WEBVTT - FB 105: High Hitler: How a Meth-Peddling Doctor Changed the Course of World War II 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.120 We all need a break from the constant cycle to 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:08.520 learn something new, to gain new perspectives. The Great Courses 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:11.399 Plus streaming service is an excellent resource to expand our 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:14.240 knowledge on a variety of subjects or pick up a 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.239 new hobby. I've been enjoying the Great Courses Plus while 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:21.360 researching this season of Flashback. Lectures like Playball, the Rise 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.720 of Baseball is America's pastime, History of the Supreme Court, 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:27.960 and Battlefield Europe have helped me connect the dots on 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.680 several stories from history. Right now, they're giving our listeners 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:35.240 a special limited time offer a free month of unlimited 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.519 access to their entire library. Sign up now through our 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.760 special U r L go to the Great Courses Plus 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:45.920 dot com slash aussy, that's the Great Courses Plus dot 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:49.640 Com slash o z y the Great Courses Plus dot 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:56.560 Com slash As. Before we start today's episode, please be 0:00:56.600 --> 0:00:59.320 sure to support Flashback by rating and leaving a review 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:02.360 for us right here in your podcast app. A special 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.119 shout out this week to our listener Wells Wells, who 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:08.720 got last week's pop quiz correct. The question was what 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.160 chronic physical ailment did Adolph Hitler suffer from? That led 0:01:12.240 --> 0:01:16.679 him to seek some rather unorthodox and highly consequential medical treatment, 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:19.839 and you're all about to find that out. Stay tuned 0:01:19.880 --> 0:01:22.399 until the end of this episode to hear the quiz 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:29.240 question for next week's episode. September, the fate of Europe 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.120 hangs in the balance, and an effort to appease Adolph 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.280 Hitler in the Nazi war machine, Allied leaders handed part 0:01:35.319 --> 0:01:39.000 of Czechoslovakia called the Sudaton Land over to Germany. A 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:43.040 smiling British Prime Minister Nevill Chamberlain returned from Munich, then 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:45.800 came down the steps of his airplane in triumph, and 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:48.880 the Prime Minister comes home home to an empire pilled 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.520 with giant relief, home to a welcome that he will 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:56.920 never forget. It seemed like a true turning point in history. 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:02.600 The settlement on the Czechoslova Can problem, which has now 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:10.239 been achieved, is, in my view, only the plume to 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:15.720 a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:22.679 But neither the Czechoslovakia problem nor peace had been remotely achieved. 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.920 Hitler wasn't done with Germany's neighbor, and he was prepared 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.560 to seize every advantage he could to finish the job, 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:36.040 even a medical emergency. Six months later, in March nine, 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:40.200 Czechoslovakia's President Emil Hatcha came to Berlin to meet with Hitler, 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:44.519 Herman Goring, and other Nazi leaders. This is scholar Norman Ohler, 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.320 author of the book Blitzed Drugs and Nazi Germany. During 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:52.960 that visit, girding Um put a paper on the desk 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.880 and set please sign here. This is your capitulation. The 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.320 German troops are coming tomorrow. If you sign here, no 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.880 blood will be sheard. Hot refused, but under the stress 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.720 of the situation, the ailing president suffered what was likely 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:10.400 a coronary episode. The historical records show that he actually fainted. 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.959 Hatcha actually lost consciousness in that room with Hitler, Girling 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:19.400 and some other Nazi big wigs. And of course, if 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.840 Hotcha wasn't awaken functioning, then he couldn't sign the paper 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.160 that would give his country away to the Nazis. Luckily, 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:31.360 Hitler's personal physician, Theodore Morrell, was standing by. Morrell was 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:37.440 called and he injected a cocktail into the unconscious Czechoslovakian president. 