1 00:00:00,792 --> 00:00:03,459 (ominous music) 2 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:23,430 He was supposed to be 3 00:00:23,430 --> 00:00:26,143 the supreme leader of a master race. 4 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:29,760 A paragon of physical and mental health, 5 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:32,263 to lead Germany to a glorious future. 6 00:00:33,150 --> 00:00:37,113 But behind the Fuhrer facade was a fragile pill popper. 7 00:00:38,190 --> 00:00:40,610 Dependent on a dubious daily diet 8 00:00:40,610 --> 00:00:43,750 of injections, tablets, and tonics. 9 00:00:43,750 --> 00:00:46,370 In just a few years, the almighty Fuhrer 10 00:00:46,370 --> 00:00:49,353 was reduced to a feeble trembling figure. 11 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:56,943 Much of the Fuhrers medical history was lost, but not all. 12 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:00,730 A series of intriguing records and letters 13 00:01:00,730 --> 00:01:05,730 have come to light, revealing Hitler's medical secrets. 14 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:08,477 Evidence of drug abuse, sex stimulants 15 00:01:08,477 --> 00:01:11,023 and psychological breakdowns. 16 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:15,920 At the center of it all, the Fuhrer's infamous 17 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:20,260 personal physician, Dr. Theodore Morell. 18 00:01:20,260 --> 00:01:23,285 When the American interrogators of Morell 19 00:01:23,285 --> 00:01:27,380 {\an8}found out all the different 28 treatments he was giving 20 00:01:27,380 --> 00:01:29,390 {\an8}like the ground bull testes and the semen 21 00:01:29,390 --> 00:01:30,529 and the prostate glands and so on. 22 00:01:30,529 --> 00:01:33,640 Some of them wondered whether he was a double agent. 23 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:37,295 Whether he had purposefully in a way made Hitler 24 00:01:37,295 --> 00:01:42,090 so much dysfunctional that he couldn't win. 25 00:01:42,090 --> 00:01:44,470 He couldn't achieve what he wanted. 26 00:01:44,470 --> 00:01:46,740 Theodore Morell was the Fuhrer's trusted 27 00:01:46,740 --> 00:01:49,130 personal doctor for nine years. 28 00:01:49,130 --> 00:01:51,770 Hitler heaped praise and honors upon him. 29 00:01:51,770 --> 00:01:54,220 But other Nazi doctors despised him, 30 00:01:54,220 --> 00:01:56,127 dismissed him as a quack and blamed him 31 00:01:56,127 --> 00:01:59,620 for the dictator's dramatic deterioration. 32 00:01:59,620 --> 00:02:02,210 Other Nazi doctors within Hitler's circle 33 00:02:02,210 --> 00:02:04,470 {\an8}poured scorn upon Morell. 34 00:02:04,470 --> 00:02:08,692 {\an8}Described him as a quack, a charlatan, complete phony 35 00:02:08,692 --> 00:02:12,910 and insinuated that he had done a lot of damage to Hitler. 36 00:02:12,910 --> 00:02:16,046 After the war the obese doctor confessed 37 00:02:16,046 --> 00:02:19,380 to administering a cocktail of drugs, 38 00:02:19,380 --> 00:02:23,830 opiates, morphine, barbiturates and possibly amphetamines. 39 00:02:23,830 --> 00:02:26,220 Leading to speculation that his treatment 40 00:02:26,220 --> 00:02:28,693 caused the dictator's extreme behavior. 41 00:02:31,210 --> 00:02:34,280 We call it rapid cycling, constant, rapid cycling. 42 00:02:34,280 --> 00:02:37,330 I don't think that Hitler had a day of normal mood, 43 00:02:37,330 --> 00:02:41,270 in my reading of this, from about 1942 to 1945. 44 00:02:43,670 --> 00:02:45,970 Sensational evidence has emerged 45 00:02:45,970 --> 00:02:48,440 of a Fuhrer off his face. 46 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:51,833 A hapless hypochondriac, a high Hitler. 47 00:02:56,790 --> 00:02:58,360 Many illicit drugs dealt 48 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:01,173 on the city streets of today are not new. 49 00:03:02,170 --> 00:03:04,371 According to a Boston-based professor, 50 00:03:04,371 --> 00:03:07,290 medical records suggest Hitler was amping 51 00:03:07,290 --> 00:03:10,890 up on amphetamines long before the war. 52 00:03:10,890 --> 00:03:12,140 There's a good deal of evidence 53 00:03:12,140 --> 00:03:14,790 that Hitler started taking amphetamines in the 1930s. 54 00:03:14,790 --> 00:03:16,800 Amphetamines came out during that decade, 55 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:19,010 they were widely prescribed for depression. 56 00:03:19,010 --> 00:03:20,800 They were the first available real treatments 57 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:23,160 for depression in the modern age. 58 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:24,350 Not only did Hitler get it, 59 00:03:24,350 --> 00:03:26,520 Churchill got it for his depressions. 60 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:27,950 Kennedy later got it as well. 61 00:03:27,950 --> 00:03:30,043 So lots of people were getting amphetamines. 62 00:03:30,950 --> 00:03:33,560 The research suggests the Fuhrer's moods 63 00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:36,010 would have mirrored the dramatic Alpine scenery 64 00:03:36,010 --> 00:03:38,340 around his Bavarian bolthole, 65 00:03:38,340 --> 00:03:42,040 exhilarating peaks and deep dark valleys. 66 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:45,733 Amphetamines making an existing illness much worse. 67 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:51,570 The problem is not that Hitler got amphetamines. 68 00:03:51,570 --> 00:03:52,403 That's not it. 69 00:03:52,403 --> 00:03:53,870 It's not that Hitler was an amphetamine addict, 70 00:03:53,870 --> 00:03:55,170 which people have brought up. 71 00:03:55,170 --> 00:03:57,540 It's that Hitler had bipolar disorder 72 00:03:57,540 --> 00:04:00,760 and he got amphetamines which worsened his bipolar disorder. 73 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:01,770 That's the issue. 74 00:04:01,770 --> 00:04:03,537 It's the interaction between the amphetamines 75 00:04:03,537 --> 00:04:04,990 and the bipolar disorder. 76 00:04:04,990 --> 00:04:06,780 And that's never been described before. 77 00:04:06,780 --> 00:04:08,610 And I think that could explain a lot of why 78 00:04:08,610 --> 00:04:11,673 Hitler changed in the late 1930s and 1940s. 79 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:20,210 Other tantalizing evidence has emerged 80 00:04:20,210 --> 00:04:24,103 pointing to a possible march to mental deterioration. 81 00:04:25,450 --> 00:04:28,410 Much has been made of the mass hysteria and delusion 82 00:04:28,410 --> 00:04:30,503 of those who flocked to his rallies. 83 00:04:31,500 --> 00:04:34,020 But it seems possible that Hitler himself 84 00:04:34,020 --> 00:04:37,863 suffered a fateful breakdown long before he became Fuhrer. 85 00:04:39,840 --> 00:04:42,270 The great warrior had been rejected 86 00:04:42,270 --> 00:04:45,970 by his native Austrian army in the first world war. 87 00:04:45,970 --> 00:04:49,790 Hitler joined the Germans and later claimed he was wounded, 88 00:04:49,790 --> 00:04:51,573 blinded in a British gas attack. 89 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:57,010 In the last phases of the war, 90 00:04:57,010 --> 00:04:59,350 about two thirds to three quarters 91 00:04:59,350 --> 00:05:02,610 of all the shells fired were gas shells. 92 00:05:02,610 --> 00:05:04,710 It had become a gas war. 93 00:05:04,710 --> 00:05:06,650 Mustard gas does cause temporary blindness 94 00:05:06,650 --> 00:05:08,290 sometimes longer term blindness 95 00:05:08,290 --> 00:05:10,970 and there is evidence that Hitler suffered 96 00:05:10,970 --> 00:05:12,903 from conjunctivitis after the attack. 97 00:05:15,750 --> 00:05:18,330 The Austrian volunteer was evacuated 98 00:05:18,330 --> 00:05:21,870 to the sanctuary of a military hospital in Pasewalk, 99 00:05:21,870 --> 00:05:24,773 far from the front lines, to the north of Berlin. 100 00:05:27,690 --> 00:05:30,610 During his recovery, the war ended 101 00:05:30,610 --> 00:05:34,403 and the embellishment of his exploits in the trenches began. 102 00:05:41,270 --> 00:05:46,070 Hitler described his alleged wounding as a decisive moment, 103 00:05:46,070 --> 00:05:49,247 a political awakening, in his rambling manifesto, 104 00:05:49,247 --> 00:05:51,608 "Mein Kampf", or My Struggle. 