Talbot Imlay and Martin Horn. The Politics of Industrial Collaboration during World War II: Ford France, Vichy and Nazi Germany.

2015 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 1129-1130
Author(s):  
Keith Mann
Author(s):  
Xavier Heckert

Pervitin is a drug developed in Nazi Germany by the pharmaceutical company Temmler, before the start of World War II. Originally sold without prescription to the population, it was claimed to suppress fatigue, make one more alert, reduce hunger, and help fight depression. The main ingredient of this wonder drug was methamphetamine, the primary component of what we now call crystal meth. This miracle drug’s effectiveness against fatigue caught the attention of the director of the Research Institute of Defense Physiology of the German forces, Dr. Otto Ranke, who considered that fatigue was enemy number one of a soldier during battle. An order of thirty five million Pervitin tablets were purchased for the Wehrmacht’s invasion of France in May 1940 to increase effectivity of the campaign that relied especially on speed for success. History will claim that the use of mobile warfare over positional warfare with Germany’s motorized army, French high command mistakes, and an equipment disadvantage led to the ultimate defeat. My research aims to show that Pervitin was a crucial factor in the iron force of the blitzkrieg by the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe, and that it did not as much come from its tactics, inferiority of the Allies, and employment of mobile warfare but from an army that was blitzed on Pervitin to turn it into a steamroller of a machine that could not be stopped, day or night.


Author(s):  
Tat’yana K. Shcheglova ◽  
Aleksey V Rykov

The war between Nazi Germany and the USSR caused drastic changes in the Soviet system of distribution of goods. Reorientation of factories on military contracts led to diminishing of the centralised production of goods for consumers in rear areas. As a result, consumers cooperative society started to play an important role. The article considers the problems of consumers cooperative society and local enterprises which were its major suppliers. Through the example of pottery and manufacture of wooden sole boots diffi culties of reorganisation of enterprises in the context of war are revealed. The problems of interaction of local enterprises and consumers cooperative society are considered. In conclusion, the author points out that the major problem of reorganisation of enterprises in the context of war was the shortage of raw materials and the signifi cant factor of development was hand-crafted character of anufacturing. A certain problem was created by the reluctance of enterprises to deliver their production at artifi cially low state prices and its poor quality. The consequence of that was the decrease of signifi cance of consumers cooperative society and the increase of the ratio of market trade in provisioning of collective farm peasantry.


Author(s):  
Ilka Quindeau ◽  
Katrin Einert ◽  
Nadine Teuber
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