WEBVTT - Were Nazis Drug-Fueled Crankheads? 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:03.400 Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of My 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:12.600 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:15.400 I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:19.599 there's other Josh over there, the O J. You're the 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:23.480 O G. Yes, he's the O J. That's right. We 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:25.880 should probably come up with a different nickname for you, Josh. 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.760 That's tried. Um. So, oh, yeah, this is Stuff you 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:34.440 Should Know the podcast Nazi Crankhead Edition. We've been doing 0:00:34.479 --> 0:00:38.000 a lot on Nazis lately, have we. I guess we have. 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:45.560 We did the July twenty plot to assassinate Hitler this one. Yeah, 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:50.400 it's a lot. It's a lot. Uh, yeah, this is 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:52.280 I thought this is interesting and I remember hearing a 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.160 lot about this when um, I mean there's been plenty 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.320 of people in books about Nazis doing lots of drugs. 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:03.040 The big one that came out called Blitzed from author 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.880 Nomen Ohler really made a lot of hey in the 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.040 news for sure. Um, it was a it was a 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:11.640 big deal when it came out just I think in 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:16.440 two thousands seventeen, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, and we're 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.319 endorsing that book is a good read. Have you read it? 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:22.120 I read a lot of it, Okay, I got I 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:25.959 heard it's a very exhaustive book. It's pretty exhaustive, so 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.800 it um. I have not read it, but it does 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:32.360 seem from from some of the stuff I've read about it. 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:34.319 Some of the book reviews are like, yeah, this, this 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.280 guy's got the goods. This guy, Norman Ohler um spent 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:41.200 like five years at least in the archives. So this 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:45.039 isn't just like conjecture. This is very well researched and 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:49.680 um fact based. Well, I guess there's a little conjecture 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:54.440 to it, because he's basically saying drugs drove the Third 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.400 Reich initially and then just like you know, anybody becoming 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:02.040 strong out on a drug, it led to the deterioration 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.520 and ultimately downfall of the Third Reich. And that's a big, 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:09.760 big thing to say, Like there's there are very few 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:14.800 things in history, especially massive world changing things like the 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:18.000 Third Reich and World War Two and the Holocaust, that 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.760 you can just pin one thing on. And I'm sure 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.080 he's not saying like that is it, there's nothing else 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:26.280 to it, But he's saying like this is a huge 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.519 contributor of it, and he's the first. He's not the 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:30.480 first person to say, yeah, the Nazis did a lot 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.520 of drugs, he seems to be the first author to 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.160 to really say, yeah, the Nazis did a lot of 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.359 drugs and this was the result. Yeah. And I think 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:41.920 from what I uh, the parts of the book that 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:46.840 I read and doing this research, it is it's not 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:50.560 much of a leap. So when you have facts and 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:53.720 like the number of pills, which we'll get into, and 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:58.760 what these pills were, there's just no disputing the physiological 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.639 effect that it has on people and what these drugs 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.000 do because that's why they were taking them. So it's 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:06.799 not much of a leap, even though it is some 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:11.480 conjecture to say, you know, the blitz creek was uh, 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.560 probably super effective because they were all on crank. Yeah, 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.960 it gives blitz creek bop like a new meaning, you know. 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.120 I I that was totally off the cuff, too off 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.799 the dome. Yeah. So should we talk about Old Germany 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:29.960 and sort of the seed of this whole thing. Yeah, 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:31.680 but first one more thing while we're kind of on 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:34.800 this particular riff. Um, I don't know, because again I 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:37.240 haven't read the book. I don't know that Ohler is saying, 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:39.880 and I don't think he is that like the Holocaust 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.960 wouldn't have happened if if Germany hadn't been hopped up 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.960 on drugs. Um He's something some people do say that. 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:50.960 There's some revisionist historians who say, yeah, it was it 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:54.120 was drugs that was that had gripped Hitler's mind, and 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:56.560 had he not been on drugs, the Holocaust wouldn't have happened. 