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.839 But this cocktail was no Martini. Well, it's not known 0:03:40.840 --> 0:03:42.920 for certain what was in the drugs that were shot 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:47.000 into Hotcha. Most scholars think it was meth amphetamy. Certainly, 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:49.840 the cocktail had the effect that Hotcha came back to life, 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:53.920 looked around in the room, and suddenly felt that he 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.720 could do it, that he could trust these guys. And 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:01.160 Girling would then say to him, come on, we protects you. 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:05.160 So Hatcha then signed it and basically signed over the 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.920 defeat of his country. The next day Germans came and 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.880 the Czechoslovakia was basically gone. The very next morning, Hitler 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:15.560 invaded Prague without a fight, through the snow, the legions 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.680 of occupation marching to Czechoslovakia. This rapid stroke, which is 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.640 outraged all freedom loving nations of the world, is got 0:04:22.640 --> 0:04:26.760 it out with military executedure. Artillery rose into Prague, and 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.680 man's God on the ragin the castle of King Winter's Mouth, presently, 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:32.640 from a window of the castle you may catch a 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:36.760 glimpse of Hitler himself contemplating his new conquest. Hitler stands 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:39.320 alone in that castle window. But there was another man 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.760 who was certainly in the room, doctor Theodore Morrel, the 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:46.400 man who injected the Czech president in Berlin. Throughout the war. 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.520 He was always at Hitler's side, and the conquest of 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:52.680 Czechoslovakia was far from the only way he helped alter 0:04:52.760 --> 0:05:02.760 the course of the war and history itself. I'm Sean Braswell. 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.080 This is Flashback, the podcast from Ozzie designed to take 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:08.560 you on a ride through some of history's most remarkable, 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:13.000 unintended consequences. Today a story of war and peace, of 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:17.080 madmen and vitamins, A cautionary tale about what can happen 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:30.920 when you give powerful people some powerful drugs. If you've 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.279 ever seen a documentary film about Adolph Hitler or the Nazis, 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:36.920 chances are you've seen some of the home movies shot 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.680 by Hitler's girlfriend Ava Brown at the Berghoff the Furor's 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.640 Mountain retreat. In those remarkable silent color films, you can 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:47.919 see a relaxed Hitler chatting with other Nazi leaders like 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:51.159 Hammon Goring and Joseph Gebbels on a sun drenched deck 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:54.359 with the mountain view behind. The Nazis eat cake and 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:58.960 sit tea, and gleefully discuss plans for world domination. One 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:02.160 of the figures you see heatedly but might not recognize, 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.839 is an overweight bald man with glasses. This was Hitler's 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:11.039 personal physician, doctor Theodore Morrele. What you don't see, of course, 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:13.599 is what happens when Ava Brown turns off the camera. 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.320 That's when things are turned to normal and the Nazis 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.440 warts are revealed. Brown goes back to biting her lips 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.640 until they bleed. Dr Morrell is so unhealthy he can 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.320 barely climb a flight of stairs, and Hitler himself when 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.479 the camera stops, his hands are shaking so badly his 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:33.320 teacup rattles loudly in its saucer. The German fuel is 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:37.080 a wreck and a drug addict, and an increasingly deranged one. 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:42.400 And there's one man to thank for it. But believe 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:44.760 it or not, this whole thing, and perhaps the most 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:48.760 fateful doctor patient relationship in history, starts with a very 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.040 minor problem. One that World War Two historians don't often 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:58.000 pay much attention to Adolph Hitler's insane and unrelenting flatulence. 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:03.000 Hitler suffered from pretty bad health. This is Giles Milton, 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:05.960 historian and the author of When Hitler Took Cocaine and 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.760 Lenen Lost his Brain. He had suffered from stomach cramps, 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:14.560 from diarrhea, from appalling flatulence. I mean this was partly 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:17.240 perhaps due to the diet that he ate. He he 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.680 only ate these sort of watery vegetables which he had 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.920 purred or mashed, and he ate these virtually every meal. 