Someone may soon have an opinion that everything, absolutely everything, has been told, chewed up, turned upside down about World War II. But no: there was a strange gap in her story, says 46-year-old German writer Norman Ohler. He believes he has discovered this gap, a misplaced piece of the puzzle, or, at any rate, an under-appreciated additional explanation of how the underworld came to be: namely, that drugs were central to the Third Reich.

In the book "Hitler's Addiction" (Hitlers eng), which attracted a lot of attention in Germany and which is published in Norwegian these days, Ohler pays particular attention to the papers left over from Dr. Theo Morell, personal physician of Adolf Hitler. supplying him with drugs from 1941 to 1945.

Ohler is not the only one who combed through the archives left after Morrell, many military historians wrote about him, his biography was written already in the 1960s. It is a well-known fact that both Hitler and many of his entourage were helped by medicines.

“But Morell is surprisingly little known when you think about the fact that he was the man Hitler most often saw during the war. And it would be a big mistake to see him as a curious minor figure, ”Ohler says to Aftenposten.

Morell shoved a huge amount of pills into the Fuehrer and probably stuck hundreds of opiate syringes in his hand before the Nazi state collapsed.

Millions of pills for soldiers

The book also focuses on doping for Hitler's soldiers. Adolf Hitler's soldiers were generously supplied with stimulants such as methamphetamine, now known as crystal meth, to help them stay awake for as long as possible to carry out mad conquests west and east.

Context

Finnish scouts: tenacity and amphetamines

Helsingin Sanomat 11.10.2016

Drugs in the Third Reich

Expressen 10/12/2016

How Hitler Became Hitler

The National Interest 10/20/2016
Paradoxes just lined up. Ideologically, the Nazis cultivated a strong, clean and healthy body. The Nazis actively put things in order in what they perceived in Berlin between the two wars as decadent and morally unhealthy. Soon after they came to power in 1933, addictive drugs were banned, and many drug addicts ended up in concentration camps pretty quickly.

World Champion in Chemical Doping

But Germany was also a superpower in the pharmaceutical industry, a pioneering country in chemical doping. England and France allowed themselves to be stimulated by coffee, tea, pepper, vanilla and other goods from the colonies, and Germany had to find another way when the country lost its relatively small colonies as a result of the Versailles Peace, writes Ohler. Chemical substances became the path to stimulation. In 1926, Germany topped the list of morphine producing countries and was also the world leader in the export of heroin.

People's doping pervitin

In 1937, the Temmler-Werke plant in Adlershof in Berlin received a patent for a particularly invigorating agent, the chemical methamphetamine, called pervitin. It was sold over the counter in pharmacies and has become a source of happiness and self-confidence for millions. It was "National Socialism in the form of pills," Ohler writes, the pervitin tablets were consumed by workers, housewives, soldiers.

It wasn't until 1939 that the side effects were so well documented that the drug was sold by prescription. But the drug was still widely consumed. Including the military: they saw the great value of the drug in that it muffled the feeling of hunger and the need for sleep under extreme stress. In the spring of 1940, before the blitzkrieg in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, a batch of 35 million tablets was ordered for the army and air force.

“I demand that you stay awake for at least three days and nights when necessary,” commanded Panzer Army General Heinz Guderian. And for this it was good to have pervitin. “On the night of May 11, 1940, a lot of pills were used. Thousands of soldiers found them behind the cuffs of their caps, or received them from the officers of the sanitary service.

How Hitler became a drug addict

Pervitin was not widely used on the Eastern Front after the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. The distances were too long, the battles dragged on, the winter was too harsh - it turned out that an exhausting war with the superior German Red Army could not be won with pills.

And for Hitler, who took more and more powerful drugs, chemical stimulation could not be a salvation. But he took huge amounts of medication, both pills and injections, from his personal physician, Morell:

“From August 1941 to April 1945, Hitler was treated by a personal doctor almost daily. There are notes by Morell about 885 out of 1349 days during this period. In 1100 cases, it is about medicines, almost 800 injections are mentioned. "

Doesn't smoke, doesn't drink, eats a lot of vegetables

Hitler's addiction was also a kind of paradox:

"He doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink, he eats almost exclusively vegetables, doesn't touch women," the enthusiastic party comrade wrote about Adolf Hitler before the war broke out. But by the end of 1944, the Führer had become a drug addict, receiving daily injections from his personal physician, who was always there, corpulent Doctor Theo Morell, who had a thriving private practice on the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin before the war.