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:02.040 That appears to be patently untrue. The earliest um, the 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.920 earliest deaths executions in the Holocaust that I found go 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.200 back to nineteen thirty three, and the Nazis had such 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:13.280 a tenuous grip on power that um that that they 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.920 had to basically make it look like these executions of 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:21.320 these four Jews at Dachau um were were for were 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:23.920 them trying to escape? Like they were shot trying to escape. 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.400 It was such a terrible obvious lie that three SS 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:32.880 officers and the camp commandant at Dachau were indicted for murder. 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:35.839 That's how new the Nazis were into power that they 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.560 these guys were indicted for murder. The indictments went away. 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:42.960 But again this was three, way early, way before anybody 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:46.800 was on drugs and UM, and the Holocaust was just 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.520 that was like the earliest beginnings of the Holocaust, and 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.880 it showed this mentality and this drive and desire to 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.400 carry out the Holocaust later on. So so anybody who 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.240 says that it was drugs that brought about the Holocaust 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:03.160 is wrong from what I understand. So you mentioned nineteen 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:07.719 thirty three, Uh, that is interesting that data is because 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.960 there were plenty of drugs. The Nazis weren't doing them yet, 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.120 but they started passing laws in nineteen thirty three as 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:19.880 one of the big first moves of the Nazis to um, 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:23.120 to clean up the land, to clean up the Weimar 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:26.960 Republic which is what Germany was basically known as from 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.320 nineteen eighteen to nineteen thirty three. Yeah, the Weimar Republic 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:34.600 was an experiment at democracy in Germany and it almost 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.760 took like the last five years of the republic showed 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.880 like economic growth. It was during the jazz Age, so 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.960 everybody was kind of partying, as we'll see. And UM, 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.720 it wasn't until the Great Depression started in nineteen twenty 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:53.240 nine that this really fragile republic, this really fragile democracy 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.680 just could not handle that kind of economic hit, and 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.920 it gave Hitler in the National Socialism Party this per 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:05.080 ficct entree into power by saying, first of all, we 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.719 can we can turn things around economically. The Wymar Republic 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:11.840 couldn't do it. And secondly, this all Wymar Republic thing, 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.400 everybody's on drugs, they're all degenerates. And then they used 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:20.320 that idea of degenerate art of people being on cocaine 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:24.720 and morphine, and and tied it in with Judaism. And 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.840 so anybody who was on drugs, anyone who was gay, 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.840 anyone who would say like a roma, Um, they were 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.600 all tied in with the Jews, and all of those 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.800 people were subject to the Holocaust um right out of 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:41.720 the gate. Yeah, so the stage is set. They're locking 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:48.480 up their imprisoning, their sterilizing addicts, UM, denouncing these users. Uh. 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.719 And then and these are, like we said, cocaine and morphine, 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:55.320 which Germany was like one of the leading or maybe 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.000 the leading producer of cocaine in the world at the time. Right, 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:01.000 you gotta tell them those statistics. Yeah, in the nineteen 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:07.200 twenties Germany, UH, companies in Germany generated of the world's 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:12.720 morphine and controlled eight of the global cocaine market. That is, 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:16.560 in the nineteen twenties. Astounding, and so you can imagine 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.400 that the Weimar Republic is awash in this. And so 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:22.440 there really was like a lot of I mean, there 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.120 was tons of wow, almost just said something else. There 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.200 were tons of tons of horrible broken lives and addiction. 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.080 There was a lot of homelessness. There was a lot 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.760 of prostitution. There was a lot of um, a lot 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:41.360 of I mean issues and problems that the society had. 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.440 But there was also a lot of really interesting and 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:46.960 good things that was coming out of this combination of 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:50.080 a democracy of washing drugs. There were things like a 0:07:50.200 --> 0:07:53.680 lot more gender equality than there had been before. There 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.000 was a lot of androgyny going on, and kind of 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.400 like the art and social scene, there was some really 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.680 good art coming out. But again the Nazis came along 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.560 and denounced it as degenerate art and actually held an 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:09.960 exhibition chuck in a degenerate art exhibition where they showed 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.400 everybody in Germany, this is bad art, and we're going 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:17.920 to destroy a lot of this and replace it with um. 