Hitler was "saturated" with drugs, according to new book

Hitler was “saturated” with drugs, and throughout the war became increasingly dependent on a cocktail of substances, according to a new book.

While the Nazis appeared to be clean cut and opposed to chemicals, a pill called Pervitin became widely available under Hitler, according to “Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich” by Normal Ohler.

Even Germany's soldiers were taking it.

Its active ingredient, methamphetamine, is now known as crystal meth, according to the book.

Drugs “seeped all the way up to the Nazi high command and, especially, to Hitler himself,” the book’s blurb states.

Hitler allegedly began his dependency in 1941, with steroid and animal hormone injections. Between then and the second half in 1994, Hitler “hardly enjoyed a sober day” and his veins were "so wrecked" that his doctor cold "barely penetrate them," writes Ohler.

And although it’s widely believed Hitler had Parkinson’s disease later on in his life, Ohler says he could, in fact, have been experiencing symptoms of withdrawal as factories were bombed out and drugs became much harder to come by.

However, renowned historian Richard J Evans disputes much of the book, including Ohler’s claims that the whole nation took Pervitin.

He calls it a “sweeping generalisation” in his Guardian review.

Worse than that, Evans writes that its dangerous to hint, as he suggests the book does, that Germans weren’t responsible for the support they gave the Nazi regime because they were so drugged up.

“No wonder this book has been a bestseller in Germany,” he writes.

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