'The most brilliant and fascinating book I have read in my entire life' Dan Snow 'A huge
contribution... remarkable' Antony Beevor BBC RADIO 4 'Extremely interesting ... a serious
piece of scholarship very well researched' Ian Kershaw The Nazis presented themselves as
warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet as Norman Ohler's gripping bestseller reveals the
entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine heroin morphine and most of all
methamphetamines or crystal meth used by everyone from factory workers to housewives and
crucial to troops' resilience - even partly explaining German victory in 1940. The promiscuous
use of drugs at the very highest levels also impaired and confused decision-making with Hitler
and his entourage taking refuge in potentially lethal cocktails of stimulants administered by
the physician Dr Morell as the war turned against Germany. While drugs cannot on their own
explain the events of the Second World War or its outcome Ohler shows they change our
understanding of it. Blitzed forms a crucial missing piece of the story.