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:24.120 The three k's. It was kinder couch, I think couch, yeah, 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:29.320 k you with the new and Kirsch, which is family 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:31.920 home in church. And that is what our art, that 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:33.880 is what our culture is going to be about. So 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:38.560 the Weimar Republic provided this really great foil to what 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.520 the Nazis were kind of rousing Germany out of, like, hey, 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.679 let's all get off the cocaine, let's all get off 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:47.120 the morphine. And in fact, if you know an addict, 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:51.680 tell the cops, you neighbor, you co worker, you family member, 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.920 go and form on on the drug users in this country. 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:59.679 Let's let's clean Germany up. Let's clean Germany's bodies up, 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.920 and let's move forward with an emphasis on family home 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:08.040 in church. That's what the Nazis came to Germany with 0:09:08.440 --> 0:09:13.520 in in right. And as this is going on literally, 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:15.920 as all this stuff is happening in the nineteen thirties, 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:19.400 early in mid nineteen thirties, they're denouncing these people, locking 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:23.640 them up um, talking about how toxic these drugs are. 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:30.000 Germany and companies in Germany were switching over to synthesizing 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:35.480 drugs and making speed and all kinds of drugs synthetic, 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:40.680 like precursors to OxyContin and uh, meth basically. Uh. There 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.319 was a firm in Berlin called the Timbler Firm, and 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:45.920 they were headed up and this is a seven by 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:50.720 man named Fritz house Child, who uh later on was 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.560 the sort of leading dude in East Germany's sports doping program. 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.520 So he's he knows what he's doing. So they synthesized 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:02.040 basically crystal meth into something and you know, at least 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.200 as the same kind of active ingredients as a little 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.360 pill called purvitin V E R V I T I 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:13.640 N and um. It wasn't just the army that uses 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.600 and we'll get into all that, because the German military 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:20.040 was definitely hopped up on what we now know as 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.080 crystal meth. But this stuff was over the counter at first, 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.640 and a lot of Germany was using this, housewives were 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.440 using it. And we should say that like the same 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.920 stuff was going on as benz adrine in the United States, 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.600 like they were. It seems like the whole world was 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:40.400 hopped up on speed in the nineteen thirties, not just 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.120 the thirties, like well into the sixties, well, I mean 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.480 starting in the nineteen thirties. Uh, And so purviton was 0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:49.080 over the counter at first, eventually, uh, you know, some 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:51.400 alarm bell started going off, so they just like, we 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:55.640 might want to make this prescription. And then they said, well, 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:57.959 you know what, we don't know if the general public 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.480 should have this at all, but we totally want our 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.960 military to still have it. Yeah, it was called the 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:08.840 Stimulant Decree where the head of the German um physiology 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.079 department in the in the Defense ministry, his name was 0:11:12.120 --> 0:11:15.640 Otto Ranki. He said, give me thirty five million of 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.199 those stimulant tabs because we're waging a war on exhaustion, 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.720 as we'll see. Let's let's before we hop into the military. 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:24.960 You want to take a break, Yes, okay, I'm ready. 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:53.160 We need to starting now, George, okay, Chuck. So in 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:57.559 Germany before before there's a really important point that I 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:01.120 don't want to gloss over. Germany went from this. As 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:06.760 far as the Nazis were concerned, it's kind of shiftless um, 0:12:06.920 --> 0:12:12.120 high unemployment, fragile economic state where a lot of people 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:16.240 were selling and doing cocaine and morphine recreationally and to 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:18.280 stave off depression. I mean, they were in a pretty 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:21.400 bad spot as a country weight or like you know, well, 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:23.440 well no not yet, not yet that was not the 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:25.760 point of it. Yet. It was strictly to get high, 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:29.160 is what they were doing in the Ymar Republic was 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.800 just a perk when the well, no, that was a 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:34.720 Nazi thing. So then the Nazis come along and they say, 0:12:34.720 --> 0:12:37.560 we're not doing cocaine and morphine anymore. Let's try these 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:41.079 other synthetic stimulants that can be produced strictly in Germany. 