Pod Insights Stuff You Missed in History Class Benzedrine, Pervitin, and WWII About this episode The use of stimulants during WWII is no secret, but in the last decade, there has been a lot of discussion and analysis of it. Just how significant was drug use in Nazi Germany, and how did the Allies compare?
Transcript 7,970 words · 11 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
0:04 Speaker 01 OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 make it happen fast. Rated A plus by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
0:32 Speaker 02 This is the story of the one. As a shipping manager, he's running the dock, stocking supplies, and making sure every order goes out on time. And Granger helps him stay prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Granger to keep products moving and trucks rolling. So his operation runs smoothly, no matter the shift. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done.
1:02 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:33 Speaker 04 I'm Martha Stewart from the Martha Stewart Podcast. When you want to make your best, it's got to be McCormick. From everyday meals to hosting dinner parties, turn to McCormick. Their convenient, versatile flavors elevate every dish. McCormick has been and is an essential in the kitchen. Now they have a new line of signature seasonings crafted by flavor experts, with everyday favorites like garlic and olive oil, globally inspired ones like chimichurri, and more. McCormick's signature seasonings make it easier to add bold flavors that make each bite of your meal more delicious. Try the chimichurri blend that elevates grilled meats. Explore the full array of blends and find your favorite at McCormick.com.
2:14 Holly Frey? Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio.
2:25 Holly Frey? Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Frey. And I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Hey, for obvious reasons, I have been thinking about people in military gear being very, very aggressive, a lot. I hate it. Yeah. Hate it so much. That made me think about a topic that I've sort of had on a back burner for a while and been like, how do I tiptoe around this one and like really get into it? Because there are a lot of opinions within the history space about it. That is the use of very powerful stimulants during World War II, particularly among the Wehrmacht. That's the Nazi German military forces. Listen, I'm not accusing anybody of using anything. I'm not saying anything is happening. I'm just saying it reminded
3:09 Holly Frey? me of that. Seeing aggressive behavior of people in uniforms reminds me of films I have seen of weirdly aggressive behavior of people in uniforms. So in 2015, this whole topic really exploded in the consciousness of a lot of historians that particularly are interested in World War II, because a non-historian writer named Norman Oller, who was German, published a book that was titled Der Totalrussisch. I probably said that very poorly, but that means the total rush. And it was about drug use in Nazi Germany, specifically in the military, as well as in the civilian population. And that book was translated into English. It was published in 2017 as Blitz: Drugs in Nazi Germany.
3:55 Holly Frey? That book became a New York Times bestseller. It won a lot of awards. And this was a really attention-getting book in both languages. It was also translated into more than a dozen others. It's a very popular piece of writing. Oller, who had actually intended to write a novel initially, got so deep down the rabbit hole of archival information that he found available that that led him to pivot to writing a nonfiction book. And in that book, he really laid bare something that had already been talked about for years and in some cases been speculated about. And there is supporting documentation that people already knew before that. But this really put the whole puzzle together
4:35 Holly Frey? in a way that was new. And that is the seemingly contradictory use of methamphetamine in the military of an administration that touted in its very warped ideology purity and strength and health as the signifiers of a perfect race of humans. There has been in the last decade plus, as this book has been out, a lot of push and pull from historians as researchers really try to identify the true degree to which drug use was or was not pervasive among the German public and its military during that time, and how that compares to
5:16 Holly Frey? stimulant use by the Allies. This is a tricky thing to measure because it's not as though everybody is recording every time they pop a tablet in their mouth. A number of historians have indicated that they feel Oller is a bit too sensationalist in his work. But there is at the same time, plenty of information that shows that there was definitely a lot of stimulant use during World War II, and it was not all in Germany's ranks. So today we are going to look at all of that and figure out how speed impacted the war, but also the public in general and how it continues to. And to kick all of this off, we are going to talk about a German chemist who is often credited with the invention of methamphetamine,
6:00 Holly Frey? although as we will see, that is not entirely accurate. Fritz Kurt Hauschild was born on December 8 in Chemnitz, Germany. His father was a doctor and Fritz also studied medicine, but he really focused on chemistry. He enrolled in medical school in Guttengen, Germany at the age of 20. And four years later, in 1932, he became a certified chemist.
6:25 Tracy V. Wilson? Two more years after that, he completed a doctorate in medicine when he submitted his dissertation, which was titled "On the Pharmacology and Chemistry of Curine." Curine is an alkaloid that is used for its anti-inflammatory properties. He took his exam and received his full medical credentials that year. He had a year-long residency. During that time, he worked in two places. One was at a women's clinic. He also worked at the Pharmacological Institute of Leipzig. When his residency ended, he was hired at the Pharmacological Institute as an assistant, and he worked there for two years before moving on to the Temler Works.