Cold and unhealthy bunker

In fact, Norman Ohler was going to write a novel about drug use in the Third Reich. But when in the archive in Koblenz he came across Morelp's notes, he realized that for the first time in his life he had to write a documentary book. Because he simply could not forget that his personal doctor wrote down day after day about his “patient A,” Adolf Hitler.

"A cold and unhealthy bunker," Dr. Morell wrote with concern of the Wolfschanze headquarters in East Prussia, Hitler's midpoint in the three horribly bad years from June 1941.

When the German 6th Army was defeated at Stalingrad in February 1943, and military success turned into failure and despair, physiological changes began to take place in the rapidly aging Hitler. A cocktail of hormones, steroids and vitamins was clearly not enough, concluded Dr. Morell.

Switching to injections

In the summer of 1943, the Allies landed in Sicily, Italy was about to go over to the other side, and the Red Army won the largest tank battle in military history with the Germans at Kursk.

On July 18, Dr. Morell wrote in his diary about "patient A": "The body is stretched, as if filled with gas. He looks very pale, extremely nervous. Tomorrow is an extremely important conversation with Duce. "

It was on this day that Morell gave Hitler his first injection of eucodal, an opiate and pain reliever from Merck in Darmstadt, "a prototype of a designer doping with an unusually strong effect and satisfactory euphorizing potential, which was much better than heroin, his pharmacological cousin," Ohler said. ...

Hitler's health and mood immediately improved so much that he urgently demanded a supplement. The conversation with the Italian and colleague, Duce Benito Mussolini, was so wonderful that Mussolini postponed his transition to the other side.

Medication X

It is not known how many injections of this drug were given. Morell began to write the medicine in his diaries as "x". Ohler assumes that this is the eukodal shortcode. The existence in the "Wolf's Lair" became more and more gloomy.

“In the dark, the dictator, far from life, avoided any form of touch. Reality hardly reached him. The only thing that pierced through his shield was the needle tips of a personal doctor who filled his blood vessels with hormone doping.

Replacement for rallies

Hitler could no longer inspire the public at mass rallies. Previously, contact with a jubilant people gave him a lot of energy, and since he was now isolated, he needed a chemical replacement, and this again increased his isolation.

On June 6, 1944, as the Allies crossed the English Channel, landed in Normandy and launched an offensive against Nazi Germany from the west, Hitler wondered, deliriously, whether this was a major invasion or not.

“When Morell hurried to inject him with an 'X', he immediately calmed down, suddenly became sociable, got into a good mood, enjoyed the day, praised the good weather, and clapped good-naturedly on the back of everyone who came across him.”

Resignation before the end of madness

Only on April 17, 1945, 13 days before Hitler committed suicide in a bunker under the Reich Chancellery, Morell was dismissed from his post as personal physician.

“Go home, take off your personal doctor’s uniform and act like you’ve never seen me,” Hitler growled at him.

The frightened Morell, overweight, suffering from heart problems, overcoming shortness of breath, climbed out of the bunker as quickly as possible, later that day he flew from Berlin to Munich by plane, where at the end of the war he was found and arrested by the Americans. In the spring of 1947, he was released and left on the street in front of the railway station in Munich, without shoes and wearing a shabby raincoat. A half-Jewish Red Cross nurse took pity on him and took him to a hospital in Tegernsee, where he died on May 26, 1948.

Facts: Hitler's addiction

"Hitler's addiction. The People and the Fuhrer Stoned ”is published in Norway by Spartacus forlag. The original was released last year in German: “Total buzz. Drugs in the Third Reich (Der totale Rausch. Drogen im Dritten Reich).

Writer Norman Ohler (46) grew up near the border with France, lives in Berlin, previously wrote three novels and several screenplays, in particular with Wim Wenders and Dennis Hopper.

In Germany, the book received a mixed reception

When Norman Ohler's book came out in Germany last year, it attracted attention, but met with mixed reception in the newspapers.

"A superbly narrated secondary revelation of well-known facts, amply flavored with speculation," wrote the weekly Der Spiegel.

Ohler has written a highly speculative book and doesn't really understand the difference between "maybe" and "really," Die Zeit grumbled. It seemed to the newspaper that Hitler's drug use could be used to explain by coincidence or even to justify the endless evil that Nazism represented.

Frankfurter Allgemeine, on the other hand, stated in its review that Ohler wrote one of the most interesting books of the year.

