Hitler, Amphetamines And The History Channel

by

R.E. Prindle

I’m sure the History Channel has run the program High Hitler many times but I caught it only recently. I was astonished at the lack of sophistication of the writers of the show. They seemed to have been astonished that Hitler was an amphetamine user as though the drug and drugs were an unusual phenomenon.

Before you’re going to deal with a person on drugs as Hitler obviously was it pays to acquire a background in the history of drug use. In the first place amphetamines were first synthesized in 1887, albeit by a German, long before Hitler. While it is commonly thought that Hitler had amphetamines discovered in the 1930s to keep his troops on their feet and alert, such is not the case. Amphetamines were almost universally used by the armies of the world:

During WWII the military of the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Japan used amphetamines to increase alertness and endurance and improve mood.

What was unusual in Hitler’s use was the vitamin/amphetamine combination that was such a perky cocktail. But, historically how unusual was this cocktail? Not unusual at all although Hitler’s may be a first. The History Channel writers are writing within the 21st century so they should have known.

If one fast forwards from the 30s to the 1960s in New York City one will find a battalion of Dr. Feelgoods. These guys like the Jewish Dr. Max Jacobson and Dr. Roberts among a very many doctors were providing an identical vitamin/amphetamine mixture with a few additives of their own not only for the elite of NYC but those of Washington DC. Yes, it is true, Dr. Feelgood, Max Jacobson, was giving shots to President John F. Kennedy himself. Kennedy was loaded when he confronted Nikita Khrushev at the summit meeting and probably durng the Bay of Pigs. Makes you feel good, doesn’t it? So what do Adolf Hitler and John F. Kennedy have in common? They were both amphetamine addicts. If Hitler’s judgment was impaired by drug use, how about Kennedy’s? Kennedy was also an LSD user so kind of makes you tremble in retrospect, doesn’t it?

Lyndon Johnson tried amphetamines once and spotted the danger immediately. He didn’t go back.

For years in the early sixties Jewish doctors were plunging their needles into the arms, or whatever, of vast numbers of NYC’s social elite. Hitler would have fit right it. With his gift of gab it would have been a babelfest.

Regardless of whether Hitler was a user or not, the History Channel’s writers should acquire an adequate knowledge of their subject. Google amphetamines.