late-war combining of drugs with “secret weapons.”

The major figure in Blitzed is Hitler’s feel-good physician, Dr. Theo Morell, who, as Tom Lehrer says, “specialized in diseases of the rich.” Widely regarded by many top Nazis as a quack, Morell gave injections to Hitler and others by the score. The shots mostly consisted of vitamins and glucose, as well as witches-brew concoctions derived from animal organs. As an example, Ohler mentions that one truckload of Morell’s plunder from the Ukraine included, among other nasty things, 440 pounds of bull testicles. [Pg 131]

The photos in Blitzed reveal Morell as an unattractive individual. [Pg 123] He also had a repellent body odor, which caused Eva Braun and Hitler’s generals to detest him. Morell’s drugs may have contributed to Hitler’s decline, or may have helped him function long after he should have been institutionalized. Thus Morell’s proper place in history is difficult to assess. Readers can decide for themselves based on copious evidence in Ohler’s book.

Morell certainly knew the dangers of drug use. When asked about Pervitin, Morell told a patient: “This is not a power food. It isn’t oats for the horse; it’s the whip!” Early on, Morell tried to keep Hitler from becoming addicted, but as the situation deteriorated, he found it expedient, after token refusals, to give Hitler whatever he begged for, including Pervitin, Eukodal, and any of nearly 100 other drugs, as detailed in Blitzed. [Pg 115]

Ambition was Morell’s undoing. Among his last few coherent statements while in Allied custody, was a childish summation of his life in a few words, one of the most pathetic ever spoken. [Pg 226]

I found little to quibble with in Ohler's work. He got the important things dead on. His take on Hitler's sanity and the relevance of the Holocaust to Hitler's strategy are the same as mine. Some of the pill factory illustrations could have been omitted, but most others are useful: Exhausted soldiers crashing after days on Pervitin, photos of Morell and other Nazi figures, including photographer Eva Braun, etc.

* One overlapping work might be Nazis on Speed, by Werner Pieper (in German).