7:09 Holly Frey? So, Temler Werke was founded in 1917 as a German pharmaceutical company, and it still exists today as the Temler Group, although it is now part of the larger company, Enova Group. In 1933, Temler started a large expansion initiative. So, when Hauschild entered the company in 1937, it was already rapidly growing. In 1936, benzodrine was used by a number of athletes at the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin, or at least that was the rumor in Germany. We are absolutely coming back to benzodrine. But at the time, amphetamines were absolutely legal in sport. There were not any doping tests for it, so it is actually unclear who may or may not have been using it.
7:54 Holly Frey? But in Germany, there was a common belief that the American competitors specifically were using benzodrine because it was the only way in their minds to explain the US team's performance. Remember, the 1936 Games were supposed to be this showcase of German superiority, and when people like Jesse Owens really trounced them, it made them immediately think there must be something suspicious going on. This belief inspired the German pharmacological industry to seek out their own stimulants that they could give athletes and other people to give them an edge.
8:30 Tracy V. Wilson? At Timler, that project fell to Fritz Hauschild, and he turned to the 19th century work of a Japanese chemist named Nagai Nagoshi, as well as to European chemists who had worked on ephedrine projects. So for context, Nagai was born west of Osaka in the Tokushima prefecture in 1845. That was just as the fall of Shogunate rule was beginning. Japan was shifting away from isolationist policies. And like Hauschild's father, Nagai's father was in medicine. He practiced herbal medicine. So Nagai also went into chemistry. That was something he decided after spending more than a decade studying in Germany.
9:15 Tracy V. Wilson? During that time, he had assimilated into German culture in a lot of ways. He had converted to Christianity, married a German woman, and embraced Western science. When he went back to Japan in 1883, he worked to combine the science training he had received in Europe with the traditions of Asian herbal medicine. And he did this in his lab at the University of Tokyo, where he was a chemistry and pharmacology professor.
9:41 Holly Frey? Nagai started working with a plant called Mahua. The Latin name is Ephedra cynica. And Ephedra cynica is an herb that grows as a shrub. And the stem and branches of it are the parts that are used for herbal medicine. It has been used for centuries in Asia to treat an assortment of symptoms usually associated with colds. So think things like congestion, fever, and headaches. It has also been marketed throughout the years as a weight loss supplement around the world, although its use was banned in the US in 2004 because of the risks of things like high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke, as well as mental side effects like anxiety and irritability.
10:23 Holly Frey? But Nagai is the first person to isolate the chemical compound ephedrine from Mahua. And he did this after he noticed a crystalline substance in the extractions that he had taken from the plant and started experimenting with that. In 1885, Dinepon Pharmaceutical Company started manufacturing ephedrine, based on this work, for asthma treatment. And then, building on that work over the next several years, Nagai's lab was able to synthesize the first methamphetamine. That lab continued in this area of research for years in the hands of Nagai's proteges. And over time, the intense stimulant nature of methamphetamine was studied, continuing well after Nagai died in 1929.
11:07 Tracy V. Wilson? At the same time that Nagai and his lab were working with herbal extractions, other scientists were working on ways to synthesize ephedrine without the Mahwong. One of these was Romanian chemist Lazar Edeljannu. Working on creating similar molecular compounds to those in Ephedra, he did manage to synthesize amphetamine in Berlin. That was in 1887. But he didn't go much farther than that with his work. He moved on to other projects, specifically developing a method for refining crude oil.
11:42 Holly Frey? It wasn't until a few decades later that another chemist, Gordon Alice, started to work on the idea of using synthetic ephedrine to create amphetamine. Alice, who was British but was working in the US at the time, was apparently not even aware of the work that Edeljannu had done. Alice was hoping to capture the medicinal benefits of ephedrine in regard to things like asthma. And once he had his synthesized version, he tested it first on his pet guinea pig, who showed improvement in congestion. And then with a colleague standing by for observation and safety, Alice tested it on himself. And like his pet, he could breathe better. And he also noted that he kind of felt amazing.
12:27 Holly Frey? He was also apparently very talkative and apparently his blood pressure was very high. So with this early testing completed, Alice patented amphetamine sulfate in 1932. And then he pitched his invention to the pharmaceutical industry. And the company Smith, Klein and French partnered with him to roll out the drug known as benzodrine. And that was, as we mentioned, benzodrine that athletes used at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
12:56 Tracy V. Wilson? Makes sense that they would if it was letting people breathe better and have more energy.
13:03 Holly Frey? Yeah.
13:04 Tracy V. Wilson? Coming up, we will talk more about Halshold's work. But first we'll pause for a sponsor break.
13:13 Speaker 06 OnDeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, OnDeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five-star TrustPilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in minutes at ondeck.com. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
13:42 Speaker 07 First thought is like, wow, how are we going to do all this?