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:26.760 Hitler had such bad gas he would often have to 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.280 leave the table, and his dietary problems left him desperate 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:34.440 for solutions Norman Ohler. Again, Hitler was always looking for 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:41.480 an orthodox treatments and he did not like his conventional 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:45.400 doctors that would send him on diets when he was 0:07:46.160 --> 0:07:50.720 complaining of stomach cramps and gas, which was his main 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.320 problem in the In the mid thirties, finally Hitler met 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.000 someone who could help, even if his methods were a 0:07:57.000 --> 0:08:03.040 bit unorthodox. Morel as a celebrity doctor in um Berlin 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:08.120 in the early thirties, and he was known to treat 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:12.840 patients for diseases that didn't exist. He was a type 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:15.840 of doctor Field Good. Morrell was also something of a 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:20.120 medical pioneer. This was a new approach to medicine and 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.640 he used especially vitamins. In the beginning. He was sure 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.880 that if you inject high dosages of vitamins into the 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.280 blood stream of a person, that that person would have 0:08:31.360 --> 0:08:34.920 more energy and that it would also elevate the mood 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:38.240 of that person. It's not such a crazy idea when 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:42.160 we do it still today we take vitamin supplements. But 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.040 I was walking once in l A and I saw 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.280 at a health food store an announcement that they were 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.960 offering injections of vitamin B one. So I guess Morrell 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:57.400 in a way was an avant garde health doctor or 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.760 fitness doctor. Then in nineteen thirty three, something happened that 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:09.440 made even Berlin's resident doctor feel good uneasy. Someone smeared 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.760 the word Jew and large letters across the plaque outside 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.800 the doctor's office. Morrell was not a Jew, but in 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:18.240 the wake of that hate crime, he knew he needed 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.520 to make sure others knew that as well. His response 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.680 was that he joined the Nazi Party to show that 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.400 he was not a Jew, Because the Jews obviously weren't 0:09:28.440 --> 0:09:31.040 allowed to join the Nazi Party, and Morrell came to 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:34.280 see the Nazis as more than just protection. This reaction 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:40.160 was not what an appalling racist movement, but his reaction was, Yeah, 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:42.080 I'm going to join them so they don't, you know, 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.480 so I can be part of this, uh, this movement. 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:50.480 So that was a very opportunist reaction, but it tells 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.439 a lot about Morel and his late approach in life 0:09:53.480 --> 0:09:56.800 towards the Nazis. He basically tried to take advantage of them. 0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:00.960 He was never a real believer in the i theology. 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.840 He was just a believer in power and money and 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:09.360 even fame. And a few years later an opportunity came 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.720 knocking that would give the social climbing Nazi vitamin peddler 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:17.400 just the chance he desired. One day in the phone 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:22.520 rang in Dr Morrell's office. A few hours later, he 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:25.800 was being flown to Munich for a special vegetarian spaghetti 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:29.400 dinner with none other than the Fewer himself. After the dinner, 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.280 Hitler admitted to the doctor that his digestion was so 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.920 poor he could barely function. Giles Milton again, and he 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:41.760 turned to Theodore Morrell because fid Or Morrell claimed that 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:44.439 he would be able to help him, And help him 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:49.000 he did, but in the most unorthodox ways. Morrell studied 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.880 Hitler in his diet and his resulting digestion. After Hitler 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:56.360 down to typical vegetable platter one day, the doctor recorded 0:10:56.360 --> 0:11:00.280 in his diary that quote constipation and colossal flatch once 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.800 