105 00:05:51,608 --> 00:05:54,358 (dramatic music) 106 00:06:05,527 --> 00:06:07,710 "The more I tried to clearly understand 107 00:06:07,710 --> 00:06:10,180 these incredible events, the more I felt 108 00:06:10,180 --> 00:06:14,160 the burning shame of deep indignation and disgrace. 109 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:18,030 What was the pain in my eyes compared to this misery? 110 00:06:18,030 --> 00:06:20,957 So I decided to become a politician." 111 00:06:22,460 --> 00:06:24,660 {\an8}In his own accounts this was the moment 112 00:06:24,660 --> 00:06:27,159 {\an8}where the world went black, 113 00:06:27,159 --> 00:06:30,510 everything collapsed that he lived for 114 00:06:30,510 --> 00:06:33,053 and where he realized then 115 00:06:33,053 --> 00:06:36,550 that the Jews were the hated enemy behind all this. 116 00:06:36,550 --> 00:06:38,037 And it's at that moment, he said, 117 00:06:38,037 --> 00:06:41,650 "I took the decision to enter politics." 118 00:06:41,650 --> 00:06:44,130 But other evidence suggests that Hitler 119 00:06:44,130 --> 00:06:46,340 wasn't blinded by gas, 120 00:06:46,340 --> 00:06:50,163 but by a kind of nervous breakdown or hysterical blindness. 121 00:06:53,280 --> 00:06:55,670 {\an8}We now know that in all probability 122 00:06:55,670 --> 00:06:59,280 Hitler didn't lose his eyesight through mustard gas 123 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:01,693 but that it was a psychosomatic blindness. 124 00:07:05,650 --> 00:07:08,500 Hitler's alleged hysterical breakdown 125 00:07:08,500 --> 00:07:12,130 was detailed in a report compiled for American intelligence 126 00:07:12,130 --> 00:07:13,633 during the second world war. 127 00:07:14,750 --> 00:07:18,380 It also described the dictator as neurotic, 128 00:07:18,380 --> 00:07:21,957 bordering on psychotic with masochistic tendencies 129 00:07:21,957 --> 00:07:24,693 and strong sexual perversions. 130 00:07:26,490 --> 00:07:29,700 And recently more evidence has emerged about Hitler's 131 00:07:29,700 --> 00:07:32,633 blindness and breakdown in the first world war. 132 00:07:35,300 --> 00:07:39,050 It's a letter in which a renowned German neurosurgeon 133 00:07:39,050 --> 00:07:42,320 says he'd seen Hitler's medical file 134 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:43,950 and that the dictator was treated 135 00:07:43,950 --> 00:07:47,453 for a psychiatric disorder that can cause blindness, 136 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:55,610 It's quite interesting that Hitler 137 00:07:55,610 --> 00:07:58,320 who later portrayed himself as invincible, 138 00:07:58,320 --> 00:08:02,293 that even he could no longer carry on in the autumn of 1918, 139 00:08:07,019 --> 00:08:10,020 that his nerves could no longer take the strain 140 00:08:10,020 --> 00:08:11,920 and that it led to this loss of sight. 141 00:08:15,350 --> 00:08:17,310 Perhaps Hitler covered up 142 00:08:17,310 --> 00:08:20,200 what at that time was considered shameful, 143 00:08:20,200 --> 00:08:23,383 that he was too weak or feeble-minded to fight. 144 00:08:24,649 --> 00:08:28,430 {\an8}Neuropaths were stigmatized at the time. 145 00:08:28,430 --> 00:08:31,659 {\an8}And even today people suffering from depression, burnout, 146 00:08:31,659 --> 00:08:33,630 or other psychological illnesses 147 00:08:33,630 --> 00:08:35,073 are not altogether accepted. 148 00:08:37,310 --> 00:08:39,370 And in the Weimar Republic, this would have been 149 00:08:39,370 --> 00:08:42,263 a real stigma and would have made Hitler unelectable. 150 00:08:44,138 --> 00:08:46,000 But other historians refute the idea 151 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:48,340 that Hitler suffered a shameful breakdown 152 00:08:48,340 --> 00:08:50,023 that he was desperate to hide. 153 00:08:52,070 --> 00:08:53,280 Hitler didn't really have anything 154 00:08:53,280 --> 00:08:55,240 very embarrassing to hide. 155 00:08:55,240 --> 00:08:57,560 He had everything to gain by saying that he'd had 156 00:08:57,560 --> 00:09:00,500 some kind of break down at the end of the first world war 157 00:09:00,500 --> 00:09:02,339 because he identified himself with Germany 158 00:09:02,339 --> 00:09:04,370 and Germany had some kind of breakdown 159 00:09:04,370 --> 00:09:05,520 at the end of the first world war. 160 00:09:05,520 --> 00:09:08,523 So there's nothing really there to cover up at all. 161 00:09:10,110 --> 00:09:12,440 Admission records for the first war military 162 00:09:12,440 --> 00:09:17,300 hospital at Pasewalk still exist in a Berlin archive. 163 00:09:17,300 --> 00:09:20,650 According to the register private Adolf Hitler 164 00:09:20,650 --> 00:09:22,613 was admitted for gas poisoning. 165 00:09:25,820 --> 00:09:28,600 The admission records for the military hospital Pasewalk 166 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:31,670 are clear, gas poisoning, that's it. 167 00:09:31,670 --> 00:09:34,193 There was never any talk of psychological illness. 168 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:37,530 Intriguingly, soldiers were also treated 169 00:09:37,530 --> 00:09:39,340 for psychological disorders 170 00:09:39,340 --> 00:09:41,593 and venereal disease at Pasewalk. 171 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:45,080 When you look at the hospital records 172 00:09:45,080 --> 00:09:47,897 you can see that there were people with gas injuries. 173 00:09:47,897 --> 00:09:51,356 Also those with psychological disorders. 174 00:09:51,356 --> 00:09:53,200 But more than any other, 175 00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:55,850 there were people with sexually transmitted diseases. 176 00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:58,230 Perhaps this was a source 177 00:09:58,230 --> 00:10:00,980 for the rumors that Hitler had syphilis, 178 00:10:00,980 --> 00:10:04,830 but there's no evidence for this or other lurid claims, 179 00:10:04,830 --> 00:10:08,850 like the story about the dictator only having one testicle. 180 00:10:08,850 --> 00:10:11,597 This comes from a silly song the British troops 181 00:10:11,597 --> 00:10:14,230 used to sing called "Colonel Bogey." 182 00:10:14,230 --> 00:10:16,790 And it's just a joke. 183 00:10:16,790 --> 00:10:20,126 There are again medical examination records from the 1930s, 184 00:10:20,126 --> 00:10:23,430 early 40s that show he was fully equipped, as it were. 185 00:10:23,430 --> 00:10:26,720 There's another rumor that spread that his penis 186 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:29,230 was bitten off by a goat when he was a child. 187 00:10:29,230 --> 00:10:31,530 There's absolutely no evidence of that either. 188 00:10:32,640 --> 00:10:34,080 But there does seem to be evidence 189 00:10:34,080 --> 00:10:37,000 pointing to some kind of mental condition 190 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:38,633 and a sinister coverup. 191 00:10:41,460 --> 00:10:44,910 The historian Thomas Weber claims that Hitler was treated 192 00:10:44,910 --> 00:10:48,763 by a neurologist at Pasewalk, Dr. Edmund Forster. 193 00:10:50,780 --> 00:10:55,250 He suspects that Forster's apparent suicide in 1933 194 00:10:55,250 --> 00:10:57,640 was murder, to cover up Hitler's 195 00:10:57,640 --> 00:11:00,123 potentially damaging mental breakdown. 196 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:05,723 But fellow historian, Henrik Erbele is among the doubters. 197 00:11:06,710 --> 00:11:09,950 Edmund Forster who later became 198 00:11:09,950 --> 00:11:13,163 quite a famous neurologist didn't treat Adolf Hitler. 199 00:11:15,790 --> 00:11:18,820 Forster was never in Pasewalk. That's quite clear. 200 00:11:18,820 --> 00:11:20,950 He wasn't there. 201 00:11:20,950 --> 00:11:23,040 Hitler's alleged hysterical breakdown 202 00:11:23,040 --> 00:11:26,070 remains the subject of debate, but there's little doubt 203 00:11:26,070 --> 00:11:28,310 that the tale of a sudden political awakening 204 00:11:28,310 --> 00:11:29,683 was mere propaganda. 