13:45 Tracy V. Wilson? Hey, everybody. It's Tracy from Stuff You Missed in History Class. That's Alan Goya, a planning engineer at AT&T. He's talking about Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, where every seat, screen, phone, and transaction is connected with AT&T Fiber and 5G, defining the fan's experience. And Alan's master plan made it all possible.
14:05 Speaker 07 It was going to rival anything that was already built. And that takes quite a bit of people and different teams to all be on the same page.
14:13 Tracy V. Wilson? That includes field services manager Drexel Jones. His team made sure it all came together and held up on game day.
14:20 Speaker 08 Through what Alan's whole crew designed, we connected the event visitors to the world.
14:25 Tracy V. Wilson? And after years of hard work and collaboration, it was opening night.
14:29 Speaker 08 To actually see the whole stadium light up and data's flowing is a beautiful thing.
14:33 Speaker 07 What the fans experience is incredible. It gave me a lot of pride.
14:37 Tracy V. Wilson? AT&T, connecting fans to what they love. Connecting changes everything. AT&T. So you're considering getting a home security system, but you want something that fits your space. Well, with ADT Blue, it's easy to customize a system that's right for you and set it up yourself. Just pick the kit and monitoring plan that makes sense for your home. Let's say you're worried about package theft. The ADT Plus app can walk you through setting up a new doorbell camera kit. Once it's installed, ADT Pros can help you keep tabs on it 24/7, or you can manage it yourself from the ADT Plus app. There are no long-term contracts, so you can change your monitoring plan whenever you want. The flexibility doesn't end there. You can add to your system as you need to with things like extra cameras.
15:21 Tracy V. Wilson? Or motion sensors. Some life decisions are hard, but thanks to ADT Blue, you can DIY trusted ADT home security in a snap. Head to ADT.com/BLU to build your system today. And to hear more about home protection and other grown up topics, check out new episodes of Grown Up Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
15:49 Tracy V. Wilson? Guess who's back in the house? The old gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert McMillan and Jesse have in store this time around. They strut back down memory lane navigating life, love, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you. All sass, zero filter, and decades of perspective from four friends
16:33 Tracy V. Wilson? proving that queer joy only gets better with age on the podcast that never gets old. Listen to Silver Linings, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
16:55 Holly Frey? By the time Fritz Hauschild turned to Nagai's work, many chemists and pharmacologists around the world knew about that work. And after studying the available information and through his own experiments, Hauschild and his team at Temler were able to create a synthetic form of Nagai's methamphetamine that did not require the efedrosynica plant. By the end of 1937, Temler had patented Hauschild's production process and had put the drug into the market under the brand name Pervitin. There was a massive marketing campaign behind this launch. Temler hired an agency called Matthes & Son, and the agency's approach was inspired by the marketing of Coca-Cola.
17:38 Holly Frey? This was also because Coca-Cola was considered their main competitor. So when this is written about in a lot of modern articles, it's often kind of described as this being an issue of Temler trying to counter the cocaine-containing soda's effects on consumers and offering theirs as an alternative. But that's not really correct because Coca-Cola no longer contained cocaine after 1929. So almost a decade before Temler patented their process. And even when Coca-Cola did still contain cocaine, it was a very, very small amount, so probably not really comparable to what Temler was making with Pervitin. But nothing about the promotion of Pervitin described it as a drug.
18:23 Holly Frey? They just described it as something that could enhance a person's life. And as a consequence, 1938 saw a lot of households in Germany buying Pervitin over the counter.
18:34 Tracy V. Wilson? So at face value, this would seem like it's contradictory to the late 1930s ideology of Nazi Germany. At that time, when that warped concept of physical purity was being touted as the apex of humanity, drug use was generally really looked down on. Drugs were associated with weakness and the lower class, and yet Pervitin was just happily adopted throughout all levels of German culture. And that's because it was marketed not as a drug, but as a supplement that made people better. And so that was right in line with the Nazi ideal of a superhuman. And it made people feel strong and confident,
19:16 Tracy V. Wilson? and that also did align with the Nazi ideology. Advertisements for Pervitin touted it as a, quote, "stimulant for the psyche and the circulatory system." And those ads then offered a list of things that Pervitin could treat, including depression, hypotension, fatigue, narcolepsy, and post-operative convalescence.
19:41 Tracy V. Wilson? Uh, knowing that this drug makes makes people intensely energetic makes it seem pretty dangerous to give to somebody for post-op recovery. But it was so dangerous in so many other ways that that seems kind of a small petty detail.
19:57 Holly Frey? Yeah, I was translating one of the packaging, um, or one of the advertisements that I found online and I was just thinking like, how many people pop their stitches because they were like, I feel great.
20:09 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah, I gotta get out of this bed, even though I'm supposed to be resting.
