The Third Reich experimented with drugs

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Fascist Germany can rightfully be called a country of drug addicts. The use of various narcotic drugs has actually been declared state policy.

The Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht were on drugs of narcotic action. The Reich leadership also dabbled in various drugs. This is all the more surprising since the Nazi regime formally paid much attention to the health of the nation, and the first anti-smoking campaign, which was quite effective at the initial stage, was launched in pre-war Germany.

During World War II, German soldiers were often drugged, which gave them additional strength and endurance. In fact, the real secret weapons in Hitler's hands were not FAU rockets or mythical flying saucers, but the drug pervitin. A study of the activities of German doctors and medicine of the Third Reich during the Second World War, which was carried out by the Association of German Doctors, found that in some cases German soldiers and officers were given special pills before the battle, which significantly increased their endurance and allowed them to fight for a long time without rest and sleep. It is known that more than 200 million pervitin tablets were supplied to the German armed forces from 1939 to 1945. Most of these pills were received by the advanced units of the Wehrmacht, which occupied Poland, Holland, Belgium and France.

Methamphetamine, or pervitin, is an artificial amphetamine derivative, a white crystalline substance that is bitter and odorless. This substance is a strong psychostimulant with a very high potential for addiction. In this regard, it has become widespread as a drug. Today, pervitin has a large number of "street" names: speed, speed, ice, hair dryer, chalk, methamphetamine, screw, etc. And if today the view on methamphetamine is quite unambiguous, then a few decades ago it was not.

For the first time, amphetamine, which was the predecessor of the described drug, was synthesized in Germany in 1887, and methamphetamine itself, which is easier to use, but much more powerful, was synthesized in 1919 by a scientist from Japan A. Ogata. In the 1930s, pharmacists at Temmler Werke in Berlin used it as a stimulant called Pervitin. Since 1938, this substance began to be used systematically and in large doses in the army and the defense industry (on the eve of World War II, pervitin tablets were officially included in the "combat diet" of tankers and pilots).

Pervitin tablets and tank chocolate (Panzerschokolade)

In 1938, the director of the Institute of General and Military Physiology of the Berlin Academy of Military Medicine, Otto Ranke, turned his attention to the product produced by the Berlin company Temmler. Pervitin was a drug from the class of amphetamines, it had the same effect as adrenaline produced by the human body. At their core, amphetamines were doping that accelerates sleep, increases the ability to concentrate, a sense of self-confidence and a willingness to take risks. At the same time, the feeling of hunger and thirst dulled in a person taking pervitin, and the sensitivity to pain decreased.

The Germans viewed pervitin as a remedy that should be given to soldiers on rare occasions when they have to perform a particularly difficult task. The instruction for naval doctors especially emphasized: “Medical personnel must understand that pervitin is a very powerful stimulant. This tool is able to help any soldier to achieve significantly more than he usually could do."

The stimulating effect of this substance was vigor and increased activity, high spirits, reduced fatigue, decreased appetite, reduced need for sleep, and increased ability to concentrate. Currently, amphetamines (in countries where their use is legal) can be prescribed medicinally for narcolepsy (irresistible pathological drowsiness) and ADHD - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

In the German army, pervitin was used to fight fatigue during long marches (flights), for concentration. There is information that Adolf Hitler took pervitin in the form of intravenous injections since 1942 (according to other sources even earlier - since 1936) from his personal physician Theodor Morel. Moreover, after 1943, injections began to be given several times a day. In parallel with this, Hitler received Yukodal injections. Taking substances with such regularity and in such a combination, a person very quickly gets hooked on them. It is safe to say that by the time of his death in 1945, Hitler could already be called a drug addict with experience. Moreover, at that time, drug addiction was a criminal offense in Germany.

It is worth noting that the disease hit the top of the Reich quite strongly. So, one of Hitler's main confidants, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, was a morphine addict. The Americans who took him prisoner found 20 thousand ampoules of morphine in his property. As one of the main Nazi criminals, he was brought to trial at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, while in Goering prison he was subjected to compulsory medical therapy.

Initially, pervitin was distributed to military drivers who were less tired and felt more cheerful. After that, the drug was very widespread among the troops that were directly involved in hostilities. Between April and July 1940 alone, 35 million tablets of pervitin and isophane (a modification of the drug manufactured by Knoll) were transferred to the troops. The drug at that time was distributed uncontrollably, it was only necessary to ask. Each pervitin tablet contained 3 mg of the active substance. On the packaging of the drug, it was labeled "stimulant". The instruction recommended taking 1-2 tablets in order to fight sleep. The belief in the safety of this psychostimulant was so great that even special sweets stuffed with pervitin appeared on the market. They are called "panzerschokolade" - tank chocolate.

In May 1940, a 23-year-old soldier named Heinrich Belle wrote to his family from the front line. He complained a lot of fatigue and asked his family to send him pervitin. Heinrich was a big fan of this tool. Just one tablet, he said, could replace liters of the strongest coffee. After taking the drug, albeit only for a few hours, all anxieties disappeared, the person became happy. A third of a century later, in 1972, this former Wehrmacht soldier will receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

However, over time, doctors began to notice that after taking pervitin, it is necessary to recover for a long time, and the effect of taking the pills decreases if you take them often. At the same time, more serious side effects were revealed. Several people have even died from overdose. At the request of his subordinates, the SS Gruppenführer Leonardo Conti, the imperial head of health, even tried to restrict the use of pervitin. On July 1, 1941, this stimulant was included in the list of drugs that needed to be dispensed only with special permission. However, the Wehrmacht, in fact, ignored this prescription, believing that enemy bullets, shells and mines are much more dangerous than pills, which in some cases help to fight.

