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(ominous music)
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He was supposed to be
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the supreme leader of a master race.
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A paragon of physical and mental health,
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to lead Germany to a glorious future.
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But behind the Fuhrer facade was a fragile pill popper.
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Dependent on a dubious daily diet
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of injections, tablets, and tonics.
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In just a few years, the almighty Fuhrer
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was reduced to a feeble trembling figure.
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Much of the Fuhrers medical history was lost, but not all.
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A series of intriguing records and letters
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have come to light, revealing Hitler's medical secrets.
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Evidence of drug abuse, sex stimulants
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and psychological breakdowns.
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At the center of it all, the Fuhrer's infamous
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personal physician, Dr. Theodore Morell.
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When the American interrogators of Morell
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{\an8}found out all the different 28 treatments he was giving
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{\an8}like the ground bull testes and the semen
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and the prostate glands and so on.
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Some of them wondered whether he was a double agent.
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Whether he had purposefully in a way made Hitler
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so much dysfunctional that he couldn't win.
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He couldn't achieve what he wanted.
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Theodore Morell was the Fuhrer's trusted
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personal doctor for nine years.
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Hitler heaped praise and honors upon him.
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But other Nazi doctors despised him,
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dismissed him as a quack and blamed him
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for the dictator's dramatic deterioration.
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Other Nazi doctors within Hitler's circle
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{\an8}poured scorn upon Morell.
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{\an8}Described him as a quack, a charlatan, complete phony
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and insinuated that he had done a lot of damage to Hitler.
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After the war the obese doctor confessed
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to administering a cocktail of drugs,
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opiates, morphine, barbiturates and possibly amphetamines.
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Leading to speculation that his treatment
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caused the dictator's extreme behavior.
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We call it rapid cycling, constant, rapid cycling.
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I don't think that Hitler had a day of normal mood,
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in my reading of this, from about 1942 to 1945.
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Sensational evidence has emerged
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of a Fuhrer off his face.
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A hapless hypochondriac, a high Hitler.
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Many illicit drugs dealt
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on the city streets of today are not new.
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According to a Boston-based professor,
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medical records suggest Hitler was amping
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up on amphetamines long before the war.
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There's a good deal of evidence
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that Hitler started taking amphetamines in the 1930s.
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Amphetamines came out during that decade,
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they were widely prescribed for depression.
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They were the first available real treatments
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for depression in the modern age.
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Not only did Hitler get it,
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Churchill got it for his depressions.
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Kennedy later got it as well.
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So lots of people were getting amphetamines.
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The research suggests the Fuhrer's moods
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would have mirrored the dramatic Alpine scenery
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around his Bavarian bolthole,
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exhilarating peaks and deep dark valleys.
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Amphetamines making an existing illness much worse.
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The problem is not that Hitler got amphetamines.
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That's not it.
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It's not that Hitler was an amphetamine addict,
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which people have brought up.
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It's that Hitler had bipolar disorder
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and he got amphetamines which worsened his bipolar disorder.
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That's the issue.
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It's the interaction between the amphetamines
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and the bipolar disorder.
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And that's never been described before.
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And I think that could explain a lot of why
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Hitler changed in the late 1930s and 1940s.
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Other tantalizing evidence has emerged
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pointing to a possible march to mental deterioration.
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Much has been made of the mass hysteria and delusion
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of those who flocked to his rallies.
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But it seems possible that Hitler himself
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suffered a fateful breakdown long before he became Fuhrer.
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The great warrior had been rejected
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by his native Austrian army in the first world war.
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Hitler joined the Germans and later claimed he was wounded,
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blinded in a British gas attack.
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In the last phases of the war,
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about two thirds to three quarters
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of all the shells fired were gas shells.
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It had become a gas war.
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Mustard gas does cause temporary blindness
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sometimes longer term blindness
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and there is evidence that Hitler suffered
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from conjunctivitis after the attack.
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The Austrian volunteer was evacuated
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to the sanctuary of a military hospital in Pasewalk,
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far from the front lines, to the north of Berlin.
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During his recovery, the war ended
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and the embellishment of his exploits in the trenches began.
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Hitler described his alleged wounding as a decisive moment,
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a political awakening, in his rambling manifesto,
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"Mein Kampf", or My Struggle.
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(dramatic music)
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"The more I tried to clearly understand
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these incredible events, the more I felt
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the burning shame of deep indignation and disgrace.
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What was the pain in my eyes compared to this misery?
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So I decided to become a politician."
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{\an8}In his own accounts this was the moment
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{\an8}where the world went black,
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everything collapsed that he lived for
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and where he realized then
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that the Jews were the hated enemy behind all this.
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And it's at that moment, he said,
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"I took the decision to enter politics."
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But other evidence suggests that Hitler
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wasn't blinded by gas,
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but by a kind of nervous breakdown or hysterical blindness.
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{\an8}We now know that in all probability
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Hitler didn't lose his eyesight through mustard gas
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but that it was a psychosomatic blindness.
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Hitler's alleged hysterical breakdown
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was detailed in a report compiled for American intelligence
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during the second world war.
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It also described the dictator as neurotic,
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bordering on psychotic with masochistic tendencies
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and strong sexual perversions.
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And recently more evidence has emerged about Hitler's
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blindness and breakdown in the first world war.