20:13 Holly Frey? Gotta get moving. Uh, although there had been some clinical trials before Pervitin went to market, they were certainly not as robust as anything that would be legally required today. After it was released, a psychiatrist named Fritz Flugel ran his own tests on patients at a psychiatric hospital. And while he did see increased energy that in some cases seemed, at least in the short term, almost miraculous, Flugel also saw the downside. He noted that the drug could increase anxiety and he actually reported this to Temler. So there was a degree of understanding that Pervitin might have some unwanted side effects, including being habit forming inside of Temler Verka.
20:55 Holly Frey? The package label on Pervitin was updated with this information to suggest a slightly lower dose and to include the warning that it was to be used, quote, "only from time to time," with an exclamation point on the end. Listen, that warning was certainly not enough to keep people from developing habitual use problems with it. Pervitin users didn't experience fatigue and initially anxiety and stress were replaced with a sense of euphoria, so of course it was addictive. The perception of performance enhancement made it very popular for both students and professionals. And then eventually to expand the user market, Temler started producing a chocolate that contained Pervitin.
21:39 Holly Frey? And that was designed to appeal to housewives who wanted a boost to get their daily chores done more quickly.
21:46 Tracy V. Wilson? In a paper published in Psychiatric Times in 2016, author Greg Agigian cautions that it's actually really difficult to understand the true degree to which Germans were using Pervitin. Quote, In the years leading up to the Nazi seizure of power, doctors dominated public discussions about drug consumption, and they tended to reinforce the familiar distinction. While prescribed drugs were hailed as epitomes of medical progress, drugs taken by laypeople for personal enjoyment, such as cocaine and opium, were demonized and associated with the socially deviant and marginalized, such as criminals and homosexuals.
22:30 Tracy V. Wilson? This, therefore, means that one needs to be on guard for the often unacknowledged biases of existing sources of information. Really, that's good advice for any research.
22:43 Holly Frey? Yeah, even people that are contemporary accounts of things that are going on have biases. It is not only our lens as we look back. Purvaton, though, got the attention of a physiologist named Otto Friedrich Rangke. Rangke was born in Munich in 1899. He was the son of a psychiatrist. And as a young man, he studied both medicine and mathematics. He became part of the Military Medical Academy in Berlin in the mid 1930s, specializing in aviation medicine. He became a member of the Wehrmacht Medical Corps in the late 1930s, rising up through the ranks as an advisor to eventually become Director
23:26 Holly Frey? of the Research Institute of Defense Physiology for the Nazis.
23:31 Tracy V. Wilson? In that role, Rangke was ever on the lookout for anything that would give Germany the upper hand in the coming war. One particular area of concern was fatigue among the troops. Purvaton, though, was already sort of tested on the general public throughout 1938, so Rangke had enough information to believe that it had the potential to be, quote, "an excellent substance for rousing a weary squad."
23:58 Tracy V. Wilson? Even so, he did conduct his own tests, beginning with German medical officers. He used a blind study where some participants got Pervitin and others got Benzedrine or caffeine or placebos. In these tests, Ronka gave the participants math problems to solve and he kept them at it for more than 10 hours. The Pervitin group whipped through all of these tests, although their answers were not necessarily correct. They were alert, not necessarily focused in a functional way, though. Still, Ronka thought this test was a success and he deemed Pervitin, quote, "a militarily valuable substance."
24:42 Holly Frey? Next, Ronka wanted to expand his test to the troops. And he pitched that, but initially, nothing moved forward because the proposal got a bit wadded up in the Reich's bureaucracy. But while there wasn't an official endorsement or order to use it, a lot of the medical officers that Ronka had worked with were still taking Pervitin on their own after the testing ended. They liked the effects and through their use, use then spread quickly to other members of the military. By the time the war was imminent, a lot of the Wehrmacht was already taking Pervitin.
25:18 Tracy V. Wilson? Ronka himself took Pervitin and he got in the habit of working for days at a time without any sleep. He noted in writing that Pervitin enabled him to go for dozens of hours without feeling tired. The marketing of Pervitin had in fact appealed to a lot of the Third Reich's officers as they sought to keep up with just an ever-growing list of demands from Adolf Hitler. As they reported and conferred with one another about how effective this drug was at making them ultra-productive, it was only natural that Germany's military leadership would support the idea of giving it to soldiers.
25:58 Holly Frey? So the first group of soldiers to be officially issued Pervitin by the Wehrmacht was the 3rd Tank Division, and this was done in 1938 when Germany moved into occupied Czechoslovakia, starting with the annexation of what Germany called Sudetenland. That's a made-up propaganda term for the areas of the country that had a German-speaking population. And while it was successful, this occupation was not a combat situation. Ronka and other Wehrmacht medical officials were really curious to see how Pervitin worked in active battle.