The German received recognition from the leading British biographer of Hitler, Ian Kershaw, as well as from the German military historian Hans Mommsen, who argued that Ohler had done a very sensible job from a methodological point of view and closed a knowledge gap.

They only strengthened what was already laid

Ohler also made sure to emphasize at the end of his book, to avoid misunderstandings, that it was not narcotic substances that were behind Nazism, and it was not narcotic substances that helped to close the darkest chapter in European history:

"The drugs only served to reinforce what was already there."

“It's impossible to imagine a war without the use of potent drugs. Drugs have always been a part of it, and they always will be, ”said Norman Ohler conciliatingly in an interview with Aftenposten.

Adolf Hitler believed that alcohol, nicotine and the consumption of meat form a devilish vicious circle for health. However, he drank some herbal liqueur in the afternoon as he suffered from stomach pains and flatulence. He also took up to sixteen Antigas pills daily, containing neurotoxins, strychnine and belladonna / atropine.

Since 1937, possibly since 1936, he received injections of freshly discovered methamphetamine (trademark: Pervitin), most likely his personal physician, Dr. Morel. Since 1941, he received one injection every day, as soon as he woke up, especially before important meetings or speeches. He was pricked by the "Reichs-Minister of Syringes" - Goering. Subsequently, consumption of pervitin increased to 8 injections per day.

In addition, Hitler took Vitamultin tablets specially made for him, packed in gold paper - they also contained methamphetamine, up to ten a day in the last year of the war.

In addition, he constantly sucked on caffeinated Cola-Dahlman sweets. At first it gave vigor and uplifting, but soon came apathy, depression and fits of rabies. Insomnia and lack of appetite were followed by phases of long sleep and excessive food intake.

In 1939, Hitler developed the habit of biting the skin around the nails on the thumb, index, and middle fingers of both hands. His fingertips were constantly sore. In 1942, hands and palms began to tremble, as if with Parkinson's disease, after which he was additionally prescribed opiates, as well as the favorite of bodybuilders "sex hormone
mon »testiron.

Since 1942, he scratched his neck so often that it was constantly strewn with pustular pustules. Hitler's sensitivity to light increased, he began to lose weight, and suffered from headaches.

After the failed assassination attempt on July 20, 1944, Hitler developed bleeding from the ear canals. Otolaryngologist Dr. Giesing feared a serious frontal sinus disease and offered only one treatment: lubrication of mucous membranes with 10% cocaine to reduce inflammation and relieve pain. On October 1, Hitler reacted to another cocaine lubrication with an attack of cardiovascular insufficiency.

On April 21, 1945, the day after Hitler's last birthday, Dr. Morel left the Fuehrer's bunker, taking with him all his supplies of drugs.
Hitler had one last chance for much-needed stimulation: cocaine eye drops. The drug greatly dilated the pupils and made them so light-sensitive that he could no longer tolerate daylight. In addition, there was an effect of numbness of the eye muscles. When Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide on April 30, 1945, he was functionally blind.

Hitler was a complete drug addict and was on methamphetamine.

The Italian La Stampa writes about it.

Hitler was on drugs, with a particular preference for methamphetamine. The Fuhrer's personal physician, Theo Morell, was responsible for the uninterrupted supply of drugs to the Fuhrer. The German correspondent for La Stampa, Tony Mastrobuoni, writes about this.

According to her, in the Third Reich, drugs were taken by everyone: athletes, artists, military men and even housewives.

In his letter from the front, one of the most famous German writers of the twentieth century, Heinrich Belle, asked his family to send him as much pervitin as possible. There is nothing scandalous about this: methamphetamine was in vogue in Nazi Germany, especially in the trenches of World War II, Mastrobuoni notes.

The drug was presented as a drug that maintains vigor and euphoric state for many hours. The drug was developed by physician Fritz Hauschild, who was amazed at the effect Benzedrine had on American athletes who came to Berlin for the 1936 Olympics. These killer pills were addictive and devastating: Pervitin quickly became popular in the Third Reich. It was received by athletes, singers, students during the exams. The pervitin factory even invented candy to delight housewives, the author writes.

With the outbreak of World War II, the drug quickly spread among the Wehrmacht soldiers. The author of Der totale Rausch, Norman Ohler, is convinced that drugs played a major role not only in the blitzkrieg against France in 1940, but also in Hitler's own behavior. "Doctors and drugs explain a lot in the internal structure of Nazism," Ohler writes.