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:43.520 And one of the things that is a benefit is 0:12:43.679 --> 0:12:48.480 weight loss or I saw first date jitters or um 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.200 just self confidence, depression, anything you could think of that 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:56.040 you might need a little boost for. Purvitin was was 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:58.560 advertised for, I almost prescribed, but like you said, it 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:02.199 was over the counter. And so it's really interesting that 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.800 that um Norman Ohler makes this point. Around the time 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.679 the perviting came out and started to become into widespread use, 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:13.520 the German economy started cranking into full gear. So one 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:18.360 of the first points that Owlder makes is without this speed, 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.320 Germany probably wouldn't have been able to get onto wartime 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.240 footing as fast as it did because it happened overnight 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:31.560 in terms of like huge social social change, and that 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:33.800 was a big part of it. Was this pervitin the 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:37.360 speed that everyone in Germany was on. And now thinking 0:13:37.400 --> 0:13:40.920 about you know, the German the health of the German 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.560 country in Germany itself. Yeah, and you know, if you 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.920 think about a military being hopped up on speed um, 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.959 it has a lot of initially may have a lot 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:55.480 of advantages and that not only are you feeling euphoric 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.280 and confident and you're super focused, but you can also 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:02.640 battle it up and wore it up for two days 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:06.760 straight without sleeping and still feel good. So they were 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.319 passing them out literally in chocolates. Uh some of them 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:15.240 were called uh ponza chocolata tank chocolate for the tank 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.560 drivers and tank crews. And then they would give them 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:19.080 to the Air Force. They would give them to pilots 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.080 and they called it either pilot salt or pilots chocolate. 0:14:22.720 --> 0:14:28.120 And between, dude, between April and July, just what is that? 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:32.200 Four months? Yes, in nineteen forty more than thirty five 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:36.720 million doses of purbiton were manufactured for the army. In 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:40.200 the Air Force alone over three three and a half 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:43.440 four months, thirty five million doses. And I mean there 0:14:43.440 --> 0:14:46.840 are plenty of accounts um like on record. This is 0:14:46.880 --> 0:14:49.640 not speculation at all. There was a Nobel Prize winner 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.200 named Einrich Bowl who won the Nobel Prize in nineteen 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:57.000 seventy two for literature, and he was he was in 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.760 the army back before he was an author, and like 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:02.960 the our letters home where he's like, perhaps you could 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.040 obtain some more purbaton for my supplies and just send 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.480 it on over. So they love the stuff, yeah, oh yeah, 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.040 they loved it, um, not not just like the the 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.240 actual like soldiers loved it, which they very much did 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.800 from all from all appearances, but also the people running 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:22.800 the show, um of the military, the Wehrmacht loved it 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:26.280 too well. They were on it themselves, sure, but they 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.000 also loved like the effects, like they it turned German 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:34.120 soldiers into like super soldiers. Basically they didn't need sleep. 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.840 They could they could hike through forests for days on end, 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.240 and they did. Actually, the blitz creak into France was 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:47.040 carried out over about three three plus days and um 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.280 Norman Ohler says in his book that in in less 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:54.720 than a hundred hours, Germany gained more land in France 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:57.200 than it did throughout the entirety of World War One, 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:01.040 and it was because it was one big push all 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:05.040 the way into France that took place over three days, NonStop. 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:08.040 There wasn't like let's let's move like twenty miles and 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.360 then camp for the night and then pick up the 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:14.040 next morning. It was a NonStop move into France. And 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.960 from what I understand, no one in in the modern 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.560 world had ever seen anything like that from a military. 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.680 It didn't make any sense. And that was it for France. 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.480 I mean, like, this was May of nineteen forty France. 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.320 France fell like almost immediately just in the face of this. 