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It's a letter in which a renowned German neurosurgeon
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says he'd seen Hitler's medical file
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and that the dictator was treated
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for a psychiatric disorder that can cause blindness,
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It's quite interesting that Hitler
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who later portrayed himself as invincible,
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that even he could no longer carry on in the autumn of 1918,
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that his nerves could no longer take the strain
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and that it led to this loss of sight.
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Perhaps Hitler covered up
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what at that time was considered shameful,
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that he was too weak or feeble-minded to fight.
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{\an8}Neuropaths were stigmatized at the time.
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{\an8}And even today people suffering from depression, burnout,
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or other psychological illnesses
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are not altogether accepted.
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And in the Weimar Republic, this would have been
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a real stigma and would have made Hitler unelectable.
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But other historians refute the idea
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that Hitler suffered a shameful breakdown
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that he was desperate to hide.
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Hitler didn't really have anything
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very embarrassing to hide.
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He had everything to gain by saying that he'd had
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some kind of break down at the end of the first world war
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because he identified himself with Germany
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and Germany had some kind of breakdown
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at the end of the first world war.
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So there's nothing really there to cover up at all.
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Admission records for the first war military
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hospital at Pasewalk still exist in a Berlin archive.
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According to the register private Adolf Hitler
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was admitted for gas poisoning.
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The admission records for the military hospital Pasewalk
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are clear, gas poisoning, that's it.
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There was never any talk of psychological illness.
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Intriguingly, soldiers were also treated
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for psychological disorders
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and venereal disease at Pasewalk.
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When you look at the hospital records
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you can see that there were people with gas injuries.
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Also those with psychological disorders.
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But more than any other,
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there were people with sexually transmitted diseases.
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Perhaps this was a source
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for the rumors that Hitler had syphilis,
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but there's no evidence for this or other lurid claims,
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like the story about the dictator only having one testicle.
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This comes from a silly song the British troops
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used to sing called "Colonel Bogey."
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And it's just a joke.
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There are again medical examination records from the 1930s,
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early 40s that show he was fully equipped, as it were.
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There's another rumor that spread that his penis
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was bitten off by a goat when he was a child.
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There's absolutely no evidence of that either.
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But there does seem to be evidence
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pointing to some kind of mental condition
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and a sinister coverup.
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The historian Thomas Weber claims that Hitler was treated
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by a neurologist at Pasewalk, Dr. Edmund Forster.
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He suspects that Forster's apparent suicide in 1933
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was murder, to cover up Hitler's
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potentially damaging mental breakdown.
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But fellow historian, Henrik Erbele is among the doubters.
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Edmund Forster who later became
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quite a famous neurologist didn't treat Adolf Hitler.
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Forster was never in Pasewalk. That's quite clear.
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He wasn't there.
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Hitler's alleged hysterical breakdown
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remains the subject of debate, but there's little doubt
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that the tale of a sudden political awakening
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was mere propaganda.
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Hitler was blinded by mustard gas poisoning
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I think is correct and the effects of that
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must've been horrible and that intensified
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the bitterness that he felt towards everything
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that had happened, but he wasn't anti-Semite
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and now all at once, he was.
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That doesn't seem to me to be a realistic.
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However far-fetched his story was,
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millions fell for it.
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Hitler's rambling manifesto became a best seller.
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But not everyone was convinced.
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Many were mesmerized by the dictators extreme rants.
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Others saw them as signs of psychological illness.
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As well as rumors of a first war breakdown,
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another alleged report of unstable behavior
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emerged from his time as a failed artist in Austria.
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Hitler's childhood friend August Kubizek
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published his memoirs after the second world war.
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One scene painted a portrait of a disturbed young man
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who would go on to become Fuhrer.
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"Adolf had reached an almost ecstatic state,
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but then he described the future
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which was filled with threats and danger.
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And at the same time, he was obviously fighting the tears."
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If one takes a psychiatric textbook description
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of depression and mania, and then reads Kubizek's account
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of what Hitler was like as a young man,
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it's hard not to see almost a direct translation.
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Perhaps August Kubizek
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witnessed a moment of mania,
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an insight into a deluded mind that would lead Germany
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and much of Europe to destruction.
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Hitler continued to sacrifice his people
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long after many of his generals
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and the wider population realized the war was lost.
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But was it mental illness and drug abuse that led Hitler
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to destroy himself and the Nazi empire he created?
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He was either severely depressed or overly optimistic,
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completely unrealistic about the reality of the war.
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And I think that constant back and forth of his mania
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and depression throughout the last few years of the war
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was an effect of the interaction
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with the amphetamines and the bipolar disorder.
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But Kubizek's account
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of Hitler's apparent psychotic episode
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could be no more than a rewriting of history.
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Perhaps he felt compelled to be more critical
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of his childhood friend after he'd lost the war.
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{\an8}He initially remembered him very positively
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{\an8}and then he had to rewrite the book.
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That means it is a very disparate memoir.
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He tried to adjust it according to the zeitgeist.
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I think the book isn't entirely implausible,
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but Kubizek's statements wouldn't be enough for me
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to come up with a medical diagnosis.
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But then again, I am a historian.
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If Hitler was manic depressive,
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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)
66553
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