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Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Paperback – Illustrated, March 6, 2018
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The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. Yet as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping 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.
“Delightfully nuts.”—The New Yorker
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMariner Books
- Publication dateMarch 6, 2018
- Dimensions5.25 x 0.5 x 8 inches
- ISBN-101328915344
- ISBN-13978-1328915344
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Editorial Reviews
Review
National Bestseller New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice “The strengths of Ohler’s account lie not only in the rich array of rare documents he mines and the archival images he reproduces to accompany the text, but also in his character studies… Ohler effectively captures Hitler’s pathetic dependence on his doctor and the bizarre intimacy of their bond…Blitzed makes for provocative reading.” —The New York Times Book Review “A revelatory work that considers Hitler’s career in a new light. ‘Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich’ is that rare sort of book whose remarkable insight focuses on a subject that’s been overlooked, even disregarded by historians.” —The San Francisco Chronicle “Blitzed is a fascinating read that provides a new facet to our understanding of the Third Reich.”—Buzzfeed “It's as breezy and darkly humorous as its title. But don't be fooled by the gallows humor of chapter names like ‘Sieg High’ and ‘High Hitler’: This is a serious and original work of scholarship that dropped jaws around Europe when it was published there last year.” —Mashable "A juicier story would be hard to find.” —The Week “Delightfully nuts, in a Gravity’s Rainbow kind of way.”—The New Yorker “Transforming meticulous research into compelling prose, Ohler delves into the little-known history of drug use in Nazi Germany.”—Entertainment Weekly “[A] fascinating, engrossing, often dark history of drug use in the Third Reich.”—The Washington Post “This heavily researched nonfiction book by a German journalist reports that the drug was widely taken by soldiers, all the way up the ranks to Hitler himself, who received injections of a drug cocktail that also included an opioid.”—Newsday “The book achieves something nearly impossible: It makes readers look at this well-trodden period in a new way and does it in a readable, inviting format. It also doesn’t preclude future scholarship by professional historians to elaborate on the role of drugs in Nazi Germany.” —Newsweek “This is Ohler’s first nonfiction book (he’s written three novels) and the first popular book of its kind, filling a gap between specialist academic literature and sensationalist TV documentaries… The book is an impressive work of scholarship, with more than two dozen pages of footnotes and the blessing of esteemed World War Two historians… Ohler offers a compelling explanation for Hitler’s erratic behavior in the final years of the war, and how the biomedical landscape of the time affected the way history unfolded… Ohler’s book makes a powerful case for the centrality of drugs to the Nazi war effort.” —The New Republic "Explosive ... Ohler describes the chemical ignition of the first assault on the Western front with a novelist's flair." — Rolling Stone "I had thought nothing could make [Nazis] more horrifying, but that was before I encountered Blitzed. Now I know the only thing more terrifying than the Nazis are the Nazis on meth ... Blitzed is not your typical history book ... It's amazing that biographers haven't focused on the drug angle this rigorously."
About the Author
Norman Ohler is an award-winning novelist, screenwriter, and journalist. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Blitzed, the non-fiction book The Bohemians about resistance against Hitler in Berlin, as well as the novels Die Quotenmaschine (the world’s first hypertext novel), Mitte, Stadt des Goldes (translated into English as Ponte City), as well as the historical crime novel Die Gleichung des Lebens. He was cowriter of the script for Wim Wenders’s film Palermo Shooting. He lives in Berlin.
Product details
- Publisher : Mariner Books; Reprint edition (March 6, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1328915344
- ISBN-13 : 978-1328915344
- Item Weight : 8.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.25 x 0.5 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #23,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #26 in Drug Dependency & Recovery (Books)
- #26 in German History (Books)
- #146 in World War II History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Norman Ohler is an award-winning German novelist, screenwriter, and journalist. He spent five years researching Blitzed in numerous archives in Germany and the United States, and spoke to eye-witnesses, military historians, and doctors. He is also the author of the novels Die Quotenmaschine (the world's first hypertext novel), Mitte and Stadt des Goldes (translated into English as Ponte City). He was co-writer of the script for Wim Wenders' film Palermo Shooting.
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Aside from the military being used as guinea pigs for drug experimentation, I was shocked at the rampant drug use of the general German population. The Germans were popping Pervitin like it was ibuprofen!
"Outside of the military the addiction was also growing. In 1939 Pervitin fever was rife in the Third Reich, whether it was housewives going through menopause who 'wolfed down the stuff like sweets,' you mothers who took methamphetamine to ward off the baby blues, or widows who were looking for 'elite partners' through the marriage bureau and who took high doses to combat inhibitions during their first meeting. To help with childbirth, to fight seasickness, vertigo, hay fever, schizophrenia, anxiety neuroses, depressions, low drive, disturbances of the brain - wherever the Germans hurt, the blue, white, and red tube was at the ready."
It was also interesting to see where the government played a role in this drug crisis and even compare on my own to the current opioid crisis in the US. I highly recommend reading this book and letting it make you curious about what medicine looks like today, how it is being distributed, and examining any lasting effects.
With all that out of the way, the book provides interesting material on the history of drug invention and manufacture. I had a vague idea of some of this but the comprehensive presentation improved my understanding. I also had some idea of the use of Pervitin in the German armed forces of the period, but the author makes it much more concrete, quoting from letters and other sources.
Overall, the book might not be serious enough in tone for some, but from what I have read elsewhere the author has actually contributed to our understanding of an aspect of WWII and indeed war in general. If he was underequipped to undertake the task (in being a writer of fiction), he nevertheless certainly did the footwork (going to archives in the US as well as Germany).
By the way, this is not the first book on this subject, but I don't know if the other book I am aware of is still in print or was ever translated into English: Nazis on Speed, by Werner Pieper. I learned of this book by reading Evans' unfavorable review of Blitzed on the Guardian website. I think Evans misreads the thrust of this book: he seems to think Blitzed lets Hitler and Germany at large off the hook. I did not get that impression myself, not at all. I do think the Evans review is a good supplement to this book, though.
Maybe this book will inspire another non-historian to attempt a history book as decently researched as this.