This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0000240900 Reproduction Date:
World War II was the deadliest military conflict in history in absolute terms of total dead.[1] Over 60 million people were killed, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population (est. 2.3 billion[2]). The tables below give a detailed country-by-country count of human losses. World War II fatality statistics vary, with estimates of total dead ranging from 50 million to more than 80 million.[3] The higher figure of over 80 million includes deaths from war-related disease and famine. Civilians killed totalled 50 to 55 million, including 19 to 28 million from war-related disease and famine. Total military dead: from 21 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war.
Recent historical scholarship has shed new light on the topic of Second World War casualties. Research in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union has caused a revision of estimates of Soviet war dead.[4] According to Russian government figures USSR losses within postwar borders now stand at 26.6 million.[5][6] In August 2009 the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) researchers estimated Poland's dead at between 5.6 and 5.8 million.[7] The historian Rüdiger Overmans of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office published a study in 2000 that estimated German military dead and missing at 5.3 million.[8]
Compiling or estimating the numbers of deaths caused during wars and other violent conflicts is a controversial subject. Historians often put forward many different estimates of the numbers killed during World War II.[9] The authors of the Oxford Companion to World War II maintain that "casualty statistics are notoriously unreliable."[10]
The table below gives data on the number of dead for each country, along with population information to show the relative impact of losses. When scholarly sources differ on the number of deaths in a country, a range of war losses is given, in order to inform readers that the death toll is disputed. Military figures include battle deaths (KIA) and personnel missing in action (MIA), as well as fatalities due to accidents, disease and deaths of prisoners of war in captivity. Civilian casualties include deaths caused by strategic bombing, Holocaust victims, German war crimes, Japanese war crimes, population transfers in the Soviet Union, other war crimes, and deaths due to war related famine and disease. The losses listed here are actual deaths, hypothetical losses due to a decline in births are not included with the total dead. The distinction between military and civilian casualties caused directly by warfare and collateral damage is not always clear cut. For nations that suffered huge losses such as the Soviet Union, China, Poland, Germany, and Yugoslavia, sources can give only the total estimated population loss caused by the war and a rough estimate of the breakdown of deaths caused by military activity, crimes against humanity and war-related famine. The casualties listed here include 19 to 25 million war-related famine deaths in the USSR, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, India that are often omitted from other compilations of World War II casualties.[11][12] The footnotes give a detailed breakdown of the casualties and their sources, including data on the number of wounded where reliable sources are available.
#AY4^
The estimated breakdown for each Soviet Republic of total war dead is as follows
|}
Included in the figures of total war dead for each nation are victims of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II. Martin Gilbert estimates 5.7 million (78%) of the 7.3 million Jews in German occupied Europe were Holocaust victims.[183] Estimates Holocaust deaths range between 4.9 to 5.9 million Jews.[184]
Statistical breakdown of Jewish dead:
The figures for the pre-war Jewish population and deaths in the table below are from The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust.[184] The low, high and average percentage figures for deaths of the pre war population have been added.
Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the other victims persecuted and killed by the Nazis.[193][194] Estimates of the death toll of non-Jewish victims vary by millions, partly because the boundary between death by persecution and death by starvation and other means in a context of total war is unclear.
The following figures are from The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, the authors maintain that "statistics on Gypsy losses are especially unreliable and controversial. These figures (cited below) are based on necessarily rough estimates".[205]
Included with total war dead are victims of Japanese war crimes.
The total war dead in the USSR includes victims of Soviet repression. The number of deaths in the Gulag labor camps increased as a result of wartime overcrowding and food shortages.[236] The Stalin regime deported the entire populations of ethnic minorities considered to be potentially disloyal.[237] Since 1990 Russian scholars have been given access to the Soviet-era archives and have published data on the numbers of people executed and those who died in Gulag labor camps and prisons.[238] The Russian scholar Viktor Zemskov puts the death toll from 1941–1945 at about 1 million based on data from the Soviet archives.[239] The Soviet-era archive figures on the Gulag labor camps has been the subject of a vigorous academic debate outside Russia since their publication in 1991. J. Arch Getty and Stephen G. Wheatcroft maintain that Soviet-era figures more accurately detail the victims of the Gulag labor camp system in the Stalin era.[240][241] Robert Conquest and Steven Rosefielde have disputed the accuracy of the data from the Soviet archives, maintaining that the demographic data and testimonials by survivors of the Gulag labor camps indicate a higher death toll.[242][243] Rosefielde believes that the release of the Soviet Archive figures is disinformation generated by the modern KGB.[244] Rosefielde maintains that the data from the Soviet archives is incomplete; for example, he pointed out that the figures do not include the 22,000 victims of the Katyn massacre.[245] Rosefielde's demographic analysis puts the number of excess deaths due to Soviet repression at 2,183,000 in 1939–1940 and 5,458,000 from 1941–1945.[246] Michael Haynes and Rumy Husun accept the figures from the Soviet archives as being an accurate tally of Stalin's victims, they maintain that the demographic data depicts an underdeveloped Soviet economy and the losses in World War Two rather than indicating a higher death toll in the Gulag labor camps.[247]
