Blitzed by Norman Ohler

 

I read this this evening after dinner. It's a short book--barely a hundred pages longer than the Scalzi I read in the coffee shop--but a dense one. It makes a convincing case that the Germany was the drug dealer to the world (at least to Europe) after World War I, and after a brief flirtation with anti-drug moralism turned that pharmaceutical expertise inward, making sure the soldiers and officers--and the high command--were suitably wired. Ohler seems to have found evidence (or be interpreting it) that indicates the Blitzkrieg, especially as applied to France, was fueled and possibly inspired by the amount of methamphetamine the Wehrmacht were consuming. He also seems at least led to believe (the record is intentionally and unintentionally sparse) that Hitler's gradual then sudden decline was fueled by the amount of drugs of all kinds that his personal physician was injecting him with; this is usually seen the other way around in histories of the Reich--that his physician was unable to prevent said decline--but Ohler seems convinced (and he is convincing) that the physician was causing it. Fortunately the nature of this kind of nonfiction book means the translator can focus more on meaning and clarity than on trying to capture some ineffable character of the prose, and the translator here did more than well enough. Interesting stuff that might long-term change some of how I think about the Third Reich and the Wehrmacht, well worth reading.