The capture of France by Germany in 1940 was due to drugs. This was told in an interview with The Guardian by German writer Norman Ohler, the author of The Total Rush, which tells about the use of cocaine, heroin, morphine and methamphetamine by the Nazis, including Adolf Hitler.
Methamphetamine (pervitin) was developed by German pharmacists Temmler Werke. It became widely used as a stimulant and was used by people of various professions, from secretaries to actors. Pervitin has also become an ingredient in confectionery. The firm, which produces chocolate with the addition of a drug, recommended that women use it before doing housework in order to get everything done in the shortest possible time.
The German army was also an active user of methamphetamine. Doctors believed that pervitin was an excellent remedy for the exhaustion that soldiers often suffered. During the invasion of France, the soldiers of the Wehrmacht (the armed forces of Nazi Germany) took one tablet of the drug per day, as well as three or four at night. According to Oler, it was thanks to Pervitin that the capture of France became possible.
The author of the book notes that Hitler also used drugs. When he became ill in 1941, his personal physician Theodore Gilbert Morell began giving him Eukodal (oxycodone). This substance causes intense euphoria and has an analgesic effect. Later, Hitler began to receive two injections of the drug a day, and also to combine oxycodone with high doses of cocaine, which was originally prescribed for ear pain. In the last days of his life, the Fuhrer, according to Oler, was a complete drug addict.
