
World War II casualties
Overview
World War II
was the deadliest military conflict in history. Over 60 million people were killed, which was over 2.5% of the world population. The tables below give a detailed country-by-country count of human losses.
World War II fatality statistics vary, estimates of total dead ranging from 50 million to over 70 million.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was the deadliest military conflict in history. Over 60 million people were killed, which was over 2.5% of the world population. The tables below give a detailed country-by-country count of human losses.
World War II fatality statistics vary, estimates of total dead ranging from 50 million to over 70 million.
Unanswered Questions
Discussions
Encyclopedia
World War II
was the deadliest military conflict in history. Over 60 million people were killed, which was over 2.5% of the world population. The tables below give a detailed country-by-country count of human 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. Civilians killed totaled from 40 to 52 million, including 13 to 20 million from war-related disease and famine. Total military dead
: from 22 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war.
has caused a revision of estimates of Soviet war dead. Estimated USSR losses within postwar borders now stand at 26.6 million. In August 2009 the Polish Institute of National Remembrance
(IPN) researchers estimated Poland's dead at between 5.6 and 5.8 million.
The German Army historian
Dr. Rüdiger Overmans published a study in 2000 that estimated German military dead and missing at 5.3 million. War dead totals in this article for the British Commonwealth
are based on the research of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
. Casualties listed here include about 4 to 12 million war-related famine deaths in China, Indonesia, Vietnam
, the Philippines, India
that are often omitted from other compilations of World War II casualties.
. The following chart gives data on the number of dead for each country, along with population information to show the relative impact of losses. 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
, Japanese war crimes
, population transfers in the Soviet Union
, other War Crimes and deaths due to war related famine and disease. 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. 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 U.S.S.R., China, Poland, Germany and Yugoslavia, our sources can give us 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 footnotes give a detailed breakdown of the casualties and their sources, including data on the number of wounded where reliable sources are available.
The estimated breakdown for each Soviet Republic of total war dead is as follows
Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the other victims persecuted and killed by the Nazis
. Using this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims
is between 11 million and 17 million people.
Jewish Holocaust deaths
Included in the above figures of total war dead are the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
The following figures are from The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust.
Roma losses by country
Included in the figures of total war dead are the Roma victims of the Nazi persecution, some scholars include the Roma deaths with the Holocaust.
The following figures are from The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust.
are included with World War II casualties.
Russian sources list Axis Prisoner of war
deaths of 580,589 in Soviet captivity However some western scholars estimate the total at between 1.7 and 2.3 million.
Annual Report 2009-2010 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 The Commonwealth War Graves Commission are representative of the number of names commemorated for all servicemen/women of the Armed Forces of the Commonwealth and former U.K. 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 C.W.G.C. the dates of inclusion for Commonwealth War Dead are 03/09/1939 to 31/12/1947.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was the deadliest military conflict in history. Over 60 million people were killed, which was over 2.5% of the world population. The tables below give a detailed country-by-country count of human losses.
Total dead
World War II fatality statistics vary, estimates of total dead ranging from 50 million to over 70 million. The sources cited in this article document an estimated death toll in World War II of 62 to 78 million, making it the deadliest war in world history in absolute terms of total dead but not in terms of deaths relative to the world population.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. Civilians killed totaled from 40 to 52 million, including 13 to 20 million from war-related disease and famine. Total military dead
Battle casualties of World War II
The article summarizes casualties in different theatres of World War II. Only the military losses and civilian losses directly associated with hostilities are included into the article...
: from 22 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war.
Recent historical scholarship
Recent historical scholarship has shed new insight into the topic of Second World War casualties. Research in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
has caused a revision of estimates of Soviet war dead. Estimated USSR losses within postwar borders now stand at 26.6 million. In August 2009 the Polish Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
(IPN) researchers estimated Poland's dead at between 5.6 and 5.8 million.
The German Army historian
German Armed Forces Military History Research Office
The German Armed Forces Military History Research Office is located at Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg, Germany.-Mission:...