26:32 Tracy V. Wilson? So, when Germany invaded Poland in the autumn of 1939, a lot of its soldiers were using Pervitin, and they subdued Polish resistance within a matter of weeks. The success of the German army in this first blitzkrieg stoked the drug's reputation as one that was associated with strength and success, so both the military and the general population use continued to grow, to go up. During the invasion of Ardennes in France in 1940, a route that had been believed to be impassable by the Allies, Pervitin fueled the Germans through dense forests that would have deterred most other enemies. We have
27:14 Tracy V. Wilson? to note here, though, that although many soldiers were taking Pervitin, and though it was issued to German soldiers with a degree of frequency, there was not ever a blanket order regarding Pervitin's distribution to the Wehrmacht's troops.
27:28 Holly Frey? Yeah, I just want to make that very clear, because sometimes you'll read accounts that suggest that this was like given out as a standard part of ration packs. And in some cases, it was issued, but it wasn't all the time to all ration packs. As we know today, the side effects and dependency that come with methamphetamine use are absolutely horrible.
27:52 Holly Frey? In addition to substance use disorder, users frequently develop insomnia, confusion, anxiety, mood instability, psychosis, and a decline in cognitive function. And these side effects can continue when a person is not actively using the drug. And these side effects absolutely started to appear in the German population that used Pervitin.
28:14 Tracy V. Wilson? The usual packaging of Pervitin was a small metal cylinder with a screw cap that contained 30 tablets. Each tablet contained 0.003 milligrams of methamphetamine. The label had a contradictory message to that "only from time to time" copy that we mentioned earlier. It suggested taking two to four tablets each day. Complaints started rolling in to Temler's offices about the problems civilians were having with it. The company did not take the drug off the market, though. It just transitioned from it being available over the counter to requiring a prescription.
28:57 Tracy V. Wilson? That happened in 1941, while the war was still in full swing and German soldiers were still being issued methamphetamine pretty routinely. According to an account written by a German medical officer in 1942, when some of the men in his unit were exhausted to the point that they had laid down in the snow to just wait for death, he administered Pervitin, and 30 minutes later, they were all up and cheerful.
29:25 Holly Frey? Pervitin was a boon in the eyes of Nazi military leadership. Soldiers that used it did not get tired. They did not complain of hunger, even if their rations were running out. They felt euphoric and confident, even in the horrific conditions of war. Prolonged use led to a lot of problems, of course. The combination of substance misuse and combat stressors led to a very high degree of psychosis in soldiers, and this manifested in a variety of ways. The paranoia that's common from methamphetamine use, as well as deaths by suicide, and in some cases, soldiers even turning on their own comrades. So, some of them were shooting themselves, and some of them were shooting the men alongside them.
30:09 Holly Frey? Even if a soldier was not experiencing these psychological problems from using Pervitin, the drug was still taking a toll on the body. We know, living in a constantly stimulated state without rest is incredibly bad for anyone, and young men who should have been healthy started having heart attacks.
30:30 Tracy V. Wilson? Heinrich Bull, who won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972, was from an anti-Nazi family but was conscripted into service for Germany during the war. He was in his early twenties and he got hooked on Pervitin, so much so that he wrote his family numerous times, asking them to send him more. What he was issued by the Wehrmacht as a soldier just wasn't cutting it. He wrote about how the drug made him forget how awful the reality was that he was in, and that it enabled him to feel happiness again, as well as being better for his alertness than multiple cups of coffee.
31:10 Holly Frey? And of course Adolf Hitler was also interested in the benefits of a drug that could make him more alert and seemingly stronger. He began receiving IV doses of methamphetamine from his doctor, although these were typically combined with other things like glucose and vitamin. His doctor, Theodore Morel, kept copious notes about the treatment that he gave the Führer. There have been a lot of rumors and incorrect information about Hitler's various health concerns over the years, although before the war, he seemed to only be dealing with a fairly minor list of things like eczema, insomnia, and some GI issues.
31:51 Holly Frey? But starting in 1941, he started to have an array of problems, and Morel gave him many medications in addition to methamphetamine, including Eucaldol, which is a version of oxycodone. There have been a number of historians who believe that Hitler's use of Pervitin began to affect his judgment and caused him to make a number of miscalculations that were instrumental in bringing about the fall of the Third Reich.
32:17 Tracy V. Wilson? In a moment, we'll talk a little bit about the use of stimulants among the Allies in World War II, as well as another Axis power. We will do that after we hear from the sponsors that keep Stuff You Missed in History Class going.
32:32 Speaker 06 Cash flow crunch? OnDeck's small business line of credit gives your business immediate access to funds, up to $200,000, right when you need it. Cover seasonal dips, manage payroll, restock inventory, or tackle unexpected expenses without missing a beat. With flexible draws, transparent pricing, and control over repayment, get funded quickly and confidently. Apply today at ondeck.com. Funds could be available as soon as tomorrow. Depending on certain loan attributes, your business loan may be issued by OnDeck or Celtic Bank. OnDeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans and amounts subject to lender approval.
