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Every few hours, Morell would also give him a cocktail injection of mostly glucose and several times the daily requirement of vitamins, as well as several 'Fuhrer-branded' gold-wrapped chocolates containing even more sugar and vitamins.
Hitler himself was teetotal, and it was likely he had no idea what Morell was putting into his body through the 30s and 40s. If he started to experience withdrawal, he became more unstable than ever, so the Fuhrer's blood sugar and addiction became a matter of national (and personal) security for his inner circle.
Source: Ohler, Norman. <em>Blitzed</em>
That's not remotely true. Methamphetamine (brand name Pervitin) was available over the counter. Millions of Germans took it during the Nazi years. In 1943, they took it off the counter only because the literal millions of pills Germany produced were being gobbled up by the armed forces.
Furthermore, in the Weimar republic that preceded the third Reich not only were cocaine and heroin available without a prescription but coke was served in some restaurants.
Source: https://www.amazon.com/Blitzed-Drugs-Third-Norman-Ohler/dp/1328663795
In all seriousness I want to plug <em>A Legacy of Ashes</em> by Tim Weiner. He published it right before Obama took office, and goes through a detailed, ~700 page rundown of the history of the CIA and its many abuses. And not just abuses, but historic failures too. The CIA is a fairly incompetent organization in many ways and this book takes them to task. I highly recommend getting it or borrowing it from a library, it's a hella good read and really exposes the worst of the CIA.
And that's all before these last 12 years.
The funny part is that the German people supported the Nazis because they wanted to be left alone. Hitler convinced the German people that Jews and communists were coming to take away their guns and free speech rights. Hitler promised to protect their freedumbs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Freedom_Movement
People in Nazi Germany thought they had more freedoms and liberties than under the Weimar Republic.
I'm at the point where I would actually pay right wing Libertarians money to read this book-
https://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans/dp/0226511928
There was infighting between proponents of nuclear safety and proponents of nuclear readiness in SAC and Los Alamos. Some people wanted to have multiple independent safety devices to prevent accidental nuclear detonations or launches, others wanted nothing but a big red button to launch the missiles.
Command and Control by Eric Schlosser does a very good job of telling this story, as well as the story of a nuclear accident in Damascus Arkansas.
You have to remember that Hitler was appointed chancellor by a democratically elected president. Genocide doesn't just happen in a week, nor does change.
https://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans/dp/0226511928
https://www.amazon.com/Cant-Happen-Here-Signet-Classics/dp/0451465644
Relevant reads
If you like this article you have to read the book Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich. It is a very comprehensive, detailed account of all of the ways drugs were used by the Germans during WWII, and man, did they use drugs. It may very well have played into how the events of the war unfolded. In particular, one topic it talks about is the "vitamin shots" Hitler received from his doctor multiple times a day. This is not new information, but this is a very detailed account. I really enjoyed this book and the article reminded me of it.
In this vein, I'd like to plug the book Ordinary Men, which examines how people went from being normal middle class people with normal jobs, from bakers to bankers, to routinely killing thousands of people.
Because they were too old or out of shape for combat, hundreds of these men were conscripted into Reserve Police Battalion 101. The first order to kill came while they were in the Polish town of Jozefow. The battalion's commander was choking back tears as he gave the order to his men. He even gave everyone the opportunity to step down if they didn't feel they could carry out the order. Only 12 of the hundreds of men stepped down. 1500 Jews were executed before a mass grave that day. Some didn't die immediately and were instead suffocated by the bodies that fell on them.
That battalion of "ordinary men" went on to kill 38,000 men, women, and children; and sent another 45,000 to camps to be executed.
The author examines how they went from average citizens to mass murderers. Much of it comes from their own testimony at their trials. Some is speculation based on current psychology. Both make you really think.
I highly recommend everyone read it, as it seems more relevant today than at any time since.
I've been posting the amazon link to that book at least once a day for the last month or two :).
Thank you for picking a superb section to post the actual text so people can see exactly why I'm so much in favor of ALL Americans reading this particular book right now. This isn't something that has never been seen before. Sure, it has never been seen like this in the United States, but we have seen it all before. Less than a century ago in fact, back in the 1930's, over in Germany, there was this guy you may have heard of, his name was Adolph Hitler....
ETA: https://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans/dp/0226511928
You should read this...
https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution/dp/0060995068
It notes the transition of relatively normal, every day individuals before the war, into someone who could execute naked pregnant women in fields by moon light.
The sooner we all realize that under the right conditions we're all capable of this, the better.
When I look at groups like Ancaps and the Boogs I become more and more convinced that the Fascist Creep is a thing that is growing.
>"Fascist creep" occurs when the right wing deploys corrupted versions of left-wing concepts like solidarity
The Proud Boys and Gadsen Flag waving like were at the Capitol Hill Putsch that Trump called for.
The thing that most Americans are too dumb to understand is that fascism comes in the name of freedumb and liburty. Fascists think they are fighting for freedumb. The Nazis thought they had increased personal liberties.
The Nazis always insisted on being called centrist and hated being called far right.
Hitler and the Nazis painted themselves as victims of media that had taken away their free speech. The German people supported Hitler because they thought communists and Jews would take away their free speech and guns.
https://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans/dp/0226511928
The movie is okay as a movie, but as as far as historical value goes, it's more in the 'inspired by' category. They touch upon a few of the moments and ideas presented here, however.
For a more (and way more interestingly brought) in depth explanation, I can recommend 'The Code Book' by Simon Singh (amazon)
The book Command and Control gives a good accounting of that story, along with a really interesting look into the history of nuclear weapons. I'd highly recommend the book if you're interested in nuclear stuff.