Dr. Rüdiger Overmans published a study in 2000 that estimated German military dead and missing at 5.3 million. War dead totals in this article for the British Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
are based on the research of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
. Casualties listed here include about 4 to 12 million war-related famine deaths in China, Indonesia, Vietnam
Vietnamese Famine of 1945
The Vietnamese Famine of 1945 was a famine that occurred in northern Vietnam from October 1944 to May 1945, during the Japanese occupation of French Indochina in World War II. Between 400,000 and 2 million people are estimated to have starved to death during this time.-Causes:There were many...
, the Philippines, India
Bengal famine of 1943
The Bengal famine of 1943 struck the Bengal. Province of pre-partition India. Estimates are that between 1.5 and 4 million people died of starvation, malnutrition and disease, out of Bengal’s 60.3 million population, half of them dying from disease after food became available in December 1943 As...
that are often omitted from other compilations of World War II casualties.
Classification of casualties
Some nations in World War II suffered disproportionally more casualties than others. This is especially true regarding civilian casualtiesCivilian casualties
Civilian casualties is a military term describing civilian or non-combatant persons killed, injured, or imprisoned by military action. The description of civilian casualties includes any form of military action regardless of whether civilians were targeted directly...
. The following chart gives data on the number of dead for each country, along with population information to show the relative impact of losses. Military figures include battle deaths
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
(KIA) and personnel missing in action
Missing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
(MIA), as well as fatalities due to accidents, disease and deaths of prisoners of war in captivity. Civilian casualties
Civilian casualties
Civilian casualties is a military term describing civilian or non-combatant persons killed, injured, or imprisoned by military action. The description of civilian casualties includes any form of military action regardless of whether civilians were targeted directly...
include deaths caused by strategic bombing
Strategic bombing
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...
, Holocaust victims
Holocaust victims
While the term Holocaust victims generally refers to Jews, the Nazis also persecuted and often killed millions of members of other groups they considered inferior , undesirable or dangerous....
, Japanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
, population transfers in the Soviet Union
Population transfer in the Soviet Union
Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population, often classified as "enemies of workers," deportations of entire nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite...
, other War Crimes and deaths due to war related famine and disease. Compiling or estimating the numbers of deaths
Casualty (person)
A casualty is a person who is the victim of an accident, injury, or trauma. The word casualties is most often used by the news media to describe deaths and injuries resulting from wars or disasters...
caused during wars and other violent conflicts is a controversial subject
Conflict epidemiology
The emerging field of conflict epidemiology offers a more accurate method to measure deaths caused during violent conflicts or wars that can generate more reliable numbers than before to guide decision-makers....
. Historians often put forward many different estimates of the numbers killed during World War II. The distinction between military
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
and civilian casualties
Civilian casualties
Civilian casualties is a military term describing civilian or non-combatant persons killed, injured, or imprisoned by military action. The description of civilian casualties includes any form of military action regardless of whether civilians were targeted directly...
caused directly by warfare and collateral damage
Collateral damage
Collateral damage is damage to people or property that is unintended or incidental to the intended outcome. The phrase is prevalently used as an euphemism for civilian casualties of a military action.-Etymology:...
is not always clear cut. For nations that suffered huge losses such as the U.S.S.R., China, Poland, Germany and Yugoslavia, our sources can give us only the total estimated population loss
Demographic analysis
Demographic analysis includes the sets of methods that allow us to measure the dimensions and dynamics of populations. These methods have primarily been developed to study human populations, but are extended to a variety of areas where researchers want to know how populations of social actors can...
caused by the war and a rough estimate
Approximation
An approximation is a representation of something that is not exact, but still close enough to be useful. Although approximation is most often applied to numbers, it is also frequently applied to such things as mathematical functions, shapes, and physical laws.Approximations may be used because...
of the breakdown of deaths caused by military activity, crimes against humanity and war related famine. The footnotes give a detailed breakdown of the casualties and their sources, including data on the number of wounded where reliable sources are available.
