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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 college while pursuing my degree in sociology one of my professors assigned the book Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 it was one of the most powerful books I have ever read. It does not justify their actions but gives perspective on what it takes to make a human go down that path. It explores the societal pressures, views and violence from within. It was not an easy read by any means but it was very thought provoking.
And why?
Because left wing dissidents wanted to break away from US patronage and nationalize US property in their country and forge their own destiny. This would basically infringe on US corporations rights to exploit poor South American countries for their own profit. US didn’t like that much and engaged in a systematic terror campaign aimed at attacking any grassroots resistance to US backed dictators. The result was essentially a war on peasant populations not just inEl Salvador, but in several other Latin American nations.
Important to note that this is par for the course of US intervention in the third world. I encourage every American to read up on it.
Edit: a word Edit2: A good book on US foreign intervention
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
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
I recently read "Ordinary Men" about how normal polish police went from being civilian normal police to aiding the Germans in the Holocaust and it's scary how many parallels there are. It requires normal civilians and police to all step up and speak against it to stop
Edit: comrade pointed out these were German civilians. They are correct.
"Browning argues that most of the men of RPB 101 were not fanatical Nazis but, rather, ordinary middle-aged, working-class men who committed these atrocities out of a mixture of motives, including the group dynamics of conformity, deference to authority, role adaptation, and the altering of moral norms to justify their actions. Very quickly three groups emerged within the battalion: a core of eager killers, a plurality who carried out their duties reliably but without initiative, and a small minority who evaded participation in the acts of killing without diminishing the murderous efficiency of the battalion whatsoever."
A big thing that struck me: when the police who initially said "no" in front of the rest of the group were later asked how they were able to say no they talked about how they were older and financially independent. The young guys all said yes because they were focused on their careers and hoping for a promotion. I wonder how much of the same mindset controls our police in this country. If the chief of police is smiling at militia run check points, is the 24 year old cop ready, mentally but financially, to question him?
Not exactly
The German scientists who were working on the Nazi nuclear program were taken prisoner by the British and kept incarcerated in Britain. Their rooms were bugged, and they were secretly recorded discussing in disbelief the news of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. They knew the science and theory, but many of them didn't believe it was possible.
You are correct they didn't have sufficient uranium. Indeed, thanks to the Allied special forces and air-raids, and Norwegian resistance fighters, the only access to heavy water was destroyed and the largest shipment of heavy water itself was sunk (ironically).
I highly recommend Richard Rhodes The Making of the Atomic Bomb. It won a Pulitzer Prize in its own right. An utterly fascinating book and extremely well written.
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.
The book is <em>Ordinary Men</em>, and it's absolutely horrifying. It's an extremely frank and well-supported look at just how easily and willingly so many people committed horrible acts of violence. Any time someone gives the, "We were just following orders!" or, "You'd die if you didn't obey!" excuse, they need to read this book.
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
u/packattacks if you want some examples of non-authoritarian communist and socialist attempts at government, check out William Blum's Killing Hope. It's a great book and shows many examples of democratic leftist movements that the CIA tried to destroy
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.
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.
yeah wages of destruction by adam tooze really spells out in detail how wrong this is. highly recommend
https://www.amazon.com/Wages-Destruction-Making-Breaking-Economy/dp/0143113208
pdf, epub, and mobi files are on libgen and also i have them, if anyone's really interested they can pm me
edit: also the last chapter in margaraet macmillan's paris 1919, which tells the story of the creation of the treaty of versailles, basically makes the case that it didn't really start wwii and the germans could easily have paid of reparations because their payments were literally scaled to their gdp or whatever. like they couldn't rearm and pay, but they could pay.
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.
you make it sound as if I personally take some EU funds. And you have a really condescending attitude. "You take our money, we helped you, so you must listen as we tell you". From my perspective (I am Czech), it was Germany and Russia who fucked my country up 80 years ago. One side Nazis killing slavic people because they were untermenschen, on the other side fucking USSR. If it were not for these two countries, communism would not have decimated eastern Europe. You need some history lessons
https://www.amazon.com/Bloodlands-Europe-Between-Hitler-Stalin/dp/0465031471
and nowadays we see history repeating itself. Gemany is no more nazistic and imperialistic, but it is spineless and enabling another fascist Regime, which is current Russia. Russia is again threatening other countries
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.
Read my other comment. You clearly don't understand how white supremacy works. You should also read this book or at least the reviews that do a good job of summarizing it. http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Hope-C-I-Interventions-II--Updated/dp/1567512526/. In list form https://i.imgur.com/OMawpLS.jpg
edit: updated link.
Anyone interested in this subject should read the book Ordinary Men.
The nazis, from the rank and file who were just cogs in a machine to the sadists and murderers were all people like you or me. Trying to dehumanize them like some weird defect of history is dangerous and disingenuous.
Amazing book. Especially in the political climate today. People call everything a Nazi, when the real problem is people relinquishing their personal responsibility to say "no" to bad ideas regardless of who says them and the consequences.
"...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.