A fascinating take on the devastating rule of the Nazis that closely follows the history of mass-scale pharmacology in Germany that helped fuel Hitler's war machine. Ohler uses documents, letters, and (occasional but well-noted) speculation to paint a picture of how the mass production and distribution of a stimulant named Pervitin--also known as methamphetamine--helped the Blitzkrieg succeed. Hitler's personal drug use and contradictory philosophy are also explored to better understand the dark impulses that led to the rise (and ultimately the fall) of the Third Reich.Publisher description:
The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. Yet as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping new history, the Third Reich was saturated with drugs: cocaine, opiates, and, most of all, methamphetamines, which were consumed by everyone from factory workers to housewives to German soldiers. In fact, troops were encouraged, and in some cases ordered, to take rations of a form of crystal meth--the elevated energy and feelings of invincibility associated with the high even help to account for the breakneck invasion that sealed the fall of France in 1940, as well as other German military victories. Hitler himself became increasingly dependent on injections of a cocktail of drugs--ultimately including Eukodal, a cousin of heroin--administered by his personal doctor. Thoroughly researched and rivetingly readable, Blitzed throws light on a history that, until now, has remained in the shadows.