Total deaths
EWLINE
|
- Figures rounded to the nearest hundredth place.
- Population in 1939 - Source: Population Statistics
- War losses are for the national boundaries of 1939.
- Military casualties include deaths of regular military forces from combat as well as non combat causes. PartisanPartisan (military)A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
and resistanceResistance during World War IIResistance movements during World War II occurred in every occupied country by a variety of means, ranging from non-cooperation, disinformation and propaganda to hiding crashed pilots and even to outright warfare and the recapturing of towns...
fighter deaths forces are included with military losses. The deaths of prisoners of war in captivity and personnel missing in actionMissing in actionMissing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
are also included with military deaths. The armed forces of the various nations are treated as single entities, for example the deaths of Austrians, Soviets, French and ethnic GermansVolksdeutscheVolksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
in the WehrmachtWehrmachtThe Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
are included with German military losses.
- Civilian casualtiesCivilian casualtiesCivilian casualties is a military term describing civilian or non-combatant persons killed, injured, or imprisoned by military action. The description of civilian casualties includes any form of military action regardless of whether civilians were targeted directly...
include deaths caused by strategic bombingStrategic bombingStrategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...
, Holocaust victimsHolocaust victimsWhile the term Holocaust victims generally refers to Jews, the Nazis also persecuted and often killed millions of members of other groups they considered inferior , undesirable or dangerous....
, Japanese war crimesJapanese war crimesJapanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
, population transfers in the Soviet UnionPopulation transfer in the Soviet UnionPopulation transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population, often classified as "enemies of workers," deportations of entire nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite...
, Allied war crimes and deaths due to war related famine and disease. The exact breakdown is not always provided in the sources cited.
- Total Soviet losses in the postwar 1946–91 boundaries were 26.6 million. (13.5% of the total population of 196.7 million)
- Total Polish losses in the postwar 1946 boundaries were about 3,600,000 (15.8% of the total population of 23.3 million)
- Total Romanian losses in the postwar 1946 boundaries. were 500,000 (2.5% of the total population of 15.9 million)
- Total losses of CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
in the post war 1946-1991 borders were 280,000 (1.9% of the total population of 14.6 million.)
Third Reich
EWLINE
|
USSR
EWLINE
|
The estimated breakdown for each Soviet Republic of total war dead is as follows
Soviet Republic | Population 1940 | Military Dead | Civilian Dead | Total | Deaths as % 1940 Pop. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to... |
3,270,000 | 210,000 | 90,000 | 300,000 | 9.1% |
Armenia Armenia Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia... |
1,320,000 | 150,000 | 30,000 | 180,000 | 13.6% |
Belarus Belarus Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,... |
9,050,000 | 620,000 | 1,670,000 | 2,290,000 | 25.3% |
Estonia Estonia Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies... |
1,050,000 | 30,000 | 50,000 | 80,000 | 7.6% |
Georgia Georgia (country) Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of... |
3,610,000 | 190,000 | 110,000 | 300,000 | 8.3% |
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe... |
6,150,000 | 310,000 | 350,000 | 660,000 | 10.7% |
Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east... |
1,530,000 | 70,000 | 50,000 | 120,000 | 7.8% |
Latvia Latvia Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden... |
1,890,000 | 30,000 | 230,000 | 260,000 | 13.7% |
Lithuania Lithuania Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark... |
2,930,000 | 25,000 | 350,000 | 375,000 | 12.7% |
Moldova Moldova Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part... |
2,470,000 | 50,000 | 120,000 | 170,000 | 6.9% |
Russia Russia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects... |
110,100,000 | 6,750,000 | 7,200,000 | 13,950,000 | 12.7% |
Tajikistan Tajikistan Tajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and China to the east.... |
1,530,000 | 50,000 | 70,000 | 120,000 | 7.8% |
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan Turkmenistan , formerly also known as Turkmenia is one of the Turkic states in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic . Turkmenistan is one of the six independent Turkic states... |
1,300,000 | 70,000 | 30,000 | 100,000 | 7.7% |
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south.... |
6,550,000 | 330,000 | 220,000 | 550,000 | 8.4% |
Ukraine Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia... |
41,340,000 | 1,650,000 | 5,200,000 | 6,850,000 | 16.3% |
Unidentified | - | 165,000 | 130,000 | 295,000 | |
Total USSR | 194,090,000 | 10,700,000 | 15,900,000 | 26,600,000 | 13.7% |
- The source of the figures on the table is Vadim Erlikman. Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow 2004. ISBN 5-93165-107-1 pp. 23–35
- Figure of 15.9 million civilian war dead includes 3-4 million deaths due to war related famine and disease in the interior regions not occupied by Nazi Germany.
