1. German Soldiers Were Not Indefatigable: They Were Tweaking
The German military authorities’ spicing of Pervitin with cocaine resulted in an even more addictive drug cocktail. Millions in the German military could not get enough of their crystal meth, and especially not enough of their crystal meth after it got laced with cocaine. Many wrote home, requesting their loved ones to send them Pervitin via military mail.
A typical example was Heinrich Boll, a German postwar author who won the 1972 Nobel Prize for literature. In a May 20th, 1940 letter to his parents, 22-year-old Boll begged them to send him some Pervitin, which he said not only kept him alert but also chased away his worries.
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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
All That is Interesting – How Drugs Like Pervitin and Cocaine Fueled the Nazis’ Rise and Fall
Clark, Alan – Barbarossa: The Russian-German Conflict, 1941-1945 (1985)
Cracked – 5 Historical Landmarks (That Are Total Frauds)
Cracked – 5 People You Didn’t Realize Were Fictional Characters
Dixon, Norman F. – On the Psychology of Military Incompetence (2011)
Encyclopedia Britannica – Battle of Plassey
History Collection – Mad Myths in History that Just Won’t Go Away
Falk, Stanley L. – Seventy Days to Singapore: The Malayan Campaign, 1941-1942 (1975)
Glantz, David – When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler (1995)
Groves, Leslie R. – Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project (1983)
Guardian, The, September 25th, 2016 – High Hitler: How Nazi Drug Abuse Steered the Course of History
Hastings, Max – Armageddon: The Battle For Germany, 1944-1945 (2005)
Murphy, David E. – What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa (2005)
History Collection – Untrue Historic “Facts” It’s Time to Erase
New York Times, March 17th, 2017 – Debunking a Myth: The Irish Were Not Slaves, Too
Overy, Richard – Russia’s War: A History of the Soviet Effort, 1941-1945 (1998)
Ranker – 22 ‘Facts’ About World War II That Just Aren’t True
Rhodes, Richard – The Making of the Atomic Bomb (1986)
Rolling Stone, August 17th, 2017 – Donald Trump’s Golf Course Plaque Honors Fake Civil War Battle
History Collection – Popular Historic “Facts” That Are Actually False
Smithsonian Magazine, August, 2004 – In Search of William Tell
SOF Rep – On This Day in History: The Only Death Sentence For Desertion in WWII is Carried Out
Southern Poverty Law Center – How the Myth of Irish Slaves Became a Favorite Meme of Racists Online
History Collection – Hitler’s Nazi Troops Were Hooked on Meth