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:32.280 And they used the same tactic in Poland the year before, 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:35.640 and all of this was they think, it's not like, oh, 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.680 this coincides with the time that you know, the military 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:43.120 was was ordering pervitin. It's documented that pervitin was the 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.360 reason that this these pushes were able to happen and 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:48.720 why Germany looked like they really were going to take 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.600 over the world in the early stages of World War two. Yeah, 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:53.240 and this stuff was, I mean, it was it was 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:55.800 from the top down. And we'll we'll get to Hitler's 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.640 drug use in the third act of this podcast because 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:04.159 that stuff is super interesting. Um, but it was definitely 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.000 top down, like the head of the Research Institute of 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:12.280 Defense Physiology, basically the the lead physiologist for the German military. 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:16.080 His name was Otto Runk. Yeah I mentioned him. Yeah, Yeah, 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.439 he was. He was. He was hopped up on it himself. 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:23.119 He's the one that endorses from the beginning. And basically 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:28.000 it's like medically documented that he he essentially at a 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:32.120 certain point was living in a constant state of speed 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:36.600 meth overdose. So uh, all right, so the army, the 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.960 Air Force, everyone's all hopped up on this drug. Um, 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:45.120 they are literally like prescribing this as like these young 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.160 like seventeen eighteen year old German soldiers or are signing 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:51.520 up for the army or did they sign up or 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.000 did they just get absorbed. It depends on when in 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:56.879 the in the war you're talking about. Towards the end 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:58.880 of the war, they had no choice. They were just drafted. 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:04.720 Well any rate, they would say like here's your outfit. Um, 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:07.399 it's very sharp, I think you must admit, and you 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:09.960 go boss yeah, And the soldier would say thinks a lot. 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.000 And they would say here's your weapon, and here's your speed, 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.679 like put this under your tongue starting now. Yeah, And 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:18.680 then here's all the rest of your speed to carry 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.720 around with you. Just come back when you need some more. Yeah, 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.280 and the short term, you know, it's it's like we've 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:28.440 done plenty of episodes on drugs and on crystal meth, 0:18:28.520 --> 0:18:31.720 and the short term we've been on crystal meth while 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:36.760 we've done the episodes that the short term effect was 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:38.880 was great and like you said, they made so many 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.080 gains so much more quickly, to the point where Churchill 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:46.479 was apparently dumbfounded by how fast they operated. But like, 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:48.960 over time, it's gonna have the effect of any other drug. 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:53.280 Just because it comes packaged and marketed as a prescription 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:57.480 doesn't mean it wasn't crystal meth. And over time what 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:01.800 happens is sleep deprivation and very poor decision making, not 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.880 sharp focus, and soldiers who would die of heart failure 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.400 or who would take their own lives during psychotic breakdowns, 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.600 and you know, withdrawal when they couldn't get their hands 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:16.440 on the purvitend. So this very much ended up biting 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:22.200 them on their German highnees. Uh, even after their initial successes. Right. Yeah, 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:26.080 And and um, I mean you can point to the 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:30.680 places where the where the war started to turn that 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:36.479 that coincide with um. You know, points where it had 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:40.600 been years that the German army had been on stimulants 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:44.040 and speed for basically every day since then, and like, 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.040 I mean, you don't even have to You could be 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.320 the most drug naive person in the world and you 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:52.200 still know that space staying on speed for three years, 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.560 there's eventually going to be a bottoming out. And that's 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:58.240 not a place where you want to be as a military, 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.880 especially when you're deep into Russia in the winter. If 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:06.200 your whole army is bottoming out after Matthews, yes, that's 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:08.960 not good. And that seems to be what happened. Like 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.399 one of the reasons why the Russia offensive was was 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:16.560 um was not was not successful. It is because there 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.480 was a lot of um, A lot of UM. I 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:21.800 keep using the word followed or bottoming out what's it 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.439 called when like you oh, crashing from speed sure and 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:28.439 like and and suffering from psychosis and all sorts of 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:33.040 other problems. And then even if it wasn't directly like 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:36.720 their their decision making wasn't affected or even if you 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:40.160 take all that out, being in Russia, caught in Russia 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:44.639 in the winter, um while being addicted to speed for 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:48.560 three years. That is not a good place. Your body 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:50.200 is not in the kind of place where it can 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:56.680 fight off pneumonia easily or stay warm easily. It's severely compromised. 