+
upworthy
More

These staggering graphics put the WWII death toll in perspective.

medicine, nurses, casualties, death,
Image (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/gbaku/4019920791 /Wikimedia Commons.

Three World War II nurses sit on a bench in white uniforms.

Trigger warning: Images of war.

The civilian and military deaths of World War II make it, to this day, the most deadly in the history of our world.

But I had no idea of the full scope of this until I watched the video below made in 2015. But first, a tiny little personal story.


.

How many places in the United States have trenches left over from a war with the rest of the world?

I have a friend in Germany who showed me some of the World War II trenches in the woods by his house near Aachen just about 10 years ago. I was blown away by that. We have some things like that left over from the Civil War, but nothing related to a world war. In fact, in some of those trenches and former battlefields, there are still unexploded weapons found even now. What it really means is: World War II is still not finished killing people.

soldiers, war, civilian casualties, military

Unexploded bomb found in Koblenz, Germany, 2011.

Image by Holger Weinandt/Wikimedia Commons.

When people think of war, they often think of soldiers and those who actively seek to do battle.

Overall, of the people killed in World War II, one-third of them were military and the rest civilians.

The Soviet Union (Russia) had by far the most casualties, both civilian and military. This was largely due to things like the Siege of Stalingrad — entire cities were cut off from food, water, and supplies for years, and starvation was all around. (It was also because Russia was headed by a ruthless dictator at the time, Joseph Stalin.)

Holocaust, Jewish civilians, Russia, WWII

War and people in Kiev, June 23, 1941.

Image by K. Lishko (modified)/Wikimedia Commons.

Then there was the Holocaust, which claimed 6 million Jewish civilians and some others as well, such as Roma ("gypsies"), people with disabilities, gays, etc.

There were also events like D-Day (June 6, 1944), that cost 2,500 U.S. soldiers' lives in a single day.

D-Day, Normandy, U.S. troops, Omaha Beach, fighting

U.S. army troops drudge to shore during D-Day landing, Omaha Beach, Normandy. June 6, 1944.

Image by U.S. Coast Guard (modified)/Wikimedia Commons.

When you see the scale of this and consider the total number of lives, both civilian and military, from all countries who had casualties in World War II, the figures are simply astounding.

70 million dead. In six years.

More people died in World War II than in any other war in history. Between the civilian and military casualties, it adds up to roughly the entire 2013 population of the states of New York, New Jersey, and California ... combined.

I work on and write about things from all over the Internet, so I've seen pretty much everything “shocking," “terrifying," and all kinds of things “you won't believe."

But this? I've watched the clip at least 10 times, and I still can't get my mind around it.

The image above is just a taste from Neil Halloran's "The Fallen of World War II." You can see the whole video below; it's 18 minutes and chock full of data on how many lives — civilian and military — were lost.

These are some of the more fascinating parts:

  • The death count of American soldiers starts at about 2:00, including totals, D-Day, and Okinawa.
  • European totals start at 3:20, when Germany invaded Poland. There were so many countries involved, it's pretty amazing. These numbers include battles as well as mass executions.
  • At 4:30, the Western Front, involving Britain and the U.S., begins.
  • Some really staggering numbers about the Eastern Front (the Soviet Union, including Stalingrad) begin about 5:00. This is where the German army began to incur massive losses. The Soviet Union was the first country to defeat Germany but at an almost unbelievable cost in the lives of soldiers and civilians.
  • Civilian deaths, including the Holocaust, begin at 7:30. The Holocaust itself killed about 6 million people.
  • Numbers for the Asian theatre, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki, begin at 12:00.
  • The grand total is revealed about 13:15, and then that's compared with other conflicts throughout history.

At 07:20, you can pause the narration to interact with the charts. And then, it proceeds to get into the civilian deaths, including The Holocaust. It's fascinating, if pretty sobering.

But the good news is, we haven't had a conflict like it since. Let's do what we can to keep it that way, eh?

Because weapons have become so much more destructive than they were then, the idea of another world war is actually much more unthinkable than ever before.