Gradually, doctors and scientists have identified more and more side effects when taking psychostimulants. It was noted that in case of an overdose, which was quite possible in a combat situation, all the positive effects of the drug were manifested in an excessive form. The increased activity under the influence of amphetamine with an increase in the dose of the drug became aimless: for example, performing a large amount of stereotyped work without much need for this, but with exaggerated thoroughness, a long search for any objects. Communication turned into loquacity, pathological thoroughness of speech. And amphetamine abuse, combined with cumulative sleep deprivation, could lead to the development of schizophrenic psychosis. At the end of the action of the drug, the described behavioral reactions were almost always followed by a decrease in the emotional background, sometimes reaching visual illusions, depression, manifested individually for each specific person. Also, for psychostimulants, the effect of the accumulation of fatigue was characteristic - when they stopped taking them, a person's need for sleep and food, suppressed by the drug, manifested itself.

This was explained by the fact that all stimulants activated the "reserves" of the human body, and after the cessation of the effect of their intake, time is needed for their recovery. At the same time, with repeated doses, mental dependence arose quite quickly. With regular intake of amphetamine, its stimulating effect disappears and a person needs a large dose to achieve pleasant sensations. With prolonged use of psychostimulants, psychopathization of the personality occurred. As a result, the person became less sensitive to the suffering of other people, more callous, his mood quickly dropped, right up to the desire to commit suicide. All these identified side effects led to the fact that in July 1941, pervitin was included in a special list of drugs, the distribution of which had to be strictly controlled.

It is worth noting that during the Second World War, the allies did not lag behind the Germans. So, American soldiers in their daily ration, along with canned food and other food, cigarettes and chewing gum, also had a package with 10 amphetamine tablets. These tablets were definitely used by American paratroopers on D-Day, which was understandable, because they had to solve various combat missions in the rear of the German troops for 24 hours, and sometimes more, in isolation from the units of the first echelon of the amphibious assault. British troops used 72 million amphetamine tablets during World War II. These stimulants were used quite actively by the pilots of the Royal Air Force.

D-IX tablets

Today it is no secret to anyone that the Nazi regime conducted various medical experiments on prisoners of concentration camps. For the Germans, prisoners were cheap consumables for experiments. Experiments with drug dispensing were also carried out on prisoners, although information about this, even 70 years after the victory, still has to be collected bit by bit. More often than other concentration camps where similar experiments could be carried out, the Sachsenhausen death camp is mentioned. In this regard, they recall "Experiment D-IX" - the code name of a new narcotic substance, the tests of which began at the end of 1944. Just at this time, Odd Nansen, the son of the world famous polar explorer and Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen, was a prisoner of the Sachsenhausen camp. In his diary, he left the following entry: "At the very beginning, the penal prisoners who tested the new drug rejoiced and even sang songs, but after 24 hours of continuous walking, most of them simply fell to the ground from powerlessness."

According to Odd Nanson, 18 concentration camp prisoners had to walk a total of about 90 kilometers without stopping, carrying a 20 kg load behind their backs. In the camp, these prisoners, who became "guinea pigs" for the Third Reich, were nicknamed the "drug patrol". All the prisoners, according to Nansen, knew or guessed that the Nazis were testing "a means to conserve the energy of the human body." Nansen told his life observations after the war to the German historian Wolf Kempler, who later, based on these memories, as well as a number of other documents, "will make a name for himself" by publishing his book "Nazis and Speed - Drugs in the Third Reich." In his book, Wolf Kemper wrote that the Nazis' idea was to turn ordinary soldiers, pilots and sailors into a kind of robots with superhuman abilities. Wolf Kemper argued that the order to create a potent drug came from the Fuehrer's headquarters in 1944.

According to some reports, it was in 1944 that German Vice Admiral Helmut Heye held a special meeting with the leadership of the medical service and leading specialists in the field of pharmacology, who at that time remained in Germany. The Vice Admiral believed that the time had come for the development of an ultra-modern medication that would allow the soldiers and sailors of the Reich to better endure the effects of various negative stressful situations over a long time, and also give them the opportunity to act more calmly and confidently in any even the most difficult situations. Many heads of German special forces wanted to supply their subordinates with such "miracle pills", so they supported Helmut Heye's idea.

Haye was able to obtain permission to form a special medical research group in the city of Kiel, led by professor of pharmacology Gerhard Orchehovsky. The task of this group was to carry out the entire cycle of work on the development, testing and launching into mass production of a drug with the above characteristics. The miracle pill was tested in 1944 at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and received the designation D-IX. The tablet contained 5 mg of cocaine, 3 mg of pervitin and 5 mg of oxycodone (a pain reliever, a semi-synthetic opioid). Nowadays, anyone caught with these pills could go to jail like a drug dealer. But in Nazi Germany, the drug was planned to be distributed to submariners.

After the end of World War II, many German pharmacists were taken out or left for the United States, where they continued to work on the creation of stimulants. In 1966-1969 alone, the US Army received 225 million dextroamphetamine and pervitin tablets. These drugs were used in both the Korean and Vietnamese wars. According to official figures, the use of pervitin by American soldiers did not end until 1973.