205 00:11:31,570 --> 00:11:34,130 Hitler was blinded by mustard gas poisoning 206 00:11:34,130 --> 00:11:38,266 I think is correct and the effects of that 207 00:11:38,266 --> 00:11:42,240 must've been horrible and that intensified 208 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:44,708 the bitterness that he felt towards everything 209 00:11:44,708 --> 00:11:47,590 that had happened, but he wasn't anti-Semite 210 00:11:47,590 --> 00:11:49,130 and now all at once, he was. 211 00:11:49,130 --> 00:11:51,230 That doesn't seem to me to be a realistic. 212 00:11:52,410 --> 00:11:55,020 However far-fetched his story was, 213 00:11:55,020 --> 00:11:56,403 millions fell for it. 214 00:11:59,690 --> 00:12:03,910 Hitler's rambling manifesto became a best seller. 215 00:12:03,910 --> 00:12:05,653 But not everyone was convinced. 216 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:10,430 Many were mesmerized by the dictators extreme rants. 217 00:12:10,430 --> 00:12:13,853 Others saw them as signs of psychological illness. 218 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:17,353 As well as rumors of a first war breakdown, 219 00:12:18,230 --> 00:12:21,670 another alleged report of unstable behavior 220 00:12:21,670 --> 00:12:25,343 emerged from his time as a failed artist in Austria. 221 00:12:28,670 --> 00:12:31,870 Hitler's childhood friend August Kubizek 222 00:12:31,870 --> 00:12:35,580 published his memoirs after the second world war. 223 00:12:35,580 --> 00:12:38,475 One scene painted a portrait of a disturbed young man 224 00:12:38,475 --> 00:12:40,793 who would go on to become Fuhrer. 225 00:12:44,477 --> 00:12:48,400 "Adolf had reached an almost ecstatic state, 226 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:50,440 but then he described the future 227 00:12:50,440 --> 00:12:53,760 which was filled with threats and danger. 228 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:57,800 And at the same time, he was obviously fighting the tears." 229 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:01,180 If one takes a psychiatric textbook description 230 00:13:01,180 --> 00:13:04,330 of depression and mania, and then reads Kubizek's account 231 00:13:04,330 --> 00:13:06,770 of what Hitler was like as a young man, 232 00:13:06,770 --> 00:13:09,593 it's hard not to see almost a direct translation. 233 00:13:11,250 --> 00:13:12,541 Perhaps August Kubizek 234 00:13:12,541 --> 00:13:15,080 witnessed a moment of mania, 235 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:17,923 an insight into a deluded mind that would lead Germany 236 00:13:17,923 --> 00:13:20,773 and much of Europe to destruction. 237 00:13:27,120 --> 00:13:29,910 Hitler continued to sacrifice his people 238 00:13:29,910 --> 00:13:32,090 long after many of his generals 239 00:13:32,090 --> 00:13:35,693 and the wider population realized the war was lost. 240 00:13:37,660 --> 00:13:41,180 But was it mental illness and drug abuse that led Hitler 241 00:13:41,180 --> 00:13:44,533 to destroy himself and the Nazi empire he created? 242 00:13:47,070 --> 00:13:50,880 He was either severely depressed or overly optimistic, 243 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:55,390 completely unrealistic about the reality of the war. 244 00:13:55,390 --> 00:14:00,390 And I think that constant back and forth of his mania 245 00:14:01,180 --> 00:14:03,930 and depression throughout the last few years of the war 246 00:14:04,800 --> 00:14:08,020 was an effect of the interaction 247 00:14:08,020 --> 00:14:10,750 with the amphetamines and the bipolar disorder. 248 00:14:10,750 --> 00:14:11,980 But Kubizek's account 249 00:14:11,980 --> 00:14:14,621 of Hitler's apparent psychotic episode 250 00:14:14,621 --> 00:14:17,473 could be no more than a rewriting of history. 251 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:21,180 Perhaps he felt compelled to be more critical 252 00:14:21,180 --> 00:14:24,063 of his childhood friend after he'd lost the war. 253 00:14:26,700 --> 00:14:28,970 {\an8}He initially remembered him very positively 254 00:14:28,970 --> 00:14:31,550 {\an8}and then he had to rewrite the book. 255 00:14:31,550 --> 00:14:33,723 That means it is a very disparate memoir. 256 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:37,970 He tried to adjust it according to the zeitgeist. 257 00:14:39,490 --> 00:14:42,250 I think the book isn't entirely implausible, 258 00:14:42,250 --> 00:14:44,580 but Kubizek's statements wouldn't be enough for me 259 00:14:44,580 --> 00:14:46,990 to come up with a medical diagnosis. 260 00:14:46,990 --> 00:14:49,203 But then again, I am a historian. 261 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:53,570 If Hitler was manic depressive, 262 00:14:53,570 --> 00:14:55,840 it didn't stop him from reaching the summit 263 00:14:55,840 --> 00:14:57,313 of absolute power. 264 00:14:58,190 --> 00:15:00,820 His Bavarian retreat was off limits to all 265 00:15:00,820 --> 00:15:02,573 but the closest cronies. 266 00:15:03,690 --> 00:15:08,140 Like secret girlfriend Eva Braun and Dr. Theodore Morell. 267 00:15:08,140 --> 00:15:11,350 Morell treated the rich and famous on Berlin's prestigious 268 00:15:11,350 --> 00:15:15,670 Kurfurstendamm, specializing in venereal disease. 269 00:15:15,670 --> 00:15:17,740 He treated Hitler's personal photographer, 270 00:15:17,740 --> 00:15:20,650 Heinrich Hoffmann, for gonorrhea. 271 00:15:20,650 --> 00:15:23,980 When the Fuhrer had an apparently incurable condition, 272 00:15:23,980 --> 00:15:25,923 Hoffman knew who to recommend. 273 00:15:26,790 --> 00:15:30,820 In 1936, he was suffering from a problem of eczema 274 00:15:30,820 --> 00:15:34,750 which his medical advisors could not deal with very well. 275 00:15:34,750 --> 00:15:37,760 And Hoffman recommended Morell whom he knew. 276 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:40,600 Morell treated him, the eczema went away 277 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:44,820 and he had a very comforting, soothing bedside manner, 278 00:15:44,820 --> 00:15:46,143 which Hitler liked. 279 00:15:47,220 --> 00:15:49,810 As well as eczema the Fuhrer was stricken 280 00:15:49,810 --> 00:15:52,763 with stomach cramps and chronic flatulence. 281 00:15:56,200 --> 00:15:59,900 Hitler tended to talk while he was eating, 282 00:15:59,900 --> 00:16:03,220 thus ingesting air and that made him belch quite a lot. 283 00:16:03,220 --> 00:16:06,720 And he had irritable bowel syndrome as we would now call it. 284 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:10,410 Hitler liked pea soup in particular. 285 00:16:10,410 --> 00:16:12,840 And Morell tried to cut down on the amount 286 00:16:12,840 --> 00:16:14,610 of pea soup he ate because that's another thing 287 00:16:14,610 --> 00:16:16,970 that contributed to his flatulence. 288 00:16:16,970 --> 00:16:20,190 Morell prescribed a so-called probiotic, 289 00:16:20,190 --> 00:16:22,433 containing non-harmful bacteria. 290 00:16:23,300 --> 00:16:26,810 The cramps and eczema apparently receded. 291 00:16:26,810 --> 00:16:29,230 The delighted dictator appointed him 292 00:16:29,230 --> 00:16:33,110 as his personal physician, to the disgust of his cronies. 293 00:16:33,110 --> 00:16:35,840 Dr. Morell was a rather unpleasant person, 294 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:38,260 at least most people in Hitler's entourage 295 00:16:38,260 --> 00:16:39,130 found him unpleasant. 296 00:16:39,130 --> 00:16:41,250 He was overweight. 297 00:16:41,250 --> 00:16:43,000 He was a bit of a slob. 298 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:45,270 He was a noisy, messy eater. 299 00:16:45,270 --> 00:16:48,550 He was something of a glutton who shoved food down himself. 300 00:16:48,550 --> 00:16:51,820 He had a rather strong and unpleasant body odor, 301 00:16:51,820 --> 00:16:54,240 but Hitler when he was faced with criticisms 302 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:55,947 of Dr. Morell of this kind said, 303 00:16:55,947 --> 00:16:58,440 "I don't employ Dr. Morell for his fragrance. 304 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:00,417 I employ him to look after my health." 305 00:17:06,580 --> 00:17:08,310 The already affluent doctor 306 00:17:08,310 --> 00:17:10,040 became a high flyer. 307 00:17:10,040 --> 00:17:12,420 He landed the title of professor 308 00:17:12,420 --> 00:17:16,140 and a property on the exclusive Schwanenwerder Island 309 00:17:16,140 --> 00:17:17,773 on the outskirts of Berlin. 