occurred on a scale I have seldom encountered before. He 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.520 began by giving the fear these things, these tiny little 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:10.640 black tablets, and they were they were called Dr Custa's 0:11:10.679 --> 0:11:15.079 anti gas pills, and Hitler was taking sixteen of these 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:18.319 pills a day. What he didn't realize is that they 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.840 contained small quantities of stricken in, which of course is 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:25.240 a poisoning. But the treatment did work on the gas front, 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:30.120 Norman Owler, and it did cure Hitler's um bloating in 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.040 nineteen thirty six nenteen thirty seven, and Hitler was so 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.880 impressed by this effect, which was a big effect on 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:42.079 his daily life, that he appointed Morel as his personal physician. 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:45.080 Doctor feel good had gone from being a celebrity doctor 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:47.960 to treating the most powerful man in Europe. And for 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:51.160 a while everything was great. Then Hitler in fact, did 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:54.720 not get sick for those first years in Morel's treatment, 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.479 never got the flu or anything, never got a cold 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:02.200 because he was always ion filled to the brim with 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.880 vitamin C and other vitamins. By the summer of nine, 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:09.360 a healthy Hitler in Germany had taken much of Europe 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:15.360 and turned their attention to Russia. At midday on June 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:17.719 twenty two, the peoples of the U. S. S I 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.239 heard the news that table at war with Germany. Loudspeakers 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.000 in the principal cities carried the voice of Mr. Montov 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:26.960 announcing that the Nazis were already flinging in the battle 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:30.480 about a hundred divisions along up front extending arly two 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.559 thousand miles. The invasion of Russia was a critical juncture 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:35.400 in the war, and Hitler was at odds with his 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:38.160 generals about the best way to do it. And then 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:41.240 Hitler fell ill. He had for the first time. He 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.000 was ill since the war started, actually since thirty six 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:47.640 and since he met Morrel and um. He had a strong, 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:52.040 very strong flu with high fever, and demanded from Morrel 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:55.560 that he would give him something that would enable him 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:59.840 to go into the military briefing room and continue his 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:04.079 version of the campaign. And so the loyal doctor obliged 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.679 and gave the few of something stronger, a substance that 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:10.360 would alter Hitler's physiological makeup and ultimately his conduct of 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:20.240 the war, and with disastrous consequences. Do you have an 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:24.360 interesting tale about unintended consequences from history or your own life. 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.560 Please share it with us by emailing Flashback at Aussie 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:46.640 dot com. That's Flashback at os y dot com. Enjoying 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:50.040 this episode, check out the Great Courses Plus streaming service. 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:52.760 It's an excellent resource to expand our knowledge on a 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.960 variety of subjects. Like Adolf Hitler, in researching this episode 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.880 of Flashback, I dove deep into the lectures World War, 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:04.280 to Battlefield, Europe and Utopia and terror in the twentieth century. 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:06.839 With the Great Courses Plus app, we can keep our 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:11.160 minds active, escape into this vast world of information. Watch 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:15.360 or listen at any time anywhere. Right now, they're giving 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.800 our listeners a special, limited time offer, a free month 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.560 of unlimited access to their entire library. Sign up now 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.160 through our special u r L go to the Great 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:29.240 Courses Plus dot com slash AUSI. That's the Great Courses 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:33.640 Plus dot com slash o z y the Great Courses 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:40.200 Plus dot Com slash AUSI. When Hitler and the Nazis 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.280 first came to power in three they quickly set out 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.000 to brand themselves as a new type of political party 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.880 from those that had gone before in Germany, one whose 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.720 members were virtuous even in their personal lives Norman Ohler. 