33:03 Tracy V. Wilson? Guess who's back in the house? The old gays return for season two of Silver Linings, their hit podcast from iHeart's Ruby Studio in partnership with ViiV Healthcare. Just wait until you hear what hosts Robert McMillan and Jesse have in store this time around. They strut back down memory lane navigating life, love, loss, and everything that shaped them along the way. And as usual, someone just might break into song. From leather bars to bathhouses, dance floors to drag brunch, nothing stays off limits. These are the kinds of insights that can only come from experience. So, listen to your elders, honey, and discover the silver linings you can take with you. All sass, zero filter, and decades of perspective from four friends
33:47 Tracy V. Wilson? proving that queer joy only gets better with age on the podcast that never gets old. Listen to Silver Linings, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
34:02 Speaker 09 Okay, chicken nugget fans. I've got huge news. The new Burger King Chicken Nuggets just dropped, and they are the crispiest, the juiciest, and the tastiest chicken nuggets ever at Burger King. Burger King heard that a lot of you didn't like the old chicken nuggets, so they got to work and reinvented them. To go along with the new chicken nuggets, a lot of the sauces were reinvented too, because better chicken nuggets deserve better sauces. We're talking new buffalo sauce, honey mustard, sweet and sour, and even a whole new option too, the new special savory sauce, which is only available for a limited time at participating US restaurants. I mean, you need to taste it all for yourself. This new chicken nugget,
34:45 Speaker 09 reinvented, based on real feedback, is made with 100% white meat chicken and is now better than ever. You gotta try the new Burger King Chicken Nuggets and sauces today.
34:58 Tracy V. Wilson? For any small business owner, there's a moment when you realize the next hire could be the difference between staying busy and actually growing. The challenge is finding the right person without wasting time sorting through candidates who aren't the right fit. That's where Indeed Sponsored Jobs comes in. When workplace chaos hits and you need someone who can step in and make a difference, this is a job for Sponsored Jobs. It helps put your job in front of candidates who match the criteria that matter most to you, whether that's skills, experience, certifications, or location. And you're certainly not alone in using Indeed. Join the 3.3 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to connect with quality talent that fits their needs. That's millions of businesses turning to Indeed
35:40 Tracy V. Wilson? to help solve hiring challenges and find people who can help drive results. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. Get your $75 sponsored job credit today at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now, then this is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.
36:14 Holly Frey? Stimulant misuse during the war was not an exclusively German problem. Just as Fritz Haushold had been inspired in part by the rumors of beneficial drug use on the part of US Olympians in creating Purvatin, the Allied forces were very interested in this alleged miracle drug that the Germans had created that enabled their military to fight with greater vigor.
36:38 Tracy V. Wilson? So it wasn't long before the Allies were testing out Purvatin with their own people, specifically pilots. According to a BBC article from March of 2024, this interest started after a vial of Pervitin tablets was found in the pocket of a German pilot after he had been shot down. The Allies' tests noted increased alertness with Pervitin use, but they also documented the downsides, like agitation and the way pilots started to have psychological issues and perception problems after taking multiple doses.
37:14 Tracy V. Wilson? While it made people more alert initially, then it led to things like compulsive behavior and poor decision making. So methamphetamine use was dropped as an option for US and British forces, although benzodrine was still given to allied soldiers. Japan was also aware of Germany's use of Pervitin for performance enhancement, and they started to manufacture their own version called Filipon, which was given to kamikaze pilots.
37:45 Holly Frey? Near the end of 1939, Reich health leader Leonardo Conti tried to pull back on Pervitin use as the drug's negative side effects were reported up the chain of command. He actually made a speech at one point to the Nazi Party's Medical Association stating, quote, "Anyone who thinks they can eliminate fatigue with Pervitin can be certain that its boosting effect will one day abruptly cease. It may be useful to combat fatigue in the case of a short flight, but in the long term, only sleep can truly compensate for a state of fatigue."
38:19 Tracy V. Wilson? Uh, we have to pause here for a moment because a lot of the time, articles about Pervitin's use by the Third Reich make it sound almost like Conti was some kind of a reasonable voice here within the Nazi structure, and that's flatly not correct. So to be clear, Conti was a monster. His only interest was in protecting German assets. He was one of the architects of the various processes of so-called racial enhancements under Hitler's rule. Uh, that meant he helped plan programs like Tiergartenstraßeflur, which murdered more than 70,000 people because they had incurable diseases or hereditary conditions
39:01 Tracy V. Wilson? that fell outside of that Nazi ideal of physical perfection. He also worked on a children's euthanasia program with Dr. Carl Brant, which led to the murders of thousands of babies and children. His concerns about Pervitin were linked to just making sure they had enough warm bodies to keep killing their enemies and about maintaining an image of a perfect race. This was not out of any kind of altruistic or even medically ethical motivation.