310 00:17:18,630 --> 00:17:21,260 He joined the top dogs of the Nazi elite 311 00:17:21,260 --> 00:17:23,860 like Albert Speer and Josef Goebbels, 312 00:17:23,860 --> 00:17:27,080 who'd moved into the homes of Jewish millionaires. 313 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:29,760 Even though she described Morell as "Disgusting. 314 00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:34,150 His office, a pig sty,", Eva Braun still visited him. 315 00:17:34,150 --> 00:17:37,120 Eva Braun was very careful to cultivate the people 316 00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:39,270 who were powerful in Hitler's circle, 317 00:17:39,270 --> 00:17:42,910 as she herself came to gain more influence over the years. 318 00:17:42,910 --> 00:17:45,380 And Morell was certainly from 1936 onwards, 319 00:17:45,380 --> 00:17:48,310 one of the key people in Hitler's entourage 320 00:17:48,310 --> 00:17:50,900 whom she needed to make friends with. 321 00:17:50,900 --> 00:17:52,420 Perhaps the Fuhrer's girlfriend 322 00:17:52,420 --> 00:17:55,860 also benefited from Morell's medicine bag. 323 00:17:55,860 --> 00:17:58,150 As well as pills and potions 324 00:17:58,150 --> 00:18:01,390 he gave Hitler sex hormone injections, 325 00:18:01,390 --> 00:18:05,540 some extracted from the prostate glands of young bulls. 326 00:18:05,540 --> 00:18:08,250 Was it ammunition the Nazi dictator needed 327 00:18:08,250 --> 00:18:11,033 to mount amorous offensives in the bedroom? 328 00:18:13,794 --> 00:18:16,453 They basically increased vigor. 329 00:18:17,610 --> 00:18:21,690 The testosterone was used to strengthen sexual virility. 330 00:18:21,690 --> 00:18:25,323 {\an8}The question is, if Morell was looking into that for Hitler. 331 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:28,830 Hitler's relationship 332 00:18:28,830 --> 00:18:32,310 with girlfriend Eva Braun was a state secret. 333 00:18:32,310 --> 00:18:34,163 She was 23 years younger. 334 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:38,610 Morell's notes suggest he may have provided the boost 335 00:18:38,610 --> 00:18:42,463 his Fuhrer needed to keep up with his frisky Fraulein. 336 00:18:44,410 --> 00:18:46,490 If you look at when he gave Hitler 337 00:18:46,490 --> 00:18:48,790 a preparation called Testoviron 338 00:18:48,790 --> 00:18:51,100 which is a kind of testosterone preparation, 339 00:18:51,100 --> 00:18:53,070 it is usually before Hitler goes 340 00:18:53,070 --> 00:18:54,900 and spends the night with Eva Braun. 341 00:18:54,900 --> 00:18:58,460 Eva Braun was young, fit, Hitler was much older. 342 00:18:58,460 --> 00:19:01,620 He was very lazy and I'm sure he asked Dr. Morell 343 00:19:01,620 --> 00:19:05,593 to help him along when he went to bed with Eva Braun. 344 00:19:16,500 --> 00:19:19,110 But Hitler's passion was war 345 00:19:19,110 --> 00:19:20,613 and the conquest of Europe. 346 00:19:21,530 --> 00:19:24,390 The status of the Fuhrer's personal physician 347 00:19:24,390 --> 00:19:27,350 advanced along with the German army. 348 00:19:27,350 --> 00:19:30,230 Hitler paraded before the propaganda cameras 349 00:19:30,230 --> 00:19:32,820 after the defeat of France. 350 00:19:32,820 --> 00:19:35,460 Theodore Morell resplendent in uniform 351 00:19:35,460 --> 00:19:37,603 was grinning right by his side. 352 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:40,210 Perhaps it was jealousy that gave 353 00:19:40,210 --> 00:19:42,503 the portly doctor a novel nickname. 354 00:19:46,330 --> 00:19:48,490 There was a terrific proliferation 355 00:19:48,490 --> 00:19:51,080 of grandiose titles in the Third Reich. 356 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,540 Almost everyone was Reich master of this 357 00:19:53,540 --> 00:19:55,360 or Reich master of that. 358 00:19:55,360 --> 00:19:59,610 Goering called Morell the Reich master of the injection 359 00:19:59,610 --> 00:20:02,450 or Reichsspritzenmeister. 360 00:20:02,450 --> 00:20:05,050 The general consensus of Morell's peers 361 00:20:05,050 --> 00:20:06,880 was that he was incompetent. 362 00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:08,970 He was a private physician in Berlin 363 00:20:08,970 --> 00:20:10,730 who just treated wealthy people. 364 00:20:10,730 --> 00:20:12,964 And when Hitler established that personal relationship 365 00:20:12,964 --> 00:20:16,310 with Morell and developed the trust in Morell, 366 00:20:16,310 --> 00:20:19,620 Hitler wouldn't let anyone else do anything about it. 367 00:20:19,620 --> 00:20:21,125 While others mocked Morell, 368 00:20:21,125 --> 00:20:25,653 Hitler grew more dependent on him and his daily jabs. 369 00:20:27,510 --> 00:20:29,000 He gave him an injections of glucose 370 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:30,840 because he felt that Hitler needed strengthening. 371 00:20:30,840 --> 00:20:32,250 He needed building up a bit. 372 00:20:32,250 --> 00:20:35,230 Hitler was a vegetarian who had a fairly miserable diet. 373 00:20:35,230 --> 00:20:39,300 We have the menus that were made up for him 374 00:20:39,300 --> 00:20:42,840 for Christmas day, for example, which are just terrible. 375 00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:45,200 Morell's vast menu of medications 376 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:47,120 seemed even worse. 377 00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:51,380 Strychnine or rat poison in the Fuhrer's anti gas pills 378 00:20:51,380 --> 00:20:54,360 and oil originally used to clean gun barrels 379 00:20:54,360 --> 00:20:55,992 in another gastric medication 380 00:20:55,992 --> 00:20:58,763 that had been banned for human consumption. 381 00:20:59,800 --> 00:21:02,760 Yet it may have been Hitler's dietary obsessions 382 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,050 that exacerbated his stomach cramps, 383 00:21:05,050 --> 00:21:07,173 bloating and excess gas. 384 00:21:11,020 --> 00:21:14,920 Perhaps a dull vegetarian diet of muesli, mashed potato 385 00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:19,703 and soups made his agonizing flatulence even worse. 386 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:25,050 Apple cake was one of the Fuhrer's rare indulgences. 387 00:21:25,050 --> 00:21:26,880 And while he seems to have swallowed whatever 388 00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:31,443 Morell administered, exercise was out of the question. 389 00:21:32,887 --> 00:21:35,340 Morell was always trying to get Hitler to exercise. 390 00:21:35,340 --> 00:21:37,310 And Hitler just said he didn't have the time. 391 00:21:37,310 --> 00:21:40,320 When Hitler was on the Obersalzberg in his mountain retreat 392 00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:43,700 in Bavaria, he did go for walks in the fresh mountain air 393 00:21:43,700 --> 00:21:44,800 but it was always downhill. 394 00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:46,290 And when he got to the bottom of the hill, 395 00:21:46,290 --> 00:21:47,940 he had a car taking him up again. 396 00:21:49,970 --> 00:21:52,120 While his chauffeur drove him uphills, 397 00:21:52,120 --> 00:21:55,117 it seems amphetamines may have lifted the Fuhrer 398 00:21:55,117 --> 00:21:57,543 when he was weary or feeling low. 399 00:22:07,750 --> 00:22:11,720 Morell occasionally prescribed amphetamines for Hitler 400 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:14,100 when he thought he was being too lethargic 401 00:22:14,100 --> 00:22:16,200 or not energetic enough. 402 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:19,045 If so, Hitler wasn't the only one blitzed 403 00:22:19,045 --> 00:22:21,380 during the Blitzkrieg. 404 00:22:21,380 --> 00:22:26,060 Pervitin was a methamphetamine delivering an explosive high. 405 00:22:26,060 --> 00:22:30,310 It was given to the German troops who invaded France 406 00:22:30,310 --> 00:22:32,590 through the narrow valleys of the Ardenne 407 00:22:32,590 --> 00:22:34,370 driving their tanks through in long lines 408 00:22:34,370 --> 00:22:37,430 over three or four days to keep the tank drivers awake. 409 00:22:37,430 --> 00:22:41,450 They called it panzersjokolade or tank chocolate. 410 00:22:41,450 --> 00:22:44,390 Well, it was also known as stukka tablets 411 00:22:44,390 --> 00:22:47,063 from the dive bombers, given to the pilots. 