I Was Hitler’s Doctor – His Intimate Life, by Kurt Krueger, published by Biltmore Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1943. Adolf Hitler through the eyes of his personal physician: a chilling portrait of his insane personality over 15 years. One of the most fascinating books ever written about Hitler’s personality, physical and mental illnesses, revealing intimate and unknown details about him. Hardcover with the original illustrated dust jacket, all in complete condition. English.
“If Hitler’s personal doctor were to sit in your room for three hours and tell you the intimate things his patient shared in an effort to cure his tormented mind through psychoanalysis, you would have quite an experience, wouldn’t you? I had what amounts to that experience, and it left me disturbed, shaken, and certainly more thoughtful… The current catastrophe that is now destroying the world is the result of the twisted thinking of this tormented mind, entangled in infantilism, masochism, sadism, messianic fury, and madness…” (from the author’s statement, as published in the Kansas City Journal upon the book’s release).
Kurt Krueger, Adolf Hitler’s personal caregiver for 15 years, treated his chronic physical and mental illnesses between 1915 and 1930. Here, he describes Hitler’s deranged personality in depth. Krueger, who remained closely attached to Hitler for years, was his personal physician and confidant, to whom Hitler revealed his most secret thoughts. The book details everything Krueger knew about: Hitler’s childhood experiences, His hatred for his father, The humiliations he suffered as a child, His relationship with the village idiot and his loneliness, His reactions to assassination attempts, The murder of his brother, His worsening physical and mental illnesses, witnessed by Krueger daily, His deeply complex personality, The book includes long transcripts of Krueger’s conversations with Hitler, in which he observed Hitler’s numerous fits of rage and loss of control. Krueger was present on the day Hitler announced he had finished drafting the platform of the “Liberation Party of New Germany”—later the Nazi Party. He also witnessed the first public unveiling of the swastika as the party’s emblem and discussed with Hitler his thoughts on the Nazi salute’s origins. Krueger was the only person to whom Hitler expressed his desire to marry, along with other intimate revelations.
In the chapter “Hitler and the Jews, ” which deals with Hitler’s chronic hatred of the Jewish people, Krueger describes conversations he had with Hitler, in which the dictator expressed his unrestrained loathing for Jews. However, Krueger surprisingly writes that Hitler actually harbored a certain fondness for Jews, as absurd as it may seem:
“So much of Hitler’s personality revolves around his hatred of the Jews that, naturally, many of my observations concern this aspect. Based on my interviews with Hitler, I have reached a seemingly paradoxical conclusion: Deep down, Hitler has a strong affection for Jews, a tenderness very close to love. Hitler’s antisemitism is an obsessive neurosis that forces him to think and act against his own will. He genuinely admires Jews, particularly Jewish women, because they possess what he lacks so profoundly—masculinity and creativity. His second nature, nihilism, which led him to a career of destructive revenge, suppressed the better side of his nature—his first nature, his true will…”. In the same chapter, Krueger recounts an astonishing fact: on the first day after the failure of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch (Hitler’s attempted coup), Hitler found temporary refuge with a Jewish woman, Frau Schneider. He was captured by a police search squad only 24 hours after leaving her home.
The three authors of the book’s introduction strongly recommend this book as essential reading for anyone trying to understand Hitler’s complex personality. American novelist Upton Sinclair states in the foreword that anyone fighting Hitler (the book was published at the height of the war) should read it carefully, adding: “And that includes almost every man and woman in the Western Hemisphere.” Psychiatrist Dr. K. Arvid Enlind writes in the introduction: “Hitler suffers from an Oedipus complex, which is carefully analyzed in this volume. His jealousy toward his father in early adolescence, and his desire to take his father’s place in his mother’s affection, were projected on a global scale. Now, he strives to be the great father of all humanity, keeping the world loveless, in terror, under the lash of his whip and the wild fury of his tongue.” The manuscript of the book was smuggled out of Europe to the United States and brought to print while the war was still ongoing. At the beginning of the book, there is a photograph of Hitler visiting the Strasser family.
XXIV, 322 pages. Hardcover with the original illustrated dust jacket, all complete. Slight tears at the bottom of the dust jacket. Reinforcements with pasted paper on the inner side of the jacket. Condition: Good – Very Good.