39:33 Holly Frey? Yeah, I get a little bit frustrated when it's like, well, one Nazi understood and I'm like, oh, let's not give him too much credit.
39:39 Tracy V. Wilson? That guy was still a Nazi. That's the problem.
39:41 Holly Frey? He was still a Nazi and he did horrifying things. Those are only a couple of the horrifying things that he did that Tracy just mentioned. But even though he did raise a flag over this, Conti's concerns were dismissed and his warnings were not heeded by his superiors. In their eyes, if Pervitin got them closer to their goals, it was worth any of the downsides. And Templer, the company that made it, didn't seem to be especially worried about the side effects either. By 1940, the company was producing more than 800,000 Pervitin tablets a day just to try to keep up with demand.
40:17 Tracy V. Wilson? The use of methamphetamine made Germany formidable and terrifying to its enemies for a while, anyway. Soldiers who don't sleep can keep marching. Tank drivers could just keep going, constantly advancing the line as they were ordered to go for days without stopping. Remember, they were all happy and confident as well. The blitzkrieg strategy of relentless surprise attacks was made possible in large part by the troops being drugged. 1940 was really the heyday of Pervitin use for Germany. By the end of that year, instances of heart attacks among the troops and officers had started to tally up and soldiers were
40:59 Tracy V. Wilson? given less and less of the drug over time. There were still instances, though, of surge ratcheting during demanding campaigns.
41:07 Holly Frey? After the Reich collapsed and after Hitler's suicide and well after the war was over, Templer continued to manufacture Pervitin for prescription use.
41:18 Holly Frey? It also continued to sell it to military organizations. It was purchased in bulk by both East and West German militaries because even though it had caused a lot of trauma in its World War II use, it was still perceived as being worth all of those problems if it could give soldiers an edge and enable them to continue fighting for longer with fewer rations. West Germany discontinued their issuing of Pervitin to soldiers in the 1970s, but East Germany continued well into the 1980s. And Germany was not the drugs-only market. Despite those early tests with pilots during World War II, after which Pervitin use was
41:58 Holly Frey? abandoned, the US also reportedly used Pervitin during the Vietnam War.
42:04 Tracy V. Wilson? Leonardo Conti was unsuccessful in his effort to limit Pervitin use in the German Army. He died by suicide in a cell in Nuremberg on October 6th, 1945, rather than facing trial.
42:17 Holly Frey? Fritz Hauschold died in Leipzig on January 13th, 1974. His invention, Pervitin, stayed on the market until 1988.
42:29 Tracy V. Wilson? As we mentioned earlier, throughout the Second World War, the United States used Benzedrine for all the same reasons that the Germans were using Pervitin. Similarly, Benzedrine had a huge jump in civilian use after the war was over, as soldiers returned home to non-military work and as new users picked it up. Benzedrine became available only with a prescription in 1959, but for a long time, amphetamine was prescribed in the US with pretty minimal medical consultation for everything from depression to weight loss. It is, of course, also habit-forming. In 1970, amphetamine was classified as a controlled substance when the Controlled Substances
43:14 Tracy V. Wilson? Act was passed, and today it's a Schedule II drug. That means it has the potential for abuse and dependence. For context, another Schedule II drug is fentanyl.
43:26 Holly Frey? Methamphetamine is, of course, still a commonly taken drug. And meth labs making the crystallized version of it seem to pop up everywhere and create a scourge on communities due to its high degree of addiction. I saw more articles about this that would talk about the war and then be like, and last year, 11,000 meth labs were busted in this country. And that was from various countries. I'm pulling numbers, but it's an ongoing big problem.
43:56 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah. And also, to be clear, stimulants are still part of military programs around the world.
44:02 Holly Frey? I also have a little bit of listener mail, which is very peppy and about a thing I'm addicted to, which is handicrafts.
44:12 Holly Frey? Which just seems a little bit more of a positive note to end this one on.
44:15 Tracy V. Wilson? Yeah.
