Hitler’s blindness
His statement as the First World War gas attack martyr proved to be wrong
A story told by Adolf about himself can now be seen as propaganda. He claimed that the First World War ended for him when he was blinded in a mustard gas attack. Previously unpublished letters reveal now that his blindness was in fact caused by a mental illness.
The previously unseen evidence was revealed by historian Thomas Weber of the University of Aberdeen in his book Hitler’s First War.
Letters written by two prominent American neurologists in 1943, confirm that Hitler at the end of the First World War was treated for psychiatric disorder known as “hysterical blindness”.
Otfrid Förster, a renowned neurosurgeon, inspected Hitler’s medical file from military hospital in Germany in 1918 and revealed this fact.
Hitler had his medical file destroyed, and those who knew something about it were murdered or committed suicide. Förster died in Germany in 1941.
Weber used other documentary in his book to dismiss Hitler’s claims as a front veteran, as Hitler had spent much of his time at regimental headquarters miles behind the lines. He also showed that members of the Regiment thought of Hitler as an object of ridicule – outsider neither popular nor unpopular.
We really have to consider Hitler’s mental state and his radical personality change if we want to understand the sudden transformation of an clumsy soldier, in whom none of his superiors had seen any leadership qualities, to a self-possessed charismatic leader.
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