412 00:22:49,990 --> 00:22:51,720 The war had only just begun 413 00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:54,494 when millions of the high octane amphetamine pills 414 00:22:54,494 --> 00:22:57,603 were sent to the front lines in Poland. 415 00:23:03,570 --> 00:23:06,600 Hitler's sweet tooth is well documented, 416 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,443 but did the Fuhrer's fancy extend to Pervitin? 417 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:15,863 The amphetamine is only mentioned once in Morell's records. 418 00:23:18,878 --> 00:23:22,640 That's where Morell writes about what he's given Hitler. 419 00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:24,663 He mentions the word Pervitin. 420 00:23:25,670 --> 00:23:28,490 Just that single time in the entire diary. 421 00:23:28,490 --> 00:23:30,683 Others have used this as a springboard. 422 00:23:32,940 --> 00:23:35,850 One historian suspects it's a mix-up, 423 00:23:35,850 --> 00:23:37,590 a word that looks like Pervitin 424 00:23:37,590 --> 00:23:39,623 was really something very different. 425 00:23:41,866 --> 00:23:46,707 There was a remedy called Parandrin in the Third Reich, 426 00:23:46,707 --> 00:23:51,043 it was a testosterone based product, licensed in 1937. 427 00:23:52,100 --> 00:23:55,200 It's a sex hormone. And that's what it was. 428 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,503 It means Parandrin and not Pervitin. 429 00:24:02,090 --> 00:24:03,830 Whatever fueled his drive 430 00:24:03,830 --> 00:24:06,673 Hitler was riding high in 1941. 431 00:24:07,830 --> 00:24:10,330 He launched more than 3 million troops 432 00:24:10,330 --> 00:24:14,073 into a devastating surprise attack on the Soviet Union. 433 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:19,330 Morell moved in and established pharmaceutical factories 434 00:24:19,330 --> 00:24:22,090 in the Czech Republic and the Ukraine. 435 00:24:22,090 --> 00:24:24,483 He made various medicines for the German army. 436 00:24:26,060 --> 00:24:29,853 One of them was even advertised on a Nazi newsreel. 437 00:24:31,736 --> 00:24:34,903 (man speaking German) 438 00:24:55,630 --> 00:24:57,140 {\an8}I don't know if Morell abused his power. 439 00:24:57,140 --> 00:24:58,470 {\an8}He certainly enjoyed his power 440 00:24:58,470 --> 00:24:59,840 {\an8}because it brought him great wealth. 441 00:24:59,840 --> 00:25:02,100 When he was able to build those large pharmaceutical 442 00:25:02,100 --> 00:25:03,640 factories he was able to get 443 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:05,340 great wealth from those factories. 444 00:25:05,340 --> 00:25:07,280 And so having that personal relationship with Hitler 445 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:10,283 was economically important to him. 446 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,750 Fired up with Pervitin and perhaps dusted 447 00:25:14,750 --> 00:25:17,670 with professor Morell's anti-lice powder, 448 00:25:17,670 --> 00:25:20,183 the German army seemed unstoppable. 449 00:25:27,460 --> 00:25:30,730 Hitler advanced eastwards, directing his generals 450 00:25:30,730 --> 00:25:33,550 from a new headquarters in East Prussia. 451 00:25:33,550 --> 00:25:35,473 The so-called Wolf's Lair. 452 00:25:38,420 --> 00:25:41,240 But just when the Fuhrer seemed to be flying high, 453 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,893 the dictator was brought down by a sudden bout of dizziness. 454 00:25:47,520 --> 00:25:51,023 Morell recorded an emergency call in his notes. 455 00:25:54,207 --> 00:25:58,050 "7th of August, 1941, been summoned by telephone. 456 00:25:58,050 --> 00:26:01,369 Am to go to the Fuhrer at once, 457 00:26:01,369 --> 00:26:03,617 he has suddenly felt dizzy." 458 00:26:10,290 --> 00:26:13,460 Diagnosing dysentery and high blood pressure, 459 00:26:13,460 --> 00:26:17,733 Morell also ordered an ECG or electrocardiogram. 460 00:26:18,720 --> 00:26:21,423 The results were sent to a heart specialist. 461 00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:28,000 The alarming verdict was coronary sclerosis, 462 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:31,543 a potentially deadly narrowing of the major heart vessels. 463 00:26:32,580 --> 00:26:35,963 It was a disastrous diagnosis for patient A. 464 00:26:37,270 --> 00:26:39,446 The Fuhrer, at risk of a heart attack 465 00:26:39,446 --> 00:26:42,223 at one of the most critical stages of the war. 466 00:26:48,360 --> 00:26:49,640 The electrocardiogram showed 467 00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,130 {\an8}he had an abnormally high blood pressure. 468 00:26:52,130 --> 00:26:54,280 {\an8}And that's something that he did not want anybody 469 00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:56,360 to know about, he wanted that to be kept quiet 470 00:26:56,360 --> 00:26:58,193 and Morell kept very quiet about it. 471 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:02,510 Morell administered nitroglycerin pills, 472 00:27:02,510 --> 00:27:06,493 which can ease but do not cure heart problems. 473 00:27:07,810 --> 00:27:10,640 He feared the worst, but modern analysis 474 00:27:10,640 --> 00:27:13,733 suggests Hitler's heart was probably okay. 475 00:27:17,930 --> 00:27:20,200 Hitler did not have a serious heart condition. 476 00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:22,480 He suffered from high blood pressure, 477 00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:26,780 but it wasn't of a level that would cause heart attacks. 478 00:27:26,780 --> 00:27:28,900 There's one record of him having a fainting fit. 479 00:27:28,900 --> 00:27:31,880 But just to call that a heart attack is an exaggeration. 480 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:33,230 There's no evidence for it. 481 00:27:34,946 --> 00:27:36,665 A week after his faint spell 482 00:27:36,665 --> 00:27:38,653 Hitler was back on his feet. 483 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:45,050 His heart didn't fail him, but the same couldn't be said 484 00:27:45,050 --> 00:27:47,643 for his once unstoppable legions. 485 00:27:56,730 --> 00:27:59,280 German forces were fighting an increasingly 486 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:01,763 desperate battle on the Eastern front. 487 00:28:02,750 --> 00:28:06,076 The vital arteries of supply became overstretched 488 00:28:06,076 --> 00:28:08,633 across the vast Soviet steppes. 489 00:28:11,130 --> 00:28:14,163 The German advance froze in icy winters. 490 00:28:16,090 --> 00:28:19,480 The Russians fought back and as the tables turned, 491 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,393 the strain was etched on the Fuhrer's face. 492 00:28:26,060 --> 00:28:28,877 Propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels noted, 493 00:28:28,877 --> 00:28:33,387 "In three and a half years Hitler seems to have aged 15." 494 00:28:35,450 --> 00:28:38,360 Yet while his troops capitulated, 495 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:40,253 the dictators health held out. 496 00:28:41,950 --> 00:28:45,380 His sixth army was crushed at Stalingrad. 497 00:28:45,380 --> 00:28:48,973 In contrast, the Fuhrer appeared to be fighting fit. 498 00:28:50,940 --> 00:28:53,700 Following the costly defeat at Stalingrad 499 00:28:53,700 --> 00:28:56,520 {\an8}where one could have expected him to collapse 500 00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:58,453 {\an8}he's hardly affected by it at all. 501 00:29:02,350 --> 00:29:04,390 It was almost perverse. 502 00:29:04,390 --> 00:29:06,330 After the battle of Stalingrad, 503 00:29:06,330 --> 00:29:08,853 Hitler was healthier than he'd been for years. 504 00:29:12,290 --> 00:29:15,070 Perhaps it was because Hitler was high 505 00:29:15,070 --> 00:29:17,873 like some of his soldiers on the battlefields below. 506 00:29:24,140 --> 00:29:26,820 There was one infamous instance where the Fuhrer 507 00:29:26,820 --> 00:29:30,543 appeared to be flying on some kind of amphetamine high. 508 00:29:36,540 --> 00:29:39,410 Months after the defeat of Stalingrad 509 00:29:39,410 --> 00:29:42,663 Hitler faced another disaster unfolding in Italy. 