- Figures for BelarusBelarusBelarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
and the UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
include about 2 million civilian dead that are also listed in the total war dead of Poland.
Holocaust deaths
Included in the above figures of total war dead are the victims of the Holocaust- Jews: The Holocaust is the term generally used to describe the genocideGenocideGenocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, Martin GilbertMartin GilbertSir Martin John Gilbert, CBE, PC is a British historian and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history...
estimates 5.7 million (78%) of the 7.3 million Jews in German occupied Europe were Holocaust victims. Other estimates for HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
deaths range between 4.9 to 6.0 million Jews.
Some scholars maintain that the definition of the Holocaust should also include the other victims persecuted and killed by the Nazis
Holocaust victims
While the term Holocaust victims generally refers to Jews, the Nazis also persecuted and often killed millions of members of other groups they considered inferior , undesirable or dangerous....
. Using this definition, the total number of Holocaust victims
Holocaust victims
While the term Holocaust victims generally refers to Jews, the Nazis also persecuted and often killed millions of members of other groups they considered inferior , undesirable or dangerous....
is between 11 million and 17 million people.
- Roma: Most estimates of Roma (Gypsies)PorajmosThe Porajmos was the attempt made by Nazi Germany, the Independent State of Croatia, Horthy's Hungary and their allies to exterminate the Romani people of Europe during World War II...
victims range from 130,000 to 500,000 Ian HancockIan HancockIan Hancock is a linguist, Romani scholar, and political advocate. He was born and raised in England, and is one of the main contributors in the field of Romani studies....
, Director of the Program of Romani Studies and the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at the University of Texas at Austin, has argued in favour of a higher figure of between 500,000 and 1,500,000 Roma dead Hancock writes that, proportionately, the death toll equaled "and almost certainly exceed[ed], that of Jewish victims."
- Handicapped persons: 150,000 to 200,000 handicapped personsAction T4Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
were victims of Nazi euthanasia.
- Prisoners of War: POW deaths in Nazi captivity totaled 3.1 Million including 2.6 to 3 million Soviet prisoners of war.
- Ethnic Poles: 1.8 to 1.9 million civilians were victims (see Nazi crimes against ethnic PolesNazi crimes against ethnic PolesIn addition to about 2.9 million Polish Jews , about 2.8 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished during the course of the war...
).
- RussiansRussiansThe Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
, UkrainiansUkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and BelarusiansBelarusiansBelarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
: Sources in the English language estimate 4.5 to 11.7 million Soviet civiliansGeneralplan OstGeneralplan Ost was a secret Nazi German plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe. Implementing it would have necessitated genocide and ethnic cleansing to be undertaken in the Eastern European territories occupied by Germany during World War II...
were victims of Nazi ethnic cleansing and the war; A report published by the Russian Academy of Science in 1995 put the civilian death toll due to the German occupation at 13.7 million Contemporary Russian sources use the terms "genocide" and "premeditated extermination" when referring to civilian losses in the occupied USSR. Civilians killed in reprisals during the Soviet partisan war and wartime related famine account for a major part the huge toll. Russian sources include Jewish Holocaust deaths with total civilian deaths and do not list them separately
- Homosexuals: 10,000-15,000 Gay men perished in Nazi concentration camps.
