It Was Nazi Ideology, not the Drugs

 

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler is a somewhat interesting, if a bit overwrought account of drug use in the German military in WWII, and among Hitler and his close circle. But there are problems.

People (as of this writing July 2024) are constantly talking about how Germany invited meth; this isn’t true, Japanese scientists invited the drug.  The German military certainly used it to give their soldiers extra pep - that case is clearly laid out in the book.  

The problem with this book is that it makes drug use central to the disease that was National Socialism.  It was Nazi ideology and actions that created a world war and genocide, not pills. Drug use was the least of Nazi Germany's sins.