Anti-smoking activists — historical anecdote

“Germany had the world’s strongest antismoking movement in the 1930s and early 1940s, supported by Nazi medical and military leaders worried that tobacco might prove a hazard to the race. Many Nazi leaders were vocal opponents of smoking. Anti-tobacco activists pointed out that whereas Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt were all fond of tobacco, the three major fascist leaders of Europe — Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco — were all non-smokers.”

Source: Robert N. Proctor, “The Anti-tobacco Campaign of the Nazis: A Little Known Aspect of Public Health in Germany, 1933-45,” BMJ 313 (1996), pp. 1450-1453.

1 thought on “Anti-smoking activists — historical anecdote”

  1. True….I remember the film Downfall dramatically depicted this in a scene after Hitler shot himself in the bunker…everyone lit up a cigarette.

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