While I knew that Germany regularly gave its soldiers amphetamines so they could fight longer before succumbing to exhaustion, I was not aware of the extent of Hitler’s own drug use.

According to this video (by a source that I trust for its historical accuracy) Hitler was essentially addicted to Methamphetamine, and had been so since at least the 1930s.

Given that the side effects of Meth use include paranoia, erratic decision making, and even psychosis, I am curious if this explains some of the decisions Hitler made in the lead up to and during the Second World War.

Although the idea that Hitler consistently made military errors seems to know hold less sway than it used to - for example, it seems likely both that the oil shortage almost forced Hitler to invade the USSR and that many decisions he made during the invasion were rational from a military perspective given the intelligence available - it does still appear that Hitler became more erratic and less trusting of his underlings over time. His paranoia over the Jewish population of Europe also seemed to deepen dramatically over the course of the war, evidenced by the shift from concentration camps to extermination camps.

This is somewhat justified by assassination attempts and such (at least on the military side), but I wonder to what extent this may have been influenced by his meth use.

This seems to me a question that cannot be truly answered one way or the other, in the same way one can’t really diagnose historical figures with mental disorders with any confidence, but I do wonder what the evidence says.

Is it believed Hitler’s meth use was a large cause of Germany’s starting the Second World War, the holocaust, and the decisions that lead to Germany losing the war in such a destructive way? If this is not an idea taken seriously, then why is it not?