A NEW BOOK claims Adolf Hitler’s soldiers used a version of crystal meth to stay awake during World War Two.
In Der Totale Rausch (Total Rush), which was published in Germany last week, Norman Ohler notes that a methamphetamine-based drug, manufactured from 1937 onwards by the Nazis under the brand name of Pervitin, was distributed among the armed forces.
The Independent reports that the book reveals how the drug made the soldiers feel wide awake, euphoric and invincible.
“In the beginning the army didn’t realise Pervitin was a drug: soldiers thought it was just like drinking coffee,” Ohler explains in the book.
The Nazi leadership was reportedly aware of Pervitin’s value as stimulant during combat.
The German Army tried Pervitin in 1939 during the German invasion of Poland, and subsequently ordered 35 million tablets of it for soldiers before advancing on France in the spring of 1940.
Ohler explains that the Nazis rejected recreational drugs such as cocaine, opium and morphine and condemned them as “Jewish”.
Nazi chemist Fritz Hauschild came up with Pervitin as an alternative stimulant.
“The Nazis wanted Pervitin to rival Coca Cola, so people took it, it worked and they were euphoric,” Ohler writes, adding that the Nazis developed chocolates containing the drug so German housewives could also take it.
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