Blitzed

Drugs in the Third Reich

By: Norman Ohler, Shaun Whiteside - translator, Claire Bloom - director

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

The Nazi regime preached an ideology of physical, mental, and moral purity. But as Norman Ohler reveals in this gripping new history, the Third Reich was saturated with drugs. On the eve of World War II, Germany was a pharmaceutical powerhouse, and companies such as Merck and Bayer cooked up cocaine, opiates, and, most of all, methamphetamines, to be consumed by everyone from factory workers to housewives to millions of German soldiers. In fact, troops regularly took rations of a form of crystal meth - the elevated energy and feelings of invincibility associated with the high even help to explain certain German military victories.

Drugs seeped all the way up to the Nazi high command and, especially, to Hitler himself. Over the course of the war, Hitler became increasingly dependent on injections of a cocktail of drugs - including a form of heroin - administered by his personal doctor. While drugs alone cannot explain the Nazis' toxic racial theories or the events of World War II, Ohler's investigation makes an overwhelming case that, if drugs are not taken into account, our understanding of the Third Reich is fundamentally incomplete. Carefully researched and rivetingly listenable, Blitzed throws surprising light on a history that, until now, has remained in the shadows.

©2017 Norman Ohler (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

The best "Gotterdammerung" book I have ever read.

I am a 70 year-old physician, specializing in addiction medicine, and still practicing. SUPERB BOOK.

Germany was blitzed out of their minds

Was Germany able to fly through France because they were drugged up? Maybe not, but it didn't hurt that their soldiers were all issued meth to avoid the need to sleep. This book shows you how drugs weren't simply important to Germany in WW2, but a pivotal part of the post-WW1 German economy and seen as an integral part of the German war effort (to high ranking Nazi officials). The narrator was well chosen for such a touchy subject.

Incredible!

Great piece of world history. A very intimate delve into Hitlers life and parts of WW2 that you never hear about.

This was madness !!

I love learning new things about history, especially World War 2. I had no idea how insane everything was regarding chemical enhancement, and what lengths!

Wild stuff

I had no idea the nazis were basically on mega adderall the entire war. This book has some wild revelations.