The Good War?

I've been meaning to do a post like this for quite some time. I don't think it needs much introduction. World War II is certainly the bloodiest conflict in the history of the human race. It is nearly beyond my comprehension that this war was fought only 70 years ago- during the lives of my grandparents. I know veterans of this conflict, and am beyond grateful for their sacrifices. WWII is sometimes referred to as the Good War. I am inclined to disagree. 

• 40-72 million. World War II. 1939-45.
• Albania.                         30.000   
• Australia.                       40.500  
• Austria.                        380.000  
• Belgium.                         88.000
• Brazil.                           2.000
• Bulgaria.                        25.000
• Burma.                          272.000
• Canada.                          45.400
• China.                    10-20.000.000 
• Cuba.                               100
• Czechoslovakia.                 325.000
• Denmark.                          3.200
• Dutch East Indies.          3-4.000.000
• Estonia.                         50.000
• Ethiopia.                       100.000
• Finland.                         97.000
• France.                         567.600
• French Indochina (Vietnam). 1-1.500.000
• Germany.                 6.63-8.680.000
• Greece.                     320-805.100
• Hungary.                        580.000
• Iceland.                            200
• India.                  1.587-2.587.000
• Iran.                               200
• Iraq.                               500
• Ireland.                            200
• Italy.                          457.000
• Japan.                   2.62-3.120.000
• Korea.                      378-483.000
• Latvia.                         230.000
• Lithuania.                      350.000
• Luxembourg.                       2.000
• Malaya.                         100.000
• Malta.                            1.500
• Mexico.                             100
• Mongolia.                           300
• Nauru.                              500
• Nepal. 
• Netherlands.                    301.000
• Newfoundland.                       100
• New Zealand.                     11.900
• Norway.                           9.500
• Papua & New Guinea.              15.000
• Philippines.          557.000-1.057.000
• Poland.                  5.62-5.820.000
• Portuguese Timor.             40-70.000
• Romania.                        800.000
• Ruanda-Urundi.                  300.000
• Singapore.                       50.000
• South Africa.                    11.900
• S Pacific Mandate.               57.000
• Soviet Union.                23.400.000
• Spain.
• Sweden.                             600
• Switzerland.                        100
• Thailand.                         7.600
• Turkey.                             200
• United Kingdom.                 450.000
• United States.                  418.500
• Yugoslavia.             1.027-1.700.000

Total Population:                 1.995.537.400

Military dead:                       22.426.600 to

                                     25.487.500

Civilian dead:                       37.585.500 to

                                     55.883.000

Total dead:                          62.171.600 to

                                     79.184.700

Percentage: 3.17 to 4.00%

How the Third Reich Fared

The Third Reich refers to: Austria, Germany, ethnic Germans living in areas controlled by the Nazis, and Soviet citizens in the German military.

Total population:                    84.000.000

Military dead:                        5.530.000

Civilian dead:                        1.220.000 to

                                      3.270.000

Total dead:                           6.750.000 to

                                      8.800.000

Percent dead: 8-10.5%

How the Soviet Union Fared

The Soviet Union includes: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, E Poland, Romania, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and Czechoslovakia.

Total population:                    196.716.000

Military dead:                        08.800.000 to

                                      10.700.000

Civilian dead:                        15.900.000 to

                                      17.800.000

Total dead:                           26.600.000

Percent dead: 13.5%

The Holocaust

Technically, the Holocaust only refers to the murder of Europe's Jews at the hand of the Nazis. At the outbreak of the war, there were 7.3 million Jews in Europe. Nearly 6 million of them (78%) were murdered in the span of only five years. 

2.83 million Jews were killed in camps.

• Belzec. 500.000
• Sobibor. 150.000
• Treblinka. 850.000
• Chelmno. 150.000
• Auschwitz. 1.1 million
• Majdanek. 80.000

The Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads) in the USSR were responsible for 1.4 million deaths.

Some 700.000 died in the ghettos.

However, Jews were not the only groups of people murdered by the Nazis. If you add these victims to the Holocaust dead, the numbers reach between 11 and 17 million. 

• Roma (Gypsies). 130.000 to 1.5 million
• Handicapped. 150-200.000
• Prisoners of War. 3.1 million (mostly Soviet)
• Ethnic Poles. 1.8 to 1.9 million
• Soviet civilians. 4.5 to 11 million
• Homosexuals. 10 to 15.000 
• Catholic clergy. 1000 to 2000
• Jehovah's Witness. 1000
• Also: Freemasons, blacks, Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats, and labor leaders

The Soldiers

• Germany. 18.2 million, 30% killed
• Japan. 8.4 million, 25% killed
• Italy. 3.43 million, 8.49% killed
• USSR. 10.72 million, 25% killed
• British Commonwealth. 11.1 million, 5.2% killed
• US. 16.59 million, 2.5% killed

The Good War? I think not. For all its idealization over the past 70 years, the scientists of the Greatest Generation made certain there would never be another war so "good." They invented a weapon so fearsome, there will never be another war on such a truly massive scale.

Thank God. 

Dona Nobis Pacem.