In August 2009 the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) researchers estimated 150,000 Polish citizens were killed due to Soviet repression. Since the collapse of the USSR, Polish scholars have been able to do research in the Soviet archives on Polish losses during the Soviet occupation.[180] Andrzej Paczkowski puts the number of Polish deaths at 90,000–100,000 of the 1.0 million persons deported and 30,000 executed by the Soviets.[248] In 2005 Tadeusz Piotrowski estimated the death toll in Soviet hands at 350,000.[249]
The Estonian State Commission on Examination of Policies of Repression put civilian deaths due to the Soviet occupation in 1940–1941 at 33,900 including (7,800 deaths) of arrested people, (6,000) deportee deaths, (5,000) evacuee deaths, (1,100) people gone missing and (14,000) conscripted for forced labor. After the reoccupation by the U.S.S.R., 5,000 Estonians died in Soviet prisons during 1944–45.[250]
The following is a summary of the data from the Soviet archives: Reported deaths for the years 1939–1945 1,187,783, including: judicial executions 46,350; deaths in Gulag labor camps 718,804; deaths in labor colonies and prisons 422,629.[251]
Deported to special settlements: (figures are for deportations to Special Settlements only, not including those executed, sent to Gulag labor camps or conscripted into the Soviet Army. Nor do the figures include additional deportations after the war). Deported from annexed territories 1940–41 380,000 to 390,000 persons, including: Poland 309–312,000; Lithuania 17,500; Latvia 17,000; Estonia 6,000; Moldova 22,842.[252] In August 1941, 243,106 Poles living in the Special Settlements were amnestied and released by the Soviets.[253] Deported during the War 1941–1945 about 2.3 million persons of Soviet ethnic minorities including: Soviet Germans 1,209,000; Finns 9,000; Karachays 69,000; Kalmyks 92,000;Chechens and Ingush 479,000; Balkars 37,000; Crimean Tatars 191,014; Meskhetian Turks 91,000; Greeks, Bulgarians and Armenians from Crimea 42,000; Ukrainian OUN members 100,000; Poles 30,000.[254] A total of 2,230,500[255] persons were living in the settlements in October 1945 and 309,100 deaths were reported in special settlements for the years 1941–1948.[256]
Russian sources list Axis prisoner of war deaths of 580,589 in Soviet captivity based on data in the Soviet archives (Germany 381,067; Hungary 54,755; Romania 54,612; Italy 27,683; Finland 403, and Japan 62,069).[257] However some western scholars estimate the total at between 1.7 and 2.3 million.[258]
Germany
USSR
British Commonwealth
U.S.
The [276] is the source of the military dead for the British Empire The war dead totals listed in the report are based on the research by the CWGC to identify and commemorate Commonwealth war dead. The statistics tabulated by the CWGC are representative of the number of names commemorated for all servicemen/women of the Armed Forces of the Commonwealth and former UK Dependencies, whose death was attributable to their war service. Some auxiliary and civilian organizations are also accorded war grave status if death occurred under certain specified conditions. For the purposes of CWGC the dates of inclusion for Commonwealth War Dead are 3 September 1939 to 31 December 1947.
Deaths per country by number and percentage of population, with piechart of percentage of military and civilian deaths for the Allied and the Axis Powers
Military and civilian deaths during World War II for the Allied and the Axis Powers.
Axis Military personnel killed, percentage by country.
World War II Military Deaths by Country (using WorldHeritage's cited numbers)
Sources for total Chinese war dead are divergent and range from 10 to 20 million as detailed below.
The following notes summarize German casualties, the details are presented in German casualties in World War II.
German population
Total German war dead
German military casualties
Civilian Casualties
Civilian casualties in air raids
Civilians killed in 1945 military campaign
Deaths due to Nazi political, racial and religious persecution
Expulsion and flight of the Germans
The following notes summarize German expulsion casualties, the details are presented in the flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950) , the forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union' and the Demographic estimates of the flight and expulsion of Germans. The figures for these losses are currently disputed, estimates of the total deaths range from 500,000 to 2,000,000. The death toll attributable to the flight and expulsions was estimated at 2.2 million by the West German government in 1958 .[390] German government reports which were released to the public in 1987 and 1989 have caused some historians in Germany to put the actual total at 500,000 to 600,000.[391] English language sources put the death toll at 2 to 3 million based on the West German government statistical analysis of the 1950s.[392][393][394][395][396][397][398][399][400][401]
The German government figures of 2.0 to 2.5 million civilian deaths due to the expulsions have been disputed by scholars since the publication of the results of the German church search service survey and the report by the German Federal Archive.
Post war increase in natural deaths
Bengal famine of 1943
±# AB^ Japan
Military Dead
Army China after Pearl Harbor 202,958 killed and 88,920 wounded. vs. United States 485,717 killed and 34,679 wounded. vs. U.K. and Netherlands 208,026 killed and 139,225 wounded. vs. Australia 199,511 killed and 15,000 wounded. French Indochina 2,803 killed and 6,000 wounded. Manchuria & USSR 7,483 killed and 4,641 wounded. other overseas 23,388 killed and 0 wounded Japan proper 10,543 killed and 6,782 wounded Army total 1,140,429 killed and 295,247 wounded. Navy Sailors 300,386 killed and 12,275 wounded and missing. Civilians in Navy service 114,493 killed and 1,880 wounded and missing. Navy total 414,879 killed and 14,155 wounded and missing.