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:57.840 Drugs were quite widely taken in the Baymar republic Um. 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.720 They were not tabu at all. There were laws against it, 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:07.480 but those laws weren't enforced, so Hitler changed that. Hitler 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:13.440 proclaimed to be leading an anti drug movement, and an 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:18.360 important part of that self betrayal was to announce that 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:23.960 Hitler himself was an abstinent person who did not drink alcohol, 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.200 let alone take any drugs. Hitler also wouldn't drink caffeinated 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.880 coffee or tea because he considered them stimulants. So this 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:37.520 portrait of the Fura as the pure the pure man, 0:15:38.120 --> 0:15:41.560 was an integral part of the cult around Hitler and 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:45.760 of the propaganda that the Nazi Party was spinning in 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.680 Germany and also abroad. The Nazis promised clean living and 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:54.120 a kind of social and ideological intoxication. That the core 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:59.960 of that portrayal was the notion that the Nazis were 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:06.240 about purity, They were about cleaning up the mess of 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:12.720 the Vama Republic, cleaning it from strange influences like the Jewish, 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:17.200 especially the Jewish influence. And for years Hitler, the teetotaler 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:21.000 and vegetarian, never drank and hardly ever ate meat. As 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:24.480 flashback listeners will know, millions of soldiers, especially in America, 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.440 became addicted to cigarettes after World War One. Hitler, as 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:31.400 the story goes, through his last pack of cigarettes into 0:16:31.400 --> 0:16:34.280 the Danube River after he fought in that war. As 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:38.600 one of Hitler's supporters marveled about his purity and quote, 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:43.160 he is all genius and body and gas. It might 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.680 have been added, but thanks to Theodore Morrell's treatments and vitamins, 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.960 even that unfortunate byproduct of his purity went away, and 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:53.920 Hitler seemed as physiologically invincible as he was politically invincible. 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.520 Then in ninety one, he got the flu on the 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.120 eve of the war with Russia, and right before he 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.200 briefing with his generals, he asked Morrele what else he 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.280 had in his drug cupboard, and Morrell gave him then 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:10.920 for the first time, an opioid called Dolantina German opioid 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:17.040 at the time, which cured here. Hitler's flew immediately and 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.800 let him go to the briefing room. From that point on, 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:23.840 as the war raged on and Hitler encountered more stress 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:27.040 and exhaustion, Morrell started to add some new ingredients into 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.040 the vitamin mixture he was giving to the fure Giles 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:37.160 Milton again. He was giving him testosterone, He was giving opiate, sedatives, laxatives, barbiturates, morphine, 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.000 I mean, you name it. He was pumping the fear 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.520 of full of full of this stuff. Up to eighty 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:47.560 different drugs a day, so an extraordinary cocktail. As Morrell 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.400 recorded in his notes which were later recovered, he gave 0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.640 Hitler more than eight hundred injections during those final years 0:17:53.680 --> 0:17:57.080 of the war Norman Ohler Hitler received one to two 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:01.359 injections a day, which is an incredib will amount of injections. 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:03.600 I don't know if there's any person in the world 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.760 that gets so many injections into the veins of the 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:11.400 arm each day. Morrell's drug cocktail got even more bizarre 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:17.520 as Hitler's addiction and needs grew animal hormones, steroids, cocaine, Hitler, 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.880 the icon and purity was now a common drug addict. 