Buy Christopher Browning's "Ordinary Men" and loan it to him . It's not a difficult read, well the topic is, but the language is not.
You see that paperbacks are pretty cheap.
Great book on this called "On Killing - the Psychological Costs of Learning to Kill in War and Society
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It explores killing in war through history and the effects, largely linked to proximity of the kill, had detrimental effects on the killer.
Some notable facts about the book that I can remember after reading it 10 years ago:
Knife/Bayonett kills, though exceptionally rare in more recent wars, had the most devastating effects. Soldiers cited as feeling a man's last breath had a big hurdle to climb.
American soldiers in WWII were exceptionally bad shots, especially when shooting Germans. Turns out most Americans didn't want to kill people, even during the heroic march to victory. All-time terrible percentage of shooting.
War attracts psychopaths and make up something like 5% of combatants who are out to kill and not the norm.
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If you are interested in this topic I highly recommend the book. Things I read have stayed with me and it never surprises me how much this topic comes up in conversation.
If you’re looking for another great book, I’m loving “They Thought They Were Free”; written in 1955, by an American Jewish journalist who went “undercover” in Germany to befriend 10 Germans as a way of understanding how the common man became nazified.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0226511928/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_t1_jaESFb6Z9HFMP
It is actually more like she is BEING A FASCIST here instead of "describing fascism". Hitler told the German people that Jews and communists were coming to take away their guns and free speech. Hitler promised to protect Germans from Jews and communists who would nationalize their property. Hitler succeeded because he promised to protect the German people FROM BIG COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT.
People in Nazi Germany were terrified of communist, totalitarian government, so they trusted Hitler to protect them from big government. Ironic, yes, the best fascist have used Libertarian propaganda to fool people into authoritarianism.
https://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans/dp/0226511928
First year, but this is why I got into it. I had a question about how were the German people swayed to follow Hitler, and I was handed a book. Then I wanted more. Then I took a World War 2 class and read this book.
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060995068/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_WWsoCbJX1P4QK
Seriously. If you even have a REMOTE interest in how it happened, and how it was executed. Read this book. It is haunting. We cant stop history from repeating itself without knowing how it happened before.
I mean, over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from that land, with over 500 villages razed to the ground, many of them completely massacred. It's not really a radical thing to want your land back.
Read The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. Its quite an eye opener. Most Palestinians were actually ethnically cleansed before the war started, so saying its the arab countries fault is completely inaccurate. https://www.amazon.com/Ethnic-Cleansing-Palestine-Ilan-Pappe/dp/1851685553
You are right, everyone here should read Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich https://www.amazon.com/Blitzed-Drugs-Third-Norman-Ohler/dp/1328663795
Read the book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. There's a great audiobook version on Audible. I'm American too, except my four years of history classes were in Texas not NYC, and after reading that book I truly realized how little they actually taught us in high school.
People interested in this should try to read Brownings "Ordinary men" sometime.
https://www.amazon.com/Ordinary-Men-Reserve-Battalion-Solution/dp/0060995068
It goes into some depth about what regular soldiers did in the holocaust. One of his points is that it wasn't really fear of punishment but more fear of letting ones comrades down that made people participate in mass murder.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is a really great historical text on Hitler's life and WW2, focusing on Hitler's politics more than it ever looks at the war itself. It explains a lot of what you just covered with Hitler's early annexings of areas that had large amounts of ethnic Germans in them.
Basically, Hitler was doing what Vladimir Putin did when he annexed Crimea. Claim "there's so many Germans/Russians living there, they should be apart of our country!" and then invade it and hope the rest of the world lets you get away with it.
If you are interested in stuff like this you should check out the book Command And Control.
It really highlights how close to utter devastation we have been during the past 60 years...
One of the top reviews from Amazon: As a former Titan II Missile Facilities Technician, this was a page-turner for me. The author got it right in his descriptions of the attitudes and culture in the missile career field, the systems in use, even the music we listened to back then. It is rare for a military themed book written by a non-military writer to be so spot-on (IMO). The descriptions of some of the close calls we (we citizens) had with H-bombs are chilling, and the story about the Damascus Arkansas Titan II explosion was weaved in perfectly throughout the book. Time well spent.
In Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, the author writes that while the USSR found it pretty easy to recruit Americans or place agents in the US, the US was comically bad at placing spies in the USSR, due to the Soviets' skill at spycraft and the Americans' difficulty in penetrating the culture.
Sorry, can't find a direct quote. That's a good book, though. Like the title implies, the CIA has more failures than successes as far as its grand projects go, e.g. regime changes and intelligence operations.
I learned all of this stuff because someone left a copy of the book Skunk Works on a shelf in a storage closet at work. I never was interested in the topic beforehand and didn't expect to be so enthralled but it offers a fascinating insight into the world of US black military programs. I'm not usually one to offer endorsements but legitimately I couldn't put this book down. The matter of fact nature and the first hand account is fascinating.
From Ben Rich's book, SkunkWorks, he would take ball bearings and roll them across desks at the Pentagon "Here's your new plane on radar". Took them a while to prove to many that it was true.
"...America’s 45th president is open about the fact that he doesn’t read much history..." that's a real shame because we could all avoid a lot of pain and suffering if the dumb ass just read a little ...
https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-Third-Reich-History/dp/1451651686
https://www.amazon.com/They-Thought-Were-Free-Germans/dp/0226511928
I think about this book almost every day lately, and then I despair and fear for the future of our country.
This image gives sort of the essential idea of what has happened. I'd advise the book "the ethnic cleansing of Palestine" by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe to start understanding the history.
