Avi Ohry
Tel Aviv, Israel

During World War I, Corporal Adolf Hitler became blind during a gas attack in the trenches. He was examined by a young Jewish military physician, Karl Kroner, whose differential diagnosis was blindness due to mustard gas, malingering, shellshock, and/or “hysterical” blindness. He recommended transfer to the care of the famous neuro-psychiatrist Prof. Edmond Robert Forster at the Passewalk neuro-psychiatric hospital near Berlin. Forster recommended a comprehensive treatment regime of psychotherapy, occupational therapy, “shock” treatment, hypnosis, cold showers, music therapy, and more. The treatment proved a success, but his files showed a pathological personality that remained unchanged.

When Hitler came into power, he ordered the destruction of any evidence of his mental hospitalization. Prof. Forster took Hitler’s notes to his anti-Nazi brother Dirk Forster, who worked at the German embassy in Paris. The brothers met at the famous “Café Royale” with a group of Jewish dissidents that included the author Josef Roth. They all read Hitler’s file. Forster also told them about Goering’s morphine addiction. Weiss wrote a book on “A.H.,” the “blind,” neurotic soldier. He committed suicide when the Germans entered Paris. Forster and his wife were shot dead (or committed suicide) in their home. Many generals and military commanders who opposed Hitler met their deaths in the “Night of the Long Knives.”

 Reference

1. Ohry A. Jewish physicians in the early life of Adolph Hitler. Vesalius, 2013 ;19(2):68-71.