The chief Nazi doctor, Otto Ranke, said that "the drug is of great military value." When Germany invaded France, Ranke had no difficulty in convincing the generals, including Erwin Rommel, to give the soldiers pervitin before the offensive. Rommel knew this drug: he used it. In mid-May 1940, German tanks made a non-stop four-day rush and demolished the French fortifications at Aven. The French soldiers were shocked by the mood of the enemy. The Germans were unstoppable. It was a methamphetamine blitzkrieg, the author writes.

After 1941, Ohler writes, Hitler's behavior became inexplicable: it was clearly a question of the effects of drugs. In 1,349 days, Hitler received 800 injections with methamphetamine, steroids and other substances, he took 1100 pills.

Representatives of Hitler's inner circle disliked the Fuhrer's personal doctor, Theo Morell: they were afraid of his power. And, as it seems, it is not unreasonable. In 1945, Hitler had already become a wreck: his teeth began to fall out, shortly before surrender, on April 17, he threatened the doctor with death and ate sugar to overcome withdrawal symptoms, Mastrobuoni notes.

Last year, British scientists convicted Hitler of using methamphetamine. According to documents collected during the Second World War by the US military intelligence service, in addition to soldiers, the Fuhrer himself loved taking methamphetamine. According to the American intelligence services, the Fuhrer was still a hypochondriac: fearing getting sick, he simultaneously took about 72 drugs, including pervitin, The Independent wrote a year ago.

It was then revealed that Hitler was particularly fond of taking methamphetamine before giving a speech. In particular, he did so in July 1943, before his last meeting with Benito Mussolini.

Narcotic drugs for the Fuhrer were prescribed by his personal physician Theodore Gilbert Morell. Adolf Hitler appeared in his documents as "Patient A." It was after studying the archives of Morell that the researchers came to the conclusion that Hitler became a drug addict, and it was Morell who "hooked" him, who considered intravenous injections to be the most effective method of treatment.

The doctor-patient relationship began between Morell and Hitler in 1936, when a doctor was able to temporarily help the Fuehrer with gastrointestinal problems. He prescribed the drug Mutaflor to Hitler, and this contributed to the fact that the Fuehrer stopped suffering from stomach cramps. It was after this that Morell became the personal physician of the Fuehrer.

Then the doctor prescribed bromine-nervacit to Hitler - a drug related to barbiturates. In addition, the Fuehrer was ordered to take pain relievers based on morphine, bovine semen and methamphetamine. And this is not the whole list of drugs.

According to experts, Theodore Morell's technique was erroneous - by 1943 Hitler had become a real drug addict, dependent on the regular intake of a number of drugs.

"Morell was a real rogue and a charlatan. He should have done his best in a veterinary clinic," said Bill Panagopoulos, an American scientist who found archival documents.

The researcher is sure that it was the intake of a gigantic amount of various drugs that caused many of Hitler's inadequate decisions. According to Panagopoulos, no one can feel normal using such a bunch of drugs, including drugs containing drugs.

Anabolic steroids are pharmacological drugs that mimic the action of the male sex hormone - testosterone, as well as dihydrotestosterone, which helps to accelerate the synthesis of cellular protein.
They are mainly used in bodybuilding to build muscle tissue. There is evidence that they were periodically received by the Nazi Fuehrer Adolf Hitler. What for?

How were anabolic steroids used in Nazi Germany?

The principle of action of these substances was first discovered at the end of the 19th century. Then the extract of animal testicles was used in this capacity. In the 30s of the twentieth century, three groups of scientists began to work on the isolation of anabolic steroids at once: from the Netherlands, Switzerland and Nazi Germany. This is how crystalline testosterone was isolated. In 1937, human trials began.
According to some reports, the Nazis tested artificial testosterone on soldiers, trying to make them more aggressive and resilient. Also, steroids were given for experimental purposes to concentration camp prisoners. Over time, it turned out that taking anabolic steroids has a number of side effects. Thus, during the course of the course, the subjects were observed to have increased irritability and mood swings; increased blood pressure and cholesterol levels; ischemic disease; liver problems; acne and fluid retention. In addition, there were such phenomena as increased libido (which, however, was assessed by many as a positive effect), gynecomastia (that is, an increase in the mammary glands, which is undesirable for men), growth arrest at a young age and, finally, in rare cases, hair loss. After completing the course, the sexual desire in some, on the contrary, decreased, and even impotence began; sperm production decreased and infertility occurred. With prolonged use and overdose, testicular atrophy was observed. Sometimes there was depression, and in other cases - the effect of psychological addiction - that is, the person was "addicted" to steroids.

Why did the Fuhrer need anabolics?

According to one of the versions, Hitler began to take anabolic steroids in order to correspond to the ideal image of the leader: he hoped that they would make him feel better, more cheerful, and look like a real man. Also, perhaps he hoped that they would improve the quality of his sex life. After all, there were rumors that the Fuhrer is impotent, at least he cannot have normal relations with women. Several of his mistresses committed suicide under highly suspicious circumstances.
According to another version, Hitler took steroids on the recommendation of his personal doctor.
In 1936, the Führer began to complain of poor health: stomach pain, heart problems, sleep disturbances, and tremors in his left arm and leg. However, medical examinations did not reveal anything. Most likely, the Fuhrer suffered from hysteria. It is known that in 1918 he was discharged from the front due to temporary loss of vision due to a gas attack. Anyway, this is the official version. However, a few years ago, British historian Thomas Weber tracked down a letter written by the hand of the famous German neurosurgeon Otfried Foerster. Foerster reports that in the 1920s he got acquainted with Hitler's medical records. And it said that he suffered from hysterical amblyopia, a rare disease in which the brain ceases to perceive the surrounding reality and blocks signals from the optic nerves, as a result of which a person ceases to see. This can happen on the basis of strong fear. Other ailments may also be of hysterical origin. For example, the so-called hysterical paralysis is well known.
So, the doctors made different diagnoses to the Fuhrer and could not come to a consensus in any way. However, one of them, Theodore Morell, managed to alleviate the patient's condition somewhat. After that, he was awarded the status of Hitler's personal doctor. According to the German journalist Norman Ohler, the author of the book "Der totale Rausch" ("Complete euphoria"), it was Morell who prescribed "patient A", as he called the Fuhrer in the documents, a number of potent drugs among which were vitamins, glucose, extracts of various plants, drugs, hormones and steroids. In particular, he received injections of bovine semen and pork liver extracts. In total, the leader of the German nation received about 72 types of drugs.

Sad consequences

This, of course, did not lead to anything good. Hitler had problems with his bladder, edema, his head was constantly spinning, and weight loss was observed. He began to talk and suffer from blackouts. By 1943, it had become a complete ruin. It is possible that it was precisely the “killer” cocktails of drugs and anabolic steroids that caused the Fuhrer's inappropriate behavior, including in the field of political decisions. This applies, for example, to the blitzkrieg against France in 1940. "Doctors and drugs explain a lot in the internal structure of Nazism," says Ohler.
There is evidence that at the end of his life Hitler's eyesight fell badly, all his teeth were practically destroyed, he suffered from constant tremors of the limbs, he could hardly move and even spoke.
However, other doctors were afraid to contact Morell and protest his appointment, as he gained great influence over the Fuhrer. "Morell was a real rogue and a charlatan," says American researcher Bill Panagopoulos, who studied archival documents on the topic. "He should have done his best at the veterinary clinic."
They say that on the eve of his death, Hitler threatened to execute Morell. By the way, he himself abused "strengthening injections." After the war, the Americans tried to blame the doctor for poisoning the Fuhrer, but during interrogations Morell behaved completely insane. He finished his life in 1948 in one of the Berlin psychiatric hospitals, not too long outliving his notorious patient.

- The first phrase in the book: "Anyone who hears about my area of \u200b\u200bresearch immediately asks if Hitler was a drug addict."

This statement is older than me. Every few years a historian or journalist appears who tries to prove it.

- Maybe we will try to understand the broader context first. What drugs were distributed during the period you studied?

Then the drug and narcotic drug was morphine. Both in Germany and in the United States.

- It is hard to believe that it was legal, that in Germany you could buy drugs at any pharmacy, that the German pharmaceutical company Bayer produced and sold heroin.

There was a great need for these drugs. Apart from their functions as pain relievers, they also helped relieve other ailments like coughs, indigestion, and the like. Despite the fact that today it seems absurd, in the 19th century it was possible to buy excellent quality cocaine at a minimal price. For a long time it was not even necessary to get a prescription from a doctor for this.

- It is also known that there was a drug called pervitin. Methamphetamine. It was sold everywhere, and its use was so widespread that it was called the "housewife's medicine."

Yes. It was legal. Housewives' medicine is just a marketing term. In Germany, drugs were not perceived as something terrible. The Nazis did not change this perception either.

- As far as you know, is it true that all segments of the population consumed pervitin?