44:16 Holly Frey? This is from our listener, I'm guessing Gina. Her spelling makes me not 100% confident of that, so hopefully I got it right. Gina writes, hi lovelies, I just listened to the embroidery series and I wanted to write in with two related points. One, you noted that humans often turn to embroidery and other handwork during challenging times. During winter 2020, we all remember that first winter of the COVID lockdown, I started a seasonal project called Winter of Care and Repair, in which I mended, tended, repaired, maintained, or otherwise cared for my belongings each day between the winter solstice and spring equinox. I have always been into knitting, quilting, sewing, et cetera, and had been getting into
45:00 Holly Frey? visible mending at the time, so ended up doing a lot of garment mending and doing something with my hands and eyes and brain is really grounding for me as well. Six years later, Winter of Care and Repair is still going strong with people all over the world creating care and repair plans of their own. And I get so much feedback about how much people love doing something with their hands when things are stressful. So there is an online spot. If our other listeners want to go check this out, just do a search for Winter Care and Repair, you will find it. Gina writes, too, I wanted to share this really amazing Spanish author illustrator embroiderer, Bea Lamo. She published this amazing autobiographical graphic novel based on her childhood perception
45:42 Holly Frey? of her mother's struggles with mental illness, illustrated in both drawings and embroidery. It is available in both French and Spanish, but not English yet. I found this book when walking through a bookshop in Spain. The obviously embroidered book cover stopped me in my tracks as I glimpsed it out of the corner of my eye. Both the story and the illustrations are tremendously impactful. She is super talented and I highly recommend checking out her work. And for the obligatory pet tax, our two little furry loves. Lucy is our 15 and a half year old Border Collie mix, pictured here enjoying a sunny December day at the beach. Skippeo is our two year old one eyed rescue cat, seen here assisting my partner with some vehicle mechanics, a job that he clearly takes very seriously, and a bonus
46:27 Holly Frey? picture of the two of them snuggled together. Seriously, I cannot even. Okay, this dog is so, I love old dogs. There's just something so sweet about them that is like transcends what the earth should even allow in terms of sweetness. And this kitty is so sweet and I love that they're buddies. Okay, but I was very excited that Bealema's work came up because in case you don't know Gina or other listeners, there has actually been a short film made out of that graphic novel, which is also animated embroidery.
47:03 Tracy V. Wilson? Nice.
47:04 Holly Frey? I haven't seen it. I've only seen the trailer for it. It looks brain breakingly amazing. And because I'm also into animation, it really hit my, my magic zone, where the backgrounds are all hand embroidered and then scanned in. And then the animation uses embroidered components that are then digitized and animated. And it looks.
47:28 Holly Frey? Like, it's so beautiful. I can't even deal with it.
47:30 Tracy V. Wilson? That sounds amazing.
47:31 Holly Frey? So, seek that out. There have been a few articles about it lately because it has finished recently and it's starting to be shown. And I just am blown away by how beautiful it is. I love when art surprises me, and I really love that kind of way of blending things. I am also very fascinated by the idea of, you know, how kids perceive things like, like, mental illness in their authority figures. And it's just, it's a beautiful story, and it's an amazing, amazing piece of work as a graphic novel, and I am so excited for this movie. So, thank you, thank you, thank you for writing me that because it reminded me that I could tell people about the follow-up to it that has taken several years to complete.
48:12 Holly Frey? So, I am not sure yet where to see it. So, hopefully I will find that out soon because I want to see it desperately. It is very much in my wheelhouse. If you would like to write to us and share your thoughts on embroidery, or animation, or anything, really, you don't even have to have pet pictures, although we sure do love them. You can do that at [email protected] . Thank you for joining us. And if you have not subscribed to the podcast yet, that is very easy to do. You can do it on the iHeart Radio app, or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
48:53 Tracy V. Wilson? Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
49:07 Holly Frey? A rare disease diagnosis can change your life, but it doesn't have to define your future. In season seven of Untold Stories: Life with a Severe Autoimmune Condition, host Martine Hackett continues the conversation with people living with MG, CIDP, and the broader rare disease community, exploring what comes after diagnosis through stories of hope, progress, and connection. Produced by Ruby Studio in partnership with Argenx. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
49:38 Tracy V. Wilson? You ever show up late to the game and your friends already saved your seat, your drink, even a plate? That's looking out. That's having your back. And that's exactly what AT&T does with the AT&T Guarantee. They know staying connected matters, so they actually guarantee a network that comes through when it counts. AT&T has connectivity you can depend on, or they'll proactively make it right, just like that friend who takes care of things before you even ask. AT&T: Connecting changes everything. Terms and conditions apply. Visit att.com/guarantee for details. Long hours, work deadlines, family commitments. You give so much to everyone else, isn't it time to invest in yourself? The University of Arizona Global Campus is built for working adults with flexible
50:22 Tracy V. Wilson? online degree programs designed to fit your life. Your previous education, training, and eligible experience may even help you earn college credit. At UAGC, you can take one accelerated course at a time, helping you move toward your goals in five- and six-week class formats. Visit uagc.edu today.
50:43 Speaker 10 Livrite, publishers of John U. Bacon's New York Times bestseller, The Gales of November, a chronicle of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald's 1975 shipwreck. "Never has it been told better than by Mr. Bacon in this colorful book," writes John J. Miller of The Wall Street Journal, while author Hampton Sides proclaims that it's destined to be a classic. The Gales of November, now in paperback.
51:11 Speaker 00 This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.
Previous SYMHC Classics: COINTELPRO 1 Next Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 Page updated October 31, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated