Description

Norman Ohler looks at drug use in Nazi Germany. He asks what role drugs played in the war. The Nazi state claimed to be pure, yet drug use spread far. This history draws on rare records and shows images from archives.

Before the war, Germany had a large drug industry. Firms such as Merck, Bayer and Temmler made or refined drugs. They did so on a vast scale. The drugs included cocaine, opioids and methamphetamine. Ohler tracks the use of methamphetamine at work and at home. Workers, housewives, doctors and troops all used it. Troops got the drug regularly. It gave them more energy and helped them focus. It also cut fear and made users feel that nothing could hurt them. Ohler argues that the drug helped the Blitzkrieg campaigns succeed.

The book looks at how Hitler came to rely on his doctor. It also looks at their close, strange bond. Ohler sees drugs as a key part of Nazi history. But he does not claim drugs alone explain Nazi racial ideas or the war.

Irina Cristescu translated this edition. The publisher states that it is signed.