It was common. How much? I dont know. There is data on the quantities of drugs produced - some for civilians, some for the military. The army is known to have acquired 38 million pervitin tablets. So what? How many soldiers of the Wehrmacht were sent to the front? Two million. Let's say they only took these pills during a six-week campaign in France. 38 million pills divided between two million soldiers in six weeks. How many tablets are there for each? Little.

- What about all the stories about the Nazi leadership, about their drug addiction?

There was only one drug addict in the ruling elite of Nazi Germany.

- Goering.

Yes. And we know why (Goering was wounded in a coup attempt in 1923, was treated with morphine and became a drug addict - author's note)

- About three years ago, the German journalist Norman Ohler published a book called "The Third Reich on Drugs." She made a big splash, in part because Ohler claims that Hitler was a drug addict. I think you disagree with this.

I think that his statement is from the field of esotericism.

- You know that he conducted a thorough historical investigation. Among other things, he studied the records of Theodor Morel, Hitler's personal physician. His theory was adopted by historians Anthony Beaver and Ian Kershaw.

I knew about Beaver, but with Kershaw you surprised me. Most German historians have openly argued that Ohler is a liar. In my opinion, he really is a liar. There is something very important in his book that should be noted. There is a difference between the English and German versions. In the preface to the German version, Ohler writes that he filled in the gaps in the study based on his knowledge. The English version does not have this preface. In practice, he did fill in the blanks as he saw fit, using nuance and guesswork.

- What do we know for sure?

We know that Hitler met with Dr. Theodor Morel.

- Have you met? Morel treated him every day.

He was his personal physician, as is customary for many leaders. Unfortunately, Morel was not a particularly pedantic doctor, and did not keep a detailed account of the drugs he gave to Hitler. Among other things, he also gave him pervitin. How many? I dont know. What dose? I do not know. Norman Ohler doesn't know either.

- It is known that Hitler received injections.

- Hundreds of injections and, in fact, these are only hundreds of documented.

- We do not know what was in these injections. There are many versions - stimulants, vitamins, probiotics, hormones, steroids.

Only in some cases is there documentation. Morel did not write down what he gave his patient to take. By the way, it is known that Hitler consumed many drugs against gases.

- They also say that the Germans have no sense of humor.

Hitler is just one of many. There is a whole mechanism that does everything. There is a headquarters, generals, divisions, soldiers, countless people and processes that have arisen simultaneously. It is true that Hitler had a great influence, although, by the way, closer to the denouement he was ignored, he was lied to, and so on. Let's say Hitler really was a drug addict. What's next? What does this say about the story? What if I told you that Churchill also did drugs? His personal physician gave him amphetamine. Does it change your perception?

- Some associate the drugs that Hitler took with his decisions.

As Kershaw writes in his biography of Hitler, he hasn't changed since he met Morel, so it's hard to prove that drugs really did affect his personality. He has always been an aggressive person. He was an anti-Semite long before coming to power. Also, suppose he was a drug addict - what does that give us? Every military historian will say that the connection between his military failures and his drug habits is simply absurd and ridiculous. Would he have acted differently if he hadn't taken drugs? Doubtful. Hitler believed that another world war was inevitable and believed that he could lead Germany to victory in this war.

Interestingly, the Nazis took the trouble to change the drug addict law. Before they came to power, a law passed in 1872 exempted the patient from any criminal liability. For that matter, a person can also get sick from morphine, alcohol, etc. It was a problematic article that was tried many times to change, but before the Nazi regime, German governments were not strong enough. In the winter of 1933, the Nazis passed a law that allowed them to send drug addicts to forced hospitalization at the expense of the population.

Think about it - the doctors were looking after the addicts and the prosecutor was checking the progress of the treatment. It was rare at the time - and it is today too. For me, one of the most striking results of my research is that all drug addicts who were treated in German clinics of the Third Reich survived.

Hitler was an ascetic. He boasted that he quit smoking thanks to his willpower, as seen in conversations recorded by his private secretary Martin Bormann. Nazi Germany tried to reduce tobacco consumption among its citizens and actually became the first modern state to pass laws restricting smoking among young people. But Hitler did not think about a complete ban and even expressed a desire to import tobacco from abroad after the war. And during the war, Germany supplied cigarettes to its soldiers.

At the same time, Nazi propaganda pitted modern, strong, non-smoking leaders like Mussolini, Hitler, and Hirohito against obese leaders who smoked endlessly like Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill.

Ayelet Shani, "Haaretz", L.K.

In the photo: Boaz Arad's installation "Hitler". Photo: David Bahar.