This was a day in August of 1941. Germany had invaded the Soviet Union on June 22nd. So this is about six weeks into the campaign which was called Operation Barbarossa. And Germany was doing pretty well. And it came to a crucial moment where high command said, 'Now we're going to take Moscow.' And Hitler said, 'No, we're going to split up the troops and take Leningrad, which is now St. Petersburg, in the north, and in the south, we're going to go for the oil fields.' Basically, that was his plan. He said, 'No, let's not do Moscow.' And high command was like, 'This is the biggest mistake. We must take Moscow. If we take Moscow, we're going to win.'
And Hitler became ill for the first time on the day of this decision. I mean, this is a dynamic thing that's going on. You know, they're moving and now they have to decide: will we split up or will we continue towards Moscow? And he had the Russian flu, in German the Ruhr, which is like a flu-type disease with very high fever. It comes like they were in the field, like so they were in the east, you know, camping out. Maybe he drank water that wasn't good or he had some, you know, they tested everything meticulously, but he got, you know, he got sick, high fever, he felt like, and he said to Morell, and you know, you can see that in Morell's notes, like Morell describes this very vividly in his notes, which are at the Federal Archives, which no historian ever looked at except me, the non-historian, which is kind of funny. So he describes how Hitler then asks of him, basically says vitamins are not enough anymore, like he's very weak. He must go to the military briefing, but if you, the flu is quite a severe disease, I think if you have a heavy flu you really feel like you're going to die. You can't go to a military briefing. But Morell kind of fought with himself and then he decided to inject an opioid into Hitler's veins intravenously, like the strongest application possible. And this was Dolantin, which is a German opioid that was legal.
And I was once an exchange student in Flint, Michigan, 1988, and I was number one of the tennis team because I was quite a good tennis player. We were playing our main enemy. I think I was at Flint Powers Catholic High School in Flint, Michigan. And I think it was Power Central, and they had a number one, Mark Rest Steiner.
And on the day of the match, I had the Russian flu basically. I was the hope. I was the number one, the wonder kid from Germany. And they took me to a doctor, and the doctor gave me an injection, and I don't know until this day because I just, I was, you know, a kid, I got the injection, I was 17, and I felt great, like the flu was gone like this. It was probably an opioid, something, you know, something that just shuts off all the pain and gives you, you know, energy. And I beat this guy.