- Other victims of Nazi persecution: Between 1,000 to 2,000 Roman Catholic clergy about 1,000 Jehovah's WitnessesPersecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nazi GermanyJehovah's Witnesses were persecuted in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945. Members of the religious group refused to serve in the German military or give allegiance to the Nazi government, for which hundreds were executed. An estimated 10,000 were sent to concentration camps where approximately...
; and an unknown number of Freemasons. perished in Nazi prisons and camps. "The fate of black peopleRhineland BastardRhineland Bastard was a derogatory term used in Nazi Germany to describe Afro-German children of mixed German and African parentage who were fathered by Africans serving as French colonial troops occupying the Rhineland after World War I...
from 1933 to 1945 in Nazi Germany and in German-occupied territories ranged from isolation to persecution, sterilization, medical experimentation, incarceration, brutality, and murder." During the Nazi era Communists, Socialists, Social DemocratsSocial Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
, and trade union leaders were victims of Nazi persecution.
- SerbsSerbsThe Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
: The Croatian allies of Nazi Germany murdered between 320,000 and 340,000 ethnic Serb residents of Croatia and Bosnia during the war.
Jewish Holocaust deaths
Included in the above figures of total war dead are the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
The following figures are from The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust.
Country | Pre War Jewish population | Low Estimate | High Estimate |
---|---|---|---|
Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
191,000 | 50,000 | 65,000 |
Belgium Belgium Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... |
60,000 | 25,000 | 29,000 |
Czech Republic Czech Republic The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest.... (Bohemia & Moravia) |
92,000 | 77,000 | 78,300 |
Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... |
8,000 | 60 | 116 |
Estonia Estonia Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies... |
4,600 | 1,500 | 2,000 |
France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
260,000 | 75,000 | 77,000 |
Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
566,000 | 135,000 | 142,000 |
Greece Greece Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe.... |
73,000 | 59,000 | 67,000 |
Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The... (borders 1940) |
725,000 | 502,000 | 569,000 |
Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... |
48,000 | 6,500 | 9,000 |
Latvia Latvia Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden... |
95,000 | 70,000 | 72,000 |
Lithuania Lithuania Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark... |
155,000 | 130,000 | 143,000 |
Luxembourg Luxembourg Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south... |
3,500 | 1,000 | 2,000 |
Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
112,000 | 100,000 | 105,000 |
Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
1,700 | 800 | 800 |
Poland Poland Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north... |
3,250,000 | 2,700,000 | 3,000,000 |
Romania Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea... (Borders 1940) |
441,000 | 121,000 | 287,000 |
Slovakia Slovakia The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south... |
89,000 | 60,000 | 71,000 |
Soviet Union Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.... (Borders 1939) |
2,825,000 | 700,000 | 1,100,000 |
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century.... |
68,000 | 56,000 | 65,000 |
Total | 9,067,000 | 4,869,860 | 5,894,716 |
Roma losses by country
Included in the figures of total war dead are the Roma victims of the Nazi persecution, some scholars include the Roma deaths with the Holocaust.
The following figures are from The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust.
Country | Pre War Roma population | Low Estimate | High Estimate |
---|---|---|---|
Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
11,200 | 6,800 | 8,250 |
Belgium Belgium Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many... |
600 | 350 | 500 |
Czech Republic Czech Republic The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest.... (Bohemia & Moravia) |
13,000 | 5,000 | 6,500 |
Estonia Estonia Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies... |
1,000 | 500 | 1,000 |
France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
40,000 | 15,150 | 15,150 |
Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
20,000 | 15,000 | 15,000 |
Greece Greece Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe.... |
? | 50 | 50 |
Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The... |
100,000 | 1,000 | 28,000 |
Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... |
25,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
Latvia Latvia Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden... |
5,000 | 1,500 | 2,500 |
Lithuania Lithuania Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark... |
1,000 | 500 | 1,000 |
Luxembourg Luxembourg Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south... |
200 | 100 | 200 |
Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
500 | 215 | 500 |
Poland Poland Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north... |
50,000 | 8,000 | 35,000 |
Romania Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea... |
300,000 | 19,000 | 36,000 |
Slovakia Slovakia The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south... |
80,000 | 400 | 10,000 |
Soviet Union Soviet Union The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.... (Borders 1939) |
200,000 | 30,000 | 35,000 |
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century.... |
100,000 | 26,000 | 90,000 |
Total | 947,500 | 130,565 | 285,650 |
- In a 2010 publication, Ian HancockIan HancockIan Hancock is a linguist, Romani scholar, and political advocate. He was born and raised in England, and is one of the main contributors in the field of Romani studies....
