Friday, October 07, 2016

JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: COMMENTS ON A REVIEW OF NORMAN OHLER BOOK WHICH ASSERTS HITLER BECAME A "GIBBERING SUPER JUNKIE" - WHAT WE'VE KNOWN


COMMENT POSTED TO A REVIEW OF A NORMAN OHLER BOOK IN THE INDEPENDENT


'Adolf Hitler was a “gibbering super junkie” '

That kind of highly-colored assertion, much resembling the political propaganda attacks we now see so often in our newspapers, always leads me to suspect the author's intentions.

It is a long-known fact that Hitler received injections from his "doctor," Theodor Morell, but these never came close to producing what this author asserts. At best, they contributed to the shakes he experienced in later years.

I've read no evidence for what the author of this book claims, and one has always to be suspect of claims that come flying out of nowhere, as it were.

After all, only recently CIA was putting out stupid stuff about Putin's mental condition.

And we have many sources and counter-checks against this author's assertion.

Albert Speer for example made a late visit to the bunker to say good-bye to the man he once so deeply admired.

Speer was an intelligent and discerning observer, but he made no mention of the author's assertions.

Even more convincing is the fact that Hitler was surrounded with powerful men jealous of his position, especially the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler. The Third Reich government resembled a Middle Ages Court of powerful earls and dukes.

Himmler in fact sometimes conducted secret investigations to discover things about Hitler he could use. If what this author claims were true, he or another of these powerful men would almost certainly have seized power during that last year.

We also have many records of conversations and meetings, and I am aware of none confirming this notion.

I am inclined to think this book another "attack" book on Hitler with little validity. There have been quite a few of them over the years.

By "attack" book, I'm not including all the legitimate investigations into the horrors of the Third Reich, but a class of rather cheap efforts, much resembling yellow journalism, like one that claimed very bizarre sexual predilections for Hitler or some which described him as quite mad, something several authoritative psychiatric studies have assured us was not the case.

Unless the claims can be bolstered by others, I think the book likely to have no standing as history.