510 00:29:45,730 --> 00:29:48,580 As allied troops advanced from landings in Sicily 511 00:29:48,580 --> 00:29:52,196 in July, 1943, the Fuhrer met his wavering 512 00:29:52,196 --> 00:29:56,633 Axis ally Benito Mussolini in Northern Italy. 513 00:30:01,780 --> 00:30:03,680 Hitler was determined to stop 514 00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:06,283 the Italian dictator changing sides. 515 00:30:09,610 --> 00:30:12,370 The meeting shattered the regal setting 516 00:30:12,370 --> 00:30:14,273 of the stately Villa Pagani Gaggia. 517 00:30:21,010 --> 00:30:24,400 We can be pretty sure that Morell gave some tablets 518 00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:26,850 to Hitler when he went to see Mussolini 519 00:30:26,850 --> 00:30:29,600 because all the descriptions of him at that meeting, 520 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:32,210 are he's just hyperactive, completely hyper in every way, 521 00:30:32,210 --> 00:30:34,963 talking, gabbling, clearly on speed. 522 00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:38,630 Even news of the Allied bombing of Rome 523 00:30:38,630 --> 00:30:40,810 didn't stop Hitler talking. 524 00:30:40,810 --> 00:30:44,037 An officer in the German entourage later wrote 525 00:30:44,037 --> 00:30:46,687 "Embarrassed. People turned away." 526 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:51,015 Perhaps an explanation lay inside the gold wrapper 527 00:30:51,015 --> 00:30:54,675 of yet another medication from Dr. Morell. 528 00:30:54,675 --> 00:30:56,530 At that time Hitler was on six tablets 529 00:30:56,530 --> 00:30:58,320 of Vitamultin every day. 530 00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:01,030 And what was in Vitamultin changed 531 00:31:01,030 --> 00:31:03,230 according to what Morell wanted. 532 00:31:03,230 --> 00:31:05,710 All the reports we have of that meeting with Mussolini 533 00:31:05,710 --> 00:31:07,570 when Hitler was waving his arms about 534 00:31:07,570 --> 00:31:10,553 and talking 15 to the dozen and so on, do suggest 535 00:31:10,553 --> 00:31:14,563 that he may well have had a dose of amphetamines beforehand. 536 00:31:17,150 --> 00:31:19,380 The mysterious Vitamultin 537 00:31:19,380 --> 00:31:22,990 was one of up to 28 different potions and pills 538 00:31:22,990 --> 00:31:25,170 Hitler swallowed every day, 539 00:31:25,170 --> 00:31:26,920 but none of them could relieve 540 00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,423 the terminal defeat that lay ahead. 541 00:31:45,540 --> 00:31:49,143 The Allies landed in Normandy in June, 1944. 542 00:31:54,410 --> 00:31:56,450 Hitler's besieged armies were now fighting 543 00:31:56,450 --> 00:31:58,373 a war on three fronts. 544 00:32:02,330 --> 00:32:04,010 The Russians were closing in 545 00:32:04,010 --> 00:32:06,853 on his Wolf's Lair headquarters in East Prussia. 546 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:14,070 Yet the Fuhrer continued to direct a losing battle, 547 00:32:14,070 --> 00:32:15,805 unaware that some of his own generals 548 00:32:15,805 --> 00:32:18,003 were conspiring against him. 549 00:32:20,090 --> 00:32:22,990 The Wolf's Lair was supposed to be impregnable, 550 00:32:22,990 --> 00:32:25,680 yet the conspirators were able to place a bomb 551 00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:28,983 under the table next to the Fuhrer himself. 552 00:32:48,464 --> 00:32:52,047 (reporter speaking German) 553 00:33:05,220 --> 00:33:08,100 With Hitler out of the way, the army officers 554 00:33:08,100 --> 00:33:10,780 behind the plot had planned to announce their coup 555 00:33:10,780 --> 00:33:15,510 to the country, but it was Hitler who appeared 556 00:33:15,510 --> 00:33:18,800 on the news reels, alive and in control. 557 00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:19,910 Getting on with the business 558 00:33:19,910 --> 00:33:23,613 of directing the war and his Axis ally Mussolini. 559 00:33:25,550 --> 00:33:26,960 Hitler was very lucky. 560 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:31,240 He was standing behind a very heavy wooden table. 561 00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:32,810 The hut was rather flimsy. 562 00:33:32,810 --> 00:33:34,440 So a lot of the blast was dissipated 563 00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:36,330 through the floor and through the walls. 564 00:33:36,330 --> 00:33:40,220 The blast certainly did catch Hitler. 565 00:33:40,220 --> 00:33:43,910 It burst his eardrums and he had for some time afterward 566 00:33:43,910 --> 00:33:46,860 severe headaches and hearing loss. 567 00:33:46,860 --> 00:33:49,210 He was able to act immediately afterwards 568 00:33:49,210 --> 00:33:51,930 very decisively to stop the plot 569 00:33:51,930 --> 00:33:54,430 and have the people who had organized it arrested. 570 00:33:56,490 --> 00:33:57,960 While the arrest and torture 571 00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:00,650 of hundreds of suspects was underway. 572 00:34:00,650 --> 00:34:04,140 Hitler was filmed visiting his fellow survivors, 573 00:34:04,140 --> 00:34:06,243 an ear injury clearly visible. 574 00:34:07,370 --> 00:34:09,430 The Fuhrer's doctor, Theodore Morell 575 00:34:09,430 --> 00:34:11,233 was not immediately at hand. 576 00:34:12,510 --> 00:34:15,500 According to one report, Hitler was briefly treated 577 00:34:15,500 --> 00:34:19,213 by ear, nose and throat specialist Dr. Erwin Geising. 578 00:34:20,340 --> 00:34:24,513 His notes and x-rays of Hitler's head have survived. 579 00:34:30,510 --> 00:34:33,350 Dr. Geising made a series of detailed claims 580 00:34:33,350 --> 00:34:36,203 about the Fuhrer's medical treatment after the war. 581 00:34:37,650 --> 00:34:39,860 But the surgeon was apparently dismissed 582 00:34:39,860 --> 00:34:42,470 soon after his initial treatment of Hitler 583 00:34:42,470 --> 00:34:44,763 and seems to have spent little time with him. 584 00:34:47,060 --> 00:34:50,820 Nevertheless, Geising claimed that the dictator's eardrums 585 00:34:50,820 --> 00:34:53,624 were perforated and that there was a lot of blood 586 00:34:53,624 --> 00:34:55,853 in the right ear canal. 587 00:34:59,670 --> 00:35:02,020 An x-ray also showed a white area 588 00:35:02,020 --> 00:35:04,230 on the left side of Hitler's face, 589 00:35:04,230 --> 00:35:07,823 a blockage suggesting chronic sinusitis. 590 00:35:12,010 --> 00:35:15,010 To ease the pain Geising claimed the Fuhrer 591 00:35:15,010 --> 00:35:18,173 was given nose drops containing cocaine. 592 00:35:21,810 --> 00:35:25,410 Apparently the surgeon did not share Dr. Morell's respect 593 00:35:25,410 --> 00:35:27,333 for patient confidentiality. 594 00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,540 He claimed that the Fuhrer couldn't get enough 595 00:35:32,540 --> 00:35:35,343 of the supercharged nose drops ,telling him, 596 00:35:35,343 --> 00:35:38,767 "Doctor, put some more cocaine in my nose." 597 00:35:42,860 --> 00:35:43,753 There's no evidence at all 598 00:35:43,753 --> 00:35:46,440 that Hitler was addicted to cocaine. 599 00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:49,940 These reports came from Dr. Geising after the war 600 00:35:49,940 --> 00:35:51,680 and they're not credible in any way. 601 00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:53,330 To put it bluntly, he was a liar. 602 00:35:55,860 --> 00:35:57,882 After the war Erwin Geising 603 00:35:57,882 --> 00:36:01,373 was an outspoken critic of Hitler's personal physician. 604 00:36:03,910 --> 00:36:06,550 He's also alleged to have secretly sampled 605 00:36:06,550 --> 00:36:09,670 the anti-gas pills Morell administered 606 00:36:09,670 --> 00:36:12,943 to combat the dictator's agonizing flatulence. 607 00:36:16,490 --> 00:36:19,150 He is said to have suffered the same irritability 608 00:36:19,150 --> 00:36:22,103 and chronic stomach cramps that afflicted the Fuhrer. 609 00:36:23,560 --> 00:36:26,570 The ingredients included strychnine, 610 00:36:26,570 --> 00:36:28,233 also used in rat poison. 611 00:36:32,850 --> 00:36:37,400 In small quantities, strychnine works as a stimulant. 612 00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:41,493 In higher doses it can cause seizures and eventually death. 613 00:36:43,490 --> 00:36:45,940 Hitler's surgeon Karl Brandt 614 00:36:45,940 --> 00:36:47,860 was another vociferous critic. 