stated that he agrees with the view that the number of Romanis killed has been underestimated as a result of being grouped with others in Nazi records under headings such as "remainder to be liquidated", "hangers-on" and "partisans".
Japanese war crimes
Included with total war dead are victims of Japanese war crimesJapanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
- R. J. RummelR. J. RummelRudolph Joseph Rummel is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii. He has spent his career assembling data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination...
estimates the civilian victims at 5,424,000. Detailed by country: China 3,695,000; IndochinaIndochinaThe Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
457,000; Korea 378,000; Indonesia 375,000; Malaya-Singapore 283,000; Philippines 119,000, Burma 60,000 and Pacific Islands 57,000. Rummel estimates POW deaths in Japanese custody at 539,000 Detailed by country: China 400,000; French Indochina 30,000; Philippines 27,300; Netherlands 25,000; France 14,000; UK 13,000; UK-Colonies 11,000; US 10,700; Australia 8,000.
- Werner Gruhl estimates the civilian victims at 20,365,000. Detailed by country: China 12,392,000; IndochinaIndochinaThe Indochinese peninsula, is a region in Southeast Asia. It lies roughly southwest of China, and east of India. The name has its origins in the French, Indochine, as a combination of the names of "China" and "India", and was adopted when French colonizers in Vietnam began expanding their territory...
1,500,000; Korea 500,000; Dutch East Indies 3,000,000; Malaya and Singapore 100,000; Philippines 500,000; Burma 170,000; Forced laborers in Southeast Asia 70,000, 30,000 interned non-Asian civilians; Timor 60,000; Thailand and Pacific Islands 60,000. Gruhl estimates POW deaths in Japanese captivity at 331,584. Detailed by country: China 270,000; Netherlands 8,500; U.K. 12,433; Canada 273; Philippines 20,000; Australia 7,412; New Zealand 31; and the United States 12,935
- The historian Chalmers JohnsonChalmers JohnsonChalmers Ashby Johnson was an American author and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He served in the Korean War, was a consultant for the CIA from 1967–1973, and chaired the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley from 1967 to 1972...
has written that “the Japanese slaughtered as many as 30 million FilipinosPhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, MalaysBritish MalayaBritish Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
, VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese, CambodiaCambodiaCambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
ns, IndonesiaIndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
ns and Burmese, at least 23 million of them ethnic ChineseOverseas ChineseOverseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....
- Out of “60,000" Indian Army POWs taken at the Fall of Singapore, 11,000 died in captivity
- There were 14,657 deaths among the total 130,895 western civilians interned by the Japanese due to famine and disease.
Deportations in the USSR
The deaths of 400,000 civilians deported during the Soviet annexations in 1939–40Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
are included with World War II casualties.
Russian sources list Axis Prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
deaths of 580,589 in Soviet captivity However some western scholars estimate the total at between 1.7 and 2.3 million.
Military casualties by branch of service
EWLINE
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Germany
USSR
British Commonwealth
U.S.
|
Commonwealth military casualties
The Commonwealth War Graves CommissionCommonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
Annual Report 2009-2010 is the source of the military dead for the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
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 The Commonwealth War Graves Commission are representative of the number of names commemorated