Adolf Hitler was a hypochondriac terrified of getting sore throat that would stop him ranting, doctors letters reveal
ADOLF Hitler was a hypochondriac who was terrified of getting a sore throat, doctors' letters have revealed.
The correspondence was discovered by the great-grandson of Carl Otto von Eicken, the Nazi leader’s ear, nose and throat specialist between 1935 and 1945.
In one extract, shared by newspaper, the Swiss physician detailed how he treated Hitler for voice problems.
The letter showed the tyrant had a serious fear of illness, believing it could hinder his ability to lead.
According to the extract, the dictator told the doctor: "If there is something bad, I absolutely have to know."
It followed their first consultation in May 1935.
Read more on Hitler
The Swiss outlet also claimed the letters highlighted Hitler’s fascination with his voice.
He postponed an op to remove a polyp until after a speech in case it affected his delivery.
Eicken reportedly advised Hitler that he needed to rest his voice after the procedure, according to the extract.
The letters also detailed the exchange the physician had with Russian interrogators after Berlin was captured in 1945.
Most read in News
When asked why he did not kill Hitler, a man responsible for the deaths of millions in World War Two and the Holocaust, von Eicken replied: "I was his doctor, not his murderer."
In the years leading to his eventual demise, Hitler was surrounded by physicians who reportedly worked hard to stem his drug addiction.
One German historian, Norman Ohler, described him as a “super-junkie”.
Hitler was routinely injected with cocaine, methamphetamine and a heroin-like opiate called Eukodol.
In one extract seen by the , Ohler describes how “Hitler’s veins were so wrecked” by late 1944 that even his personal physician, Dr Theo Morell, “could hardly penetrate them”.
When he finally did manage to break the skin, “it actually made a crunching noise.”
An extract from Dr Morell’s journal reads: “I cancelled injections today, to give the previous puncture holes a chance to heal.
“Left inside elbow good, right still has red dots (but not pustules), where injections were given.”
According to Olher, Dr Morell slowly started adding ingredients to his daily injections as Hitler got his first taste of oxycodone before a big meeting with Benito Mussolini.
Hitler eventually began to depend on the “heightened feeling(s) that corresponded so perfectly to his own image of greatness — and that reality no longer supplied,” Ohler wrote.
Hitler’s body was reportedly ravaged by his substance abuse and it is claimed he struggled to attend military meetings unless he was high.
Olher added that, as the war became more stressful and victory less certain, Hitler needed a bigger kick, and moved on to harder drugs.
He initially began taking injections of steroids and animal hormones to help with his dwindling energy and digestive problems, historians say.
Although it’s widely believed that Hitler suffered from Parkinson’s disease during the final days of his life, Ohler speculated that he was actually suffering from the symptoms of withdrawal.
Medication was increasingly difficult to come by “because the factories [had] been bombed out."
Without the drugs to prop him up, “all that was left behind was a shell of a man whose uniform was spattered with rice gruel.”
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Read More on The Sun
It comes as some draw comparisons between Hitler and Vladimir Putin, who continues to push forward with his bloody invasion of Ukraine.
Last month, Putin was accused of being responsible for twice as many deaths in the besieged city of Mariupol than the Nazi dictator.