615 00:36:47,860 --> 00:36:51,443 Apparently horrified that Morell fed the Fuhrer strychnine. 616 00:36:52,500 --> 00:36:54,330 Karl Brandt was the most prominent physician 617 00:36:54,330 --> 00:36:55,400 {\an8}in Hitler's circle. 618 00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,023 {\an8}He clearly thought that Morell was incompetent. 619 00:36:59,010 --> 00:37:02,063 He was worried that Morell was poisoning Hitler in some way. 620 00:37:03,940 --> 00:37:07,430 Karl Brandt openly accused Morell of negligence 621 00:37:07,430 --> 00:37:09,083 and tried to have him dismissed. 622 00:37:14,290 --> 00:37:17,763 Morell is said to have apologized profusely. 623 00:37:19,550 --> 00:37:22,810 Hitler remained fiercely loyal to his personal physician 624 00:37:22,810 --> 00:37:24,090 who recorded his Fuhrer's 625 00:37:24,090 --> 00:37:27,063 alleged statement of support in his notes. 626 00:37:30,697 --> 00:37:33,070 "That these fools didn't even think 627 00:37:33,070 --> 00:37:35,140 about what they would have done to me. 628 00:37:35,140 --> 00:37:37,250 They must have known that you have saved my life 629 00:37:37,250 --> 00:37:40,720 several times over the last eight years. 630 00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:43,290 And how did I fare before that? 631 00:37:43,290 --> 00:37:45,557 All the doctors summoned had failed." 632 00:37:48,660 --> 00:37:50,700 Those who tried to have Morell sacked 633 00:37:50,700 --> 00:37:54,203 including Karl Brandt were themselves dismissed. 634 00:37:55,590 --> 00:37:57,780 And there may be some justification 635 00:37:57,780 --> 00:37:59,330 in Hitler's support for Morell. 636 00:38:03,917 --> 00:38:06,280 There's no evidence that Morell was trying to kill Hitler. 637 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:07,559 On the contrary, the dosage 638 00:38:07,559 --> 00:38:10,950 of the pills that he prescribed for Hitler 639 00:38:10,950 --> 00:38:15,950 contained 0.0046 of a gram of strychnine per pill 640 00:38:16,030 --> 00:38:19,470 which is half the medically recommended dose 641 00:38:19,470 --> 00:38:21,510 of this particular kind of pill. 642 00:38:21,510 --> 00:38:24,140 All the remedies that he gave were medically conventional 643 00:38:24,140 --> 00:38:26,103 in medically conventional quantities. 644 00:38:27,610 --> 00:38:29,580 But there was one critical condition 645 00:38:29,580 --> 00:38:32,730 that Dr. Morell was late in diagnosing. 646 00:38:32,730 --> 00:38:35,250 A debilitating disease that mirrored 647 00:38:35,250 --> 00:38:37,333 the collapse of Hitler's crumbling Reich. 648 00:38:49,510 --> 00:38:53,220 By March, 1945, the Red Army had already 649 00:38:53,220 --> 00:38:57,253 reached the banks of the Oder River, within reach of Berlin. 650 00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:03,523 The Eastern Front had collapsed, defeat was inevitable. 651 00:39:06,910 --> 00:39:08,990 While the shattered remnants of the SS 652 00:39:08,990 --> 00:39:11,590 and army units made their last stands, 653 00:39:11,590 --> 00:39:15,290 Hitler went underground in a vast concrete bunker 654 00:39:15,290 --> 00:39:17,993 under the Reich Chancellery building in Berlin. 655 00:39:20,047 --> 00:39:23,714 (announcer speaking German) 656 00:39:29,379 --> 00:39:31,082 It was one of the last times the Fuhrer 657 00:39:31,082 --> 00:39:34,197 would be seen alive outside of his bunker. 658 00:39:35,290 --> 00:39:37,240 The propaganda film was supposed to show 659 00:39:37,240 --> 00:39:39,120 Hitler still in command, 660 00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:41,533 decorating brave young defenders of the Reich, 661 00:39:43,540 --> 00:39:46,370 but a critical part of the footage was deemed unfit 662 00:39:46,370 --> 00:39:50,583 for viewing, cut and presumably supposed to be destroyed. 663 00:39:51,700 --> 00:39:53,683 But this footage survived. 664 00:39:54,890 --> 00:39:59,890 It was found in an East German film laboratory in the 1970s. 665 00:40:00,270 --> 00:40:02,850 The clip clearly shows the shaking 666 00:40:02,850 --> 00:40:05,100 Hitler could no longer control. 667 00:40:05,100 --> 00:40:07,240 Hitler began to show symptoms 668 00:40:07,240 --> 00:40:09,970 of Parkinson's disease during the war. 669 00:40:09,970 --> 00:40:12,570 He had a shake in his left hand 670 00:40:12,570 --> 00:40:15,750 and for a time that was cured as it were, 671 00:40:15,750 --> 00:40:20,750 by the bomb that went off in July 20th, 1944. 672 00:40:21,100 --> 00:40:25,090 As he said, "That's not the way I would choose of curing it" 673 00:40:25,090 --> 00:40:27,530 But soon after that, the shaking came back 674 00:40:27,530 --> 00:40:32,050 in his right side, he began to drag his feet and shuffle. 675 00:40:32,050 --> 00:40:36,510 He began to speak in a more flat, 676 00:40:36,510 --> 00:40:39,630 less animated sort of way normally, 677 00:40:39,630 --> 00:40:43,363 though fits of rage could still bring out the old Hitler. 678 00:40:44,810 --> 00:40:46,930 {\an8}A comparison of newsreel footage 679 00:40:46,930 --> 00:40:50,008 {\an8}shows how Parkinson's disease took hold. 680 00:40:50,008 --> 00:40:54,890 {\an8}to the left in 1940, Hitler stands upright, 681 00:40:54,890 --> 00:40:56,433 {\an8}agile and in control. 682 00:40:57,350 --> 00:40:59,880 {\an8}To the right in 1944, 683 00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:02,483 {\an8}the Fuhrer is stooped and relatively slow. 684 00:41:06,420 --> 00:41:10,680 Morell first noted Hitler's tremor in 1941 685 00:41:10,680 --> 00:41:12,283 and put it down to stress. 686 00:41:15,150 --> 00:41:17,400 It was only in the final days of the war 687 00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:20,050 that he made the correct diagnosis, 688 00:41:20,050 --> 00:41:23,943 shaking palsy or Parkinson's disease. 689 00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:31,610 Parkinson's can impair thought processes 690 00:41:31,610 --> 00:41:33,863 as well as posture and muscle control. 691 00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:38,893 But witnesses claim Hitler's mind was sharp to the end. 692 00:41:40,380 --> 00:41:43,260 What we can't see is any diminution 693 00:41:43,260 --> 00:41:46,420 of mental energy or emotional energy. 694 00:41:46,420 --> 00:41:49,520 There's one occasion when Hitler broke down 695 00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:53,040 {\an8}towards the end of the war and admitted everything is lost. 696 00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:55,450 {\an8}It's all going down the tubes and told Speer 697 00:41:55,450 --> 00:41:57,937 that he and Eva Braun were going to commit suicide 698 00:41:57,937 --> 00:42:00,180 rather than fall into enemy hands. 699 00:42:00,180 --> 00:42:03,500 But then he pulled himself together and maintained 700 00:42:03,500 --> 00:42:08,070 this facade of belief that everything was going to be okay. 701 00:42:08,070 --> 00:42:11,250 I don't think that drugs or medical treatments 702 00:42:11,250 --> 00:42:13,203 had anything to do with that at all. 703 00:42:15,490 --> 00:42:19,003 But outside his bunker, it was not okay. 704 00:42:19,970 --> 00:42:24,970 By April, 1945 the first Soviet units had reached Berlin. 705 00:42:25,460 --> 00:42:28,140 Street by street, the Red Army closed in 706 00:42:28,140 --> 00:42:29,513 for the final assault. 707 00:42:34,900 --> 00:42:37,610 The Third Reich was finished. 708 00:42:37,610 --> 00:42:40,903 There was no cure for the crushing defeat inflicted above. 709 00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:44,441 Hitler finally dismissed his personal physician 710 00:42:44,441 --> 00:42:48,253 who was also ill, having suffered several strokes. 711 00:42:51,970 --> 00:42:53,970 Dr. Morell made it onto one 712 00:42:53,970 --> 00:42:56,113 of the last planes out of Berlin. 713 00:42:58,890 --> 00:43:01,716 He was eventually captured and interrogated 714 00:43:01,716 --> 00:43:05,650 but not implicated in any war crimes. 715 00:43:05,650 --> 00:43:08,313 He died in Bavaria three years later. 716 00:43:10,700 --> 00:43:14,300 Hitler's former surgeon, Karl Brandt tried to discredit 717 00:43:14,300 --> 00:43:16,883 Morell during and after the war, 718 00:43:17,850 --> 00:43:20,260 but it was he who was accused of the slaughter 719 00:43:20,260 --> 00:43:24,460 of the mentally and physically ill, including children. 720 00:43:24,460 --> 00:43:27,360 This is how people like Brandt could try and explain 721 00:43:27,360 --> 00:43:31,278 after 1945, the Holocaust, the crimes of Hitler 722 00:43:31,278 --> 00:43:35,440 for which he, as a leading medical official 723 00:43:35,440 --> 00:43:37,450 in the mass murder of the mentally handicapped 724 00:43:37,450 --> 00:43:41,100 and ill wasn't actually himself partly responsible. 725 00:43:41,100 --> 00:43:44,050 Brandt was found guilty of crimes against humanity 726 00:43:44,050 --> 00:43:46,123 and executed in 1948. 727 00:43:47,170 --> 00:43:50,800 SS Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger also treated Hitler 728 00:43:50,800 --> 00:43:54,020 and was involved in brutal death camp experiments. 729 00:43:54,020 --> 00:43:56,033 He died in the ruins of Berlin. 730 00:43:57,290 --> 00:43:59,630 Another key figure in the Fuhrer's medical care 731 00:43:59,630 --> 00:44:02,173 was his dentist Hugo Blaschke. 732 00:44:05,670 --> 00:44:08,380 It seems that the concentration camp system 733 00:44:08,380 --> 00:44:12,153 may also have played a part in Nazi dentistry. 734 00:44:15,610 --> 00:44:17,320 Like other top Nazis, 735 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:20,040 Hitler needed gold crowns and fillings. 736 00:44:20,040 --> 00:44:24,413 An x-ray of the dictator's skull shows jaws full of metal. 737 00:44:27,550 --> 00:44:30,260 These are metal caps and bridges. 738 00:44:30,260 --> 00:44:32,530 They don't let the x-rays pass through. 739 00:44:32,530 --> 00:44:34,253 That's why you see them in white. 740 00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:42,120 {\an8}When Hitler met Blaschke 741 00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:43,943 he'd already lost a lot of teeth. 742 00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:49,190 He had seven of his own teeth in the upper jaw 743 00:44:49,190 --> 00:44:50,763 and 10 in the lower jaw. 744 00:44:54,290 --> 00:44:58,140 He really should have had to wear dentures, but he couldn't. 745 00:44:58,140 --> 00:45:00,250 And didn't want to imagine that they could fall out 746 00:45:00,250 --> 00:45:02,653 of his mouth during one of his speeches. 747 00:45:05,888 --> 00:45:07,140 Hugo Blaschke was the man 748 00:45:07,140 --> 00:45:09,670 who looked after Hitler's teeth. 749 00:45:09,670 --> 00:45:12,650 He starred in one of Eva Braun's home movies 750 00:45:12,650 --> 00:45:15,423 wearing the uniform of an SS general. 751 00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:19,160 An incriminating document shows that Dr. Blaschke 752 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:22,410 got his gold from the corpses of those murdered 753 00:45:22,410 --> 00:45:24,460 in the concentration camps. 754 00:45:24,460 --> 00:45:29,390 By 1943, he amassed a staggering 50 kilograms, 755 00:45:29,390 --> 00:45:32,120 around two and a half million US dollars worth 756 00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:33,393 in today's prices. 757 00:45:34,236 --> 00:45:38,303 50,000 grams, it says. 758 00:45:40,080 --> 00:45:43,753 You use about one to four grams of gold for one cap. 759 00:45:48,265 --> 00:45:50,790 So if you calculate a bridge of three elements 760 00:45:50,790 --> 00:45:55,790 for each person that would mean 5,600 to 5,700 people 761 00:45:58,090 --> 00:46:01,953 who had gold teeth pulled out before or after their deaths. 762 00:46:05,330 --> 00:46:08,380 Pulled from the jaws of murdered victims 763 00:46:08,380 --> 00:46:11,983 the gold was recycled and used for Blaschke's dental work. 764 00:46:15,980 --> 00:46:18,300 Hitler's secretary Christa Schroder 765 00:46:18,300 --> 00:46:20,533 also had caps of Blaschke's gold. 766 00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:33,130 As for Hitler, while he had caps, 767 00:46:33,130 --> 00:46:35,963 there's no proof they were fitted during the Holocaust. 768 00:46:42,540 --> 00:46:45,600 Adolf Hitler's medical care was dominated by the portly 769 00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:50,373 doctor dubbed Reichs master of injections, Theodore Morell. 770 00:46:52,730 --> 00:46:56,040 He fed the Fuhrer a vast array of preparations, 771 00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:59,560 pills, drugs, and hormones but it's unlikely 772 00:46:59,560 --> 00:47:02,283 that any of them had an effect on Hitler's sanity. 773 00:47:07,514 --> 00:47:11,130 48 hours before his death he dictated his will, 774 00:47:11,130 --> 00:47:13,023 as lucid and alert has ever. 775 00:47:14,230 --> 00:47:16,443 {\an8}His thought processes had not been affected 776 00:47:16,443 --> 00:47:18,913 {\an8}and his mental capabilities were normal. 777 00:47:20,395 --> 00:47:23,280 Morell was accused of criminal negligence 778 00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:26,770 but his treatments did not make Hitler lose his mind 779 00:47:26,770 --> 00:47:27,730 or the war. 780 00:47:27,730 --> 00:47:30,440 What he did lose was a sense of reality. 781 00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:32,635 He just could not believe that Germany 782 00:47:32,635 --> 00:47:35,980 was being completely defeated. 783 00:47:35,980 --> 00:47:40,150 He was still directing the war as the supreme commander 784 00:47:40,150 --> 00:47:43,140 and he held meetings with his generals 785 00:47:43,140 --> 00:47:46,730 and he would move the counters representing armies 786 00:47:46,730 --> 00:47:48,800 around on the map and so on. 787 00:47:48,800 --> 00:47:50,580 And the generals would say behind his back 788 00:47:50,580 --> 00:47:52,450 because they didn't really dare to tell him, 789 00:47:52,450 --> 00:47:54,030 well there's no troops there. 790 00:47:54,030 --> 00:47:55,030 You know, they've all gone. 791 00:47:55,030 --> 00:47:56,360 Or there's only a few hundred, 792 00:47:56,360 --> 00:47:58,463 not the thousands that he thinks. 793 00:48:00,360 --> 00:48:02,220 There is no proof that Hitler 794 00:48:02,220 --> 00:48:05,383 was mentally ill or drug addicted. 795 00:48:06,670 --> 00:48:10,670 The dictator was afflicted with Parkinson's disease, 796 00:48:10,670 --> 00:48:13,360 but there's no evidence that it had any bearing 797 00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:16,203 on his military or political decisions. 798 00:48:17,110 --> 00:48:19,053 The alternative is harder to swallow. 799 00:48:20,270 --> 00:48:23,400 The man who destroyed millions of lives 800 00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:25,690 did so in the belief that his actions 801 00:48:25,690 --> 00:48:28,203 were sane and rational. 802 00:48:30,934 --> 00:48:35,410 The war didn't happen and the Jews were not wiped out 803 00:48:35,410 --> 00:48:37,170 because Hitler was ill, 804 00:48:37,170 --> 00:48:39,643 but because most Germans followed his decisions. 805 00:48:42,910 --> 00:48:45,630 Hitler always knew what he was doing. 806 00:48:45,630 --> 00:48:48,163 He was compos mentis right up to the end. 807 00:48:50,220 --> 00:48:53,310 Of course, it's very convenient to Germans after the war 808 00:48:53,310 --> 00:48:55,800 who could say Hitler was a madman. 809 00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:57,550 We weren't responsible. 810 00:48:57,550 --> 00:48:58,730 He wasn't responsible. 811 00:48:58,730 --> 00:49:01,100 We can all kind of let ourselves off the hook. 812 00:49:01,100 --> 00:49:03,390 So I think it's very important to realize 813 00:49:03,390 --> 00:49:07,750 that he was in all crucial, key, basic respects, 814 00:49:07,750 --> 00:49:09,580 perfectly sane. 815 00:49:09,580 --> 00:49:11,750 whether his ideology was rational 816 00:49:11,750 --> 00:49:13,890 is a completely different question. 817 00:49:13,890 --> 00:49:16,500 We'd like to think somebody who could do such monstrous 818 00:49:16,500 --> 00:49:20,020 things and commit such terrible crimes must be insane. 819 00:49:20,020 --> 00:49:22,960 And it poses much deeper and more difficult questions 820 00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:27,595 to us when we admit that he was not insane. 821 00:49:27,595 --> 00:49:30,262 (ominous music)