"The Nazis had their own recipe for healing the people. They promised ideological salvation. For them, there could be only one legitimate for of inebriation, the swastika. National socialism strove for a transcendental state of being as well. The Nazi world of illusions into which the Germans were to be enticed often used techniques of intoxication. World historical decisions, according to Hitler's inflammatory text, Mein Kampf, had to be brought about in states of euphoric enthusiasm or hysteria. So, the Nazi party, NSDAP, distinguished itself on one hand with populist arguments, and on the other with torch parades, flag consecrations, rapturous announcements, and public speeches aimed at achieving a collective state of ecstasy. These were supplemented with the violent frenzies of the Brown Shirts..."
This is a fascinating book, and I would highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys WWII history.
Prior to reading this, I'd heard the standard rumors that Hitler was on drugs and that Nazis created meth, but this book goes into so much detail. It's amazing. And we've had all this information available all along, just no one wanted to dig around for all of it.
After WWI, Germany was cut of from the rest of the world and had a hard time getting imports, so they had no tea, coffee, chocolate, Coke, etc. The Germans decided that if they couldn't import anything, then they would just synthetically make it at home. This is the beginning of the rise of German dominance in the pharmaceutical industry that we still see today. During the Weimar Republic (the 20's), all of Germany was pretty much high out of its mind. Enter the Nazis on the scene, and they go about as the quote above indicate. Saying that all these drugs are made by the Jews and benefit the Jews and are the Jews' way of keeping the Aryan race down, bla bla bla. They demonize recreational drug use and even alcohol by associating it with the Jews. (I'm not sure how many Jewish people were running the pharmaceutical companies, but I would guess at least several.) THEN, as soon as the fighting of WWII breaks out, the Nazis do a 180 on their drug demonizing and give all their soldiers meth and cocaine and anything else they can cook up.
In fact, meth was the reason Germany was able to take over France so fast. All the Nazis were on meth and it was the first time they had lead with the tanks. The foot soldiers were even pissed that the tanks were taking lead and got in their way for a while. But once the tanks started rolling, they didn't stop. Typically, after conquering a town, an army would make sure it was clear and set up protections, and make sure the provision train was running sufficiently before moving on. The Nazis did not do that and the French had no idea how to respond. It was totally new. It also helped that the general in the lead tank so so hopped up on meth that a courier would take a report to Hitler about the successful take-over of a French town and by the time the courier got back with the new orders, the lead general would be miles away, meaning Hitler had nothing to do with the invasion of France, thus its success. Next time someone makes fun of France for being a push-over in WWII, inform that person that the French were going up against an ENTIRE ARMY OF NAZI METH HEADS!!
Hitler himself was on an insane and untested cocktail of drugs including (but not limited to) vitamins, steroids, hormones, meth, ecstasy, cocaine, and "extracts" all thrown together by his personal physician. But don't let that change your thinking on his motivations. Hitler didn't do insane things because he was on drugs. The drugs helped him do the insane things his sober mind thought up.
No comments:
Post a Comment