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:26.560 So you can imagine that the once teetotal Hitler towards 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:30.040 the end of the war was had a very different 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:34.280 approach to drug taking, and thanks to Morrell's efforts, so 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.720 did rank and file Nazis. Germany was a drug free 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.880 country basically due to the nazis strict anti drug regime, 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:46.840 until in night a new medicine was allowed to come 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:50.520 onto the market. It was called pavvy teen because pevyteen 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:55.400 was pure mathemphetamine. One pill had three milligrams of methemphetamine 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.760 and it became a big hit in Germany. That's right, 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.760 methamphetamine a special brew developed by Dr field Good himself 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.720 for the German public. You could buy at a local pharmacy. 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.400 You didn't even need a prescription, and it wasn't long 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:11.560 before the troops were taking it to crystal meth is. 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:14.919 That is actually a very good drug for a fighter 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:20.200 because it mobilizes um all your strength within a short 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:23.000 period of time. It was the perfect drug to accompany 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.200 the nazis new method of warfare. All under the world 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.840 learned the meaning of a grim new word, let's cree. 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:34.360 When Germany attacked France, thirty five million dosages of methamphetamine 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:39.920 were distributed to the troops, enabling the Germans to perform 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.760 the German soldiers to perform longer than the Allied soldiers. 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:46.760 In the first hundred hours of the Nazi invasion of France, 0:19:47.080 --> 0:19:49.680 the Germans gained more territory than they had in over 0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:53.119 four years. During World War One, the Allied forces had 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.720 brought a knife to a pharmacological gunfight, which was red 0:19:56.760 --> 0:19:59.240 wine in in the First World, where the French were 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:03.199 using red and quite successfully boosting down Morrele in the 0:20:03.480 --> 0:20:06.480 in the In World War Two, this didn't work anymore, really, 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:09.280 because the Germans were on meth, but it didn't take 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:11.760 long for the rampant substance abuse to catch up with 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.679 the Nazis and their fere The drug filled bubble that 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:17.560 Theodore Morrell had injected into the veins of World War 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.720 Two was about to burst, and the casualties would be 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:27.400 in the millions. As the needle marks grew in number 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:31.679 on Adolph Hitler's arms, so did his bizarre actions. Giles Milton. 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:36.200 This extraordinary regime of drugs, many of which are are 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:41.440 classified as illegal these days, led to increasingly erratic behavior 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:43.840 on the part of the FURA, and there was one 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:48.959 infamous meeting between Hitler and Mussolini in Italy where Hitler 0:20:49.000 --> 0:20:52.320 really began. He was almost hysterical when he was talking 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:56.639 to Mussolini, and it seems that he had been taking 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:59.440 so many hittamines that it was really begin to beginning 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:02.240 to affect his performance, the way he talked, the way 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.359 he acted. Where Hitler and once relied on adrenaline and 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:09.639 natural charismatist sway audiences, he now relied on pharmaceuticals for 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:13.240 his edge. If you watch videos of Hitler's speeches, that 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.160 you get the impression of this kind of almost manic, 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:19.560 pumped up sort of person. And I think this is 0:21:19.680 --> 0:21:21.879 largely to do with the with the regiment of drugs 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:24.960 he was on. Soon he stopped doing speeches almost altogether 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:30.160 and increasingly retreated into his bunker. He was unbalanced, irritable, impulsive, 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:33.879 and at times delusional. He would go on screaming tirades 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:37.159 that could last for hours. Of course, this it became 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:41.000 increasingly complicated because it was taking on more and more 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:44.240 responsibility for the actual running of the war, much to 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:48.080 the horror of his senior generals. But certainly by the 0:21:48.160 --> 0:21:52.600 end of the war he was unable to think straight 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.760 at all because he was, you know, so pumped up 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:58.880 by the drugs he was taking. Norman Ohler, we can 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:05.199 see for sure that Hitler became more and more inflexible 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:10.040 in his decision making, his ego was so inflated that 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.800 he never doubted himself. Hitler had actually been quite a 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:16.520 measured strategic planner during the early days of the war. 