Total military dead (including POW after surrender)[454] Japan proper 103,900 Bonin Islands 15,200 Okinawa 89,400 Taiwan 39,100 Korea 26,500 Sakhalin Islands 11,400 Manchuria 46,700 China Mainland 455,700 (including 188,700 from 1937-41) Siberia 52,700 Central Pacific Islands 247,200 Philippines 498,600 French Indochina 12,400 Thailand 7,000 Burma 164,500 Malaya/Singnapore 11,400 New Guinea 137,600 other overseas 211,700 Total dead 2,121,000 (including 1,647,200 Army and 473,800 Navy)
Civilian Dead
1-Summary Report (July 1946) Total civilian casualties in Japan, as a result of 9 months of air attack, including those from the atomic bombs, were approximately 806,000. Of these, approximately 330,000 were fatalities.[469]
2-United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Medical Division (1947) The bombing of Japan killed 333,000 civilians and injured 473,000. Of this total 120,000 died and 160,000 were injured in the atomic bombings, leaving 213,000 dead and 313,000 injured by conventional bombing.[470]
3-The effects of air attack on Japanese urban economy. Summary report (1947) Estimated that 252,769 Japanese were killed and 298,650 injured in the air war.[471]
4-The Effects of strategic bombing on Japanese morale Based on a survey of Japanese households the death toll was put at 900,000 dead and 1.3 million injured, the SBS noted that this figure was subject to a maximum sampling error of 30%.[472]
5-Strategic Bombing Survey The Effects of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki The most striking result of the atomic bombs was the great number of casualties. The exact number of dead and injured will never be known because of the confusion after the explosions. Persons unaccounted for might have been burned beyond recognition in the falling buildings, disposed of in one of the mass cremations of the first week of recovery, or driven out of the city to die or recover without any record remaining. No sure count of even the prepaid populations existed. Because of the decline in activity in the two port cities, the constant threat of incendiary raids, and the formal evacuation programs of the Government, an unknown number of the inhabitants had either drifter away from the cities or been removed according to plan. In this uncertain situation, estimates of casualties have generally ranged between 100,000 and 180,000 for Hiroshima, and between 50,000 and 100,000 for Nagasaki. The Survey believes the dead at Hiroshima to have been between 70,000 and 80,000, with an equal number injured; at Nagasaki over 35,000 dead and somewhat more than that injured seems the most plausible estimate. [473]
Total Polish war dead
Polish losses during the Soviet occupation (1939–1941)
Polish military casualties
The following notes summarize Soviet casualties, the details are presented in World War II casualties of the Soviet Union
Total population losses
Military Casualties
Civilian war dead
American military dead#BF1^
American civilian dead #BF2^
The reasons for the high human toll in Yugoslavia were as follows
A. Military operations between the occupying military forces and their quisling collaborators against the Yugoslav resistance.[564] B. German forces, under express orders from Hitler, fought with a special vengeance against the Serbs, who were considered Untermensch.[564] One of the worst massacres during the German military occupation of Serbia was the Kragujevac massacre. C. Deliberate acts of reprisal against target populations were perpetrated by all combatants. All sides practiced the shooting of hostages on a large scale. At the end of the war many Ustaše collaborators were killed during the Bleiburg tragedy.[564] D. The systematic extermination of large numbers of people for political, religious or racial reasons. The most numerous victims were Serbs.[564] The USHMM reports between 77,000 and 99,000 persons were killed at the Jasenovac concentration camp.[565] The genocide of Roma was 40,000 persons.[566] Jewish Holocaust victims totalled 67,122.[567] E. The reduced food supply caused famine and disease.[564] F. Allied bombing of German supply lines caused civilian casualties. The hardest hit localities were Podgorica, Leskovac, Zadar and Belgrade.[564] G. The demographic losses due to the reduction of 335,000 births and emigration of about 660,000 are not included with war casualties.[564]
With the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the decision was made in 2002 for the United States Air Force to move CAP "operational" mission activities from the Air Force's operations directorate (HAF/A3) to the Air Force's newly created homeland security directorate...
World War II, Russia, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian language, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
Einsatzgruppen, World War II, Sobibór extermination camp, Treblinka extermination camp, Nazi Germany
Dom people, Romania, Germany, Spain, Turkey
Mit, Rhode Island, American Historical Association, Academy Awards, Propaganda
Soviet Union, World War II, Joseph Stalin, Finland, Nazi Germany
Cold War, Battle of Stalingrad, Nazi Germany, Battle of the Atlantic, Second Sino-Japanese War
Cold War, Soviet Union, World War II, Nazi Germany, The Holocaust
World War II, Nazi Germany, Operation Overlord, Royal Air Force, Allied invasion of Sicily
World War II, Battle of Stalingrad, Occupation of the Baltic states, Propaganda, Fascism
Danish resistance movement, World War II, Denmark, Nazi Germany, Copenhagen