Blitzed

Drugs in Nazi Germany

By: Norman Ohler, Shaun Whiteside - translator

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of Blitzed by Norman Ohler, read by Jonathan Keeble.

The sensational German bestseller on the overwhelming role of drug-taking in the Third Reich, from Hitler to housewives.

'Bursting with interesting facts' Vice

'Extremely interesting ... a serious piece of scholarship, very well researched' Ian Kershaw

The Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler's gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops' resilience - even partly explaining German victory in 1940.

The promiscuous use of drugs at the very highest levels also impaired and confused decision-making, with Hitler and his entourage taking refuge in potentially lethal cocktails of stimulants administered by the physician Dr Morell as the war turned against Germany. While drugs cannot on their own explain the events of the Second World War or its outcome, Ohler shows, they change our understanding of it. Blitzed forms a crucial missing piece of the story.

Critic reviews

German writer Norman Ohler's astonishing account of methamphetamine addiction in the Third Reich changes what we know about the second world war .. Blitzed looks set to reframe the way certain aspects of the Third Reich will be viewed in the future (Rachel Cooke)

A huge contribution... remarkable (Antony Beevor)

The picture he paints is both a powerful and an extreme one... gripping reading (Anna Katharina Schaffner)

Remarkable... energetic... retells the history of the war through the prism of the pill... it has an uncanny ability to disturb (Roger Boyes)

Very good and extremely interesting - a serious piece of scholarship very well-researched (Ian Kershaw author of Hitler and To Hell and Back)

The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life (Dan Snow)

This book transforms the overall picture

Sensational

Bursting with interesting facts

Norman Ohler has written an illuminating account of the gobsmacking extent to which military strategy in the Third Reich relied on drugs. ... What you'll learn: Never trust a coked-up Nazi

Rewrite History!

Hitler's drug use has been long known. You can go all the way back to Trever-Roper for Morell's use of "28 substances." Nevertheless, conventional historians have discounted the impact this would obviously have had. The question is only a matter of degree. Unfortunately Ohler, a dreaded non professional historian, overplays his hand with the melodramatic flair, and will be discounted by the mainstream just like the reports of Hitler's doctor, as a quack!

VERY INFORMATIVE!

Great performance! VERY interesting points and insights. The author provides extensive details that support the premise. Sometimes he takes liberties regarding what was said, expressions, inferences when obviously was not present. Definitely clinched the case that Third Reisch attriocites were contributed to by meth and morphine use as well as justification for some of it's actions. Medical information given about addiction and it's symptoms in humans seems right on. I came away with a much better understanding of WWII and what the author believes were it's underpinnings. A good, if very thought provacative, read.

A new layer to the history

A comprehensive look at yet another dark aspect of the Nazi story. The drug production and consumption adds another layer to the complex history of the period.

the Missing Link

a previously overlooked but significant factor in the rise & fall of the third reich

wow, just wow

thanks for your reasearch!
thanks for your reasearch!
thanks for your reasearch!
hope it gets into school teaching soon