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:58.800 Just on like say, a first dose of speed in 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:01.439 that situation, but after being on speed every day for 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.840 three years, that's a really bad situation. So in that sense, 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.720 at the very least, speed would have contributed to a 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:13.199 really huge um set back for the German Army that 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:14.800 a lot of people point to is one of the 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.400 at least the real nail in the coffin for Germany, 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:22.080 which was um Russia not being successful in Russia turning 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:25.400 the tides and pushing Germany back or the German army 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:28.879 back into Germany and then chasing it into it. That 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:30.879 was that was a big deal, and it's possible that 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:34.040 speed played a really big factor in it. Well for sure. 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:36.560 I mean, we we talked about older speculation about some 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.119 of this stuff, but again it's it's sort of a 0:21:39.240 --> 0:21:42.840 numbers game. I mean, there there are studies that show 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.959 that if you take crystal meth a lot for three years, 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:51.240 that two thirds of the people who use that drug 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:54.440 in that way are going to suffer from serious psychosis. 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:58.359 So it's just a math problem. If that many pills 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.080 were literally being handed out in the army and they 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:04.440 were all using it for that amount of time, then 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:06.919 that means, according to studies, that two thirds of the 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:10.920 German army at some point we're suffering from psychosis drug 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:15.600 induced psychosis. That's not good. And apparently towards the end 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:19.320 of the war UM German chemists were trying to come 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:21.520 up with new drugs. There was one that didn't get 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.320 deployed UM, but that was tested or I think it 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:26.879 might have been deployed, I can't remember UM called Drug 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:31.360 nine or d I X Roman Numeral nine, and it 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:34.360 was basically like cocaine and morphine and then another kind 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:38.359 of morphine, and it was it was meant to combat 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:42.440 the to get the German army back on its feet, UM. 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:45.760 But it was just so over the top that it 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:48.720 was never never issued in like any kind of wide 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:52.800 supply because it was just it was basically like here, addicts, 0:22:52.840 --> 0:22:56.120 here's a brand new super drug that's going to keep 0:22:56.119 --> 0:22:59.159 you going. But it didn't quite work. But they found 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:03.080 I saw that in tests on on concentration camp inmates. 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.560 They would they would hike in a colaw in a 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:11.159 circle like ninety kilometers in a day without rest, so 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:14.080 it would work. But I think they also tried it 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:17.600 on some some one man subs and it didn't work 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:22.679 out very well. D nine So sounds like like the 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:26.400 dude in college that's like, dude, I got some D nine. Man. 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:30.000 It was this like this German drug back in World 0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:32.560 War Two that was a combination. It's the ultimate super 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:38.720 drug and some guy in uh Indiana is making it now. Yep, yep, 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:40.600 that's where they would make it, when in fact it 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:44.199 was just you know, white Crosses smashed up right and 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:48.960 mixed with um, you know, Pillsberry sugar cookie dough. Alright, 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:52.280 so I think we should take another break. We're going 0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:55.280 to finish up with what I think is the most 0:23:55.560 --> 0:23:59.000 interesting part of this whole thing, which is Adolf Hitler's 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:03.680 rampant drug use in his his own Michael Jackson esque 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:07.320 personal doctor who injected up on a daily basis right 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:35.919 after this ge alright, so there's this doctor. His name 0:24:36.000 --> 0:24:40.920 was doctor Morrel, Dr Theodore Morrel, and he kind of 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:45.360 wormed his way into He was not a highly um 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:47.920