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:21.320 In the beginning from nineteen thirty three to ninety one, 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:25.080 he basically made no mistakes, no great no big mistakes. 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:26.760 Let's put it that way. I mean that the attack 0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:28.840 on Poland was of course a big mistake, which led 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:31.440 to his downfall eventually. But still he won the war 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:34.359 against Poland, he won the war against France. He won't 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:37.080 basically the war against everybody in Europe. But his growing 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:41.960 drug addiction helped change all that. His military decision making 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:44.840 at a point in the war against the Soviet Union 0:22:44.960 --> 0:22:48.919 was not working anymore. The situation demanded of him a 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:53.520 flexible mind, but he didn't have a flexible mind. Still, 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:56.080 with the war dragging on in the Nazi forces losing 0:22:56.119 --> 0:22:59.919 ground and men in nineteen forty four, Hitler remained remarkably 0:23:00.080 --> 0:23:03.240 upbeat during his military briefings. So it beat that his 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:05.879 own generals assumed he had an atomic bomb or some 0:23:05.960 --> 0:23:08.240 other secret playing up his sleeve that would turn the 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:11.280 war around. But all Hitler had up his sleeve were 0:23:11.320 --> 0:23:16.040 track marks. The drugs kept him on his road as 0:23:16.080 --> 0:23:19.679 the few who knows everything and who could not fail. 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:23.159 And and this was the road that led him to 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:26.560 self destruction and led the whole country of Germany to 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:31.960 to destruction and final defeat. Hitler's misplaced optimism kept Germany 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:34.320 in a war that it could not win for months, 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:44.040 even years, while millions perished throughout everything. Dr Morrell remained 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:49.240 at Hitler's side himself wouldn't have anything said against Theodore Morrell. 0:23:49.720 --> 0:23:53.800 He thought he was a marvel worker and stayed with 0:23:53.960 --> 0:23:56.000 him to the very end, and in fact, right up 0:23:56.040 --> 0:23:58.320 to the fool of the Third Reich Green. Hitler was 0:23:58.359 --> 0:24:01.480 in his bunker fid m Rrell was at his sides, 0:24:01.680 --> 0:24:04.639 continually pumping in full of drugs. It was Morrell that 0:24:04.720 --> 0:24:07.840 supplied Hitler with the lethal cyanide pills that the dictator 0:24:07.840 --> 0:24:10.480 and Ava Brown would use to kill themselves in that 0:24:10.520 --> 0:24:14.520 famous Berlin bunker. Morrell himself escaped that bunker and was 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:18.400 eventually tracked down not by Allied forces but by an 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:22.560 industrious New York Times reporter. Thanks to her story, American 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.359 forces took Morrel prisoner, but the increasingly ill doctor was 0:24:26.400 --> 0:24:29.200 of little use as a witness at Nuremberg and died 0:24:29.200 --> 0:24:32.200 a few years later after the war at age sixty one. 0:24:35.080 --> 0:24:37.960 Theodore Morrell had left his mark on Adolph Hitler's health 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.119 and on world history, helping to prolong a costly and 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:44.560 deadly war well beyond when it might have otherwise concluded. 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:47.160 How many lives would have been saved had Hitler's drug 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:51.240 addiction not reached such dangerous levels, Or might a healthy 0:24:51.280 --> 0:24:54.240 Hitler have made better decisions with the Nazis, have been 0:24:54.240 --> 0:24:58.080 more successful and the war lasted even longer. It's impossible 0:24:58.119 --> 0:25:01.399 to know. But there's one other fascinating wrinkle to this 0:25:01.480 --> 0:25:05.520 story that complicates things even further. Hitler had a pre 0:25:05.560 --> 0:25:09.199 existing condition that, when undiagnosed at the time, one that 0:25:09.280 --> 0:25:12.280 might have made all the difference to his drug induced downfall. 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:32.160 That's next. Adolph Hitler is hardly the only world leader 0:25:32.200 --> 0:25:34.840 to have ever relied on a loyal doctor to services 0:25:34.880 --> 0:25:38.440 health and diet requirements. In fact, there was another big 0:25:38.560 --> 0:25:42.400 name twentieth century leader who also received regular injections while 0:25:42.440 --> 0:25:47.920 in charge of a major industrial power. There are that 0:25:48.119 --> 0:25:52.760 communism is the wave of the future that damn come 0:25:52.800 --> 0:25:56.600 to Berland. Like Hitler, US President John F. Kennedy suffered 0:25:56.640 --> 0:26:00.320 from a number of ailments that required doctor supervision. Nasier 0:26:00.359 --> 0:26:03.320 Gami is a psychiatrist at Tufts University in Harvard Medical 0:26:03.359 --> 0:26:06.720 School and the author of a First Rate Madness, uncovering 0:26:06.760 --> 0:26:09.800 the links between leadership and mental illness. In the case 0:26:09.840 --> 0:26:13.399