So you may be thinking, "Hey, Upworthy ... this really isn't very UPworthy, if ya know what I mean?!"

When I first watched this, I was actually shocked at the total numbers of people who died in World War II — especially the totals for people in other countries, which we see less often than those for the U.S. only. When the body count hits 70 million, it's something I can't begin to fathom. The 1905 George Santayana axiom goes, "Those who cannot remember the past are destined to repeat it" ... well, that's what I take from this. Your mileage may vary.

Community

How to end hunger, according to the people who face it daily

Here’s what people facing food insecurity want you to know about solving the hunger problem in America

True

Even though America is the world’s wealthiest nation, about 1 in 6 of our neighbors turned to food banks and community programs in order to feed themselves and their families last year. Think about it: More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021 (1 in 8 children).

In order to solve a problem, we must first understand it. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released its second annual Elevating Voices: Insights Report and turned to the experts—people experiencing hunger—to find out how this issue can be solved once and for all.

Here are the four most important things people facing hunger want you to know.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

Keep ReadingShow less
via Pexels

A teacher lists his class rules.

The world would be a much better place if humans weren’t so … human. We all fall short of perfection. Common sense is, sadly, not too common. And there’s one guy out there who always manages to screw things up when things start getting good.

Call it Murphy’s law. Call it the great “reason we can’t have nice things.” Call it entropy. It feels like a whole lot of pain could be avoided if we all had just a little bit more sense.

But what if there was one rule that we all agreed to follow to make everyone’s life better? What would this magical rule be?

A Reddit user who goes by the name P4insplatter came to this realization and asked the AskReddit subforum, “What simple rule would fix the world if everyone actually followed it?” They received dozens of simple rules that if everyone got behind would make the world drastically better.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sandra Maria/Youtube, Official Lives & Music Videos/Youtube

You can't not sing this song.

The music of Queen has a profound visceral effect on everyone. Few pieces of art can cause complete strangers to put aside their differences and come together in song, but by golly, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of them. It would be cheesy if it weren’t so absolutely beautiful.

This pertains even to non-English-speaking countries, it appears. Recently, thousands of Harry Styles concertgoers in Warsaw, Poland, began cheering as those iconic beginning piano notes penetrated the air.
Keep ReadingShow less

Movie critic Roger Ebert speaking his mind at the Sundance Film Festival.

It’s been ten years since the world lost Roger Ebert to cancer, and his voice is sorely missed. Ebert had a pure love of cinema, and even though he was a film critic in a sweater with a Pulitzer Prize, he wrote and spoke in a way accessible to every man.

He didn’t care if a film was a Hollywood blockbuster or art-house fare; what mattered was whether it deserved his highly-coveted “thumbs up.”

Ebert was an extremely gifted communicator whose interests went far beyond film. In his later years, he often mused about music, politics, and American cultural events with the same eloquence, thoughtfulness and wit.

Keep ReadingShow less
@over40slbmom/TikTok

Feeling nostalgic yet?

It seems like so many iterations of unfettered joy from our childhood haven’t made it to the modern age, and playgrounds are no exception.

Gone are the days of metal slides that scorched the derriere in the summertime, seesaws that doubled as human catapults and the notorious merry-go-rounds that separated the weak from the strong. Good old fashioned character building—safety be damned!

As it turns out, a few of these old relics are still standing. And footage of kids playing at one of these bygone parks is filling adults—particularly Gen Xers—with sweet nostalgia.
Keep ReadingShow less

A couple shares why they decided to leave the United States.

Although it is difficult to tell if there is a trend of Americans moving out of the country, rough estimates show that around 8 million currently live in other countries—double the 4.1 million living abroad in 1999.

The most popular countries for Americans to move to are Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom, in that order.

A big reason why some are leaving the U.S. is that an increasing number of employers allow people to work abroad. Others are choosing to leave because of cost of living increases and “golden visa” programs. Golden visas offer the chance to get a foreign residency permit by purchasing a house or making a significant investment or donation.

Keep ReadingShow less