Hitler cocaine

I don't exaclty recall where I read this, perhaps in the intro of the bland Mien Kampf, anyway, it was some book on him...it stated that he accidentally became addicted to cocaine as it was prescribed to him because of some medical complication, but I haven't read that anywhere else. Is this true? And he lost his virginity to a Jewish prostitue and got syphilus(sp). Ironic!

I've seen a bunch of speculation on what exactly Hitler's personal doctor was giving him towards the end, and cocaine is certainly on the list of possibilities.

And when his mother was dying, the only doctor who would even attempt to treat her happened to be Jewish, and he used a method that was considered too risky by most doctors. So his mother died while under the care of a Jewish doctor. She would have died under the care of any other doctor, but I'm sure that was lost on H...

Well, I'm not sure about the cocaine but I have read that Hitler was addicted to cream puffs made by a particular pastry shop in Vienna and had them flown to him in Germany all the time.

Some of the medication prescribed for Hitler during the war contained cocaine if I remember correctly, but I think it would be overstating things a bit to say he was hooked on it.

Yeah, and he passed it to his niece, Geli Raubal, who was so distraught when she discovered it that she committed suicide and that's why Hitler hated Jews so much that he decided to kill all of them. I read that, too, but it was reported as a rumor, which, I'll bet was what you read, not an established fact by any standards of reliability whatsoever. If you can search your memory and tell us exactly where you read this story about Hitler and Jewish prostitute, maybe we can take a look at just where the author came by this information. I hope you can appreciate that there is a big difference in writing, 'I recall reading a rumor that.....' and 'I recall reading that.....'

While it is impossible to prove that something didn't happen, the problem with this story is that you have to assume that 1) the alleged prostitue told Hitler that she was Jewish and 2) Hitler told that to somebody else. Even if the second assumption is documented somewhere, we still have to take Hitler's word for it, and I suspect that Hitler's credibility when it came to Jews was not altogether reliable.

For a good discussion of this, see 'Explaining Hitler' by Ron Rosenbaum.

Edward Tannen

Medicine and War: There are many examples of how technology can advance significantly during time of war but I am interested in medical advances in war time. The best examples I have so far are Ambroise Pare's treatment of wounds-following the widespread introduction of firearms, Florence Nightingale - Crimean War and Penicillin-WW2. Could it be that war advances progress in nursing (Florence Nightingale) or consolidates existing innovations (Penicillin), rather than being an innovative force. In WW1 they still used the traditional wound treatment of Sphagnum Moss (which does actually work to some extent) I would appreciate any suggestions for examples and follow up references on medical advances in war Bryan Wynn

Hello. I think what people keep overlooking or not being concious of when speaking of Hitler is that he was serously mentally ill ie psychotic. Paronoid Schizophrenic is close to what he was. Use of drugs to calm him down by his doctors, etc. only speeded up his mental imbalance. What is more to me, facinating, is his ability to mesmerize those around him - especially the generals. Their behavior except for a few like Rommel disgraced their history..

One of the things that they found in WWII was that the Human heart could be operated on in at least some instances. There were a few soldiers hit in the heart, but since the hole was small and almost self- sealing the surgeons were able to patch it up enough to prevent death. Another thing (and I am not totally sure on this one) was that they found that salt water soaks helped burns. This was from pilots who were burned and then landed in the water.

The Nazi's also learned some things by using inmates of concentration camps for experiments.

Some advances were made in the treatment of malaria since the source of quinine was cut off.

And of course they learned that the faster that soldiers were treated the better.

I agree. German newspaper Bild claimed that USAAF bandleader Glenn Miller actually died in the arms of a French prostitute rather than missing in a flying accident.

I think that was Sigmund Freud. The two are easily confused.

Treatment of burns: The Cocoanut grove nightclub fire in Boston 28 Nov 42. ( Cowboy star Buck Jones died in it along with about 492 others ). The work done by Boston City Hospital and Massachusets General set the foundation by which the military treated burns. There was a heroic Coastguardsman named Johnson who was horribly burned, but survived. Apparently there's a colour medical textbook concerning his burns and treatment. ( Ironically, he burned to death a few years later ). They also learned about fire safety, the effects of mass panic, deadly gases, the use of morphine and antibiotics. Ref: Holocaust by Paul Benzaquin and Cocoanut Grove by Keyes. Doctor Ross Tilley has a burn unit named after him here in Toronto. He specialised in the treatment of airmens burns. His patients were nicknamed ' the Guinea pigs '. The Hartford circus fire in July, 1944. Treatment of pediactric burns and mass casualty identification. ( Little Miss 1565 was ID'd only a few years ago ). The generosity of the Ringling Bros. insurance settlement was the basis of a textbook and used as todays benchmark. Although it was a civilian tragedy, it was due to the fireproofing in the bigtop being used as war material and an unsafe substance used in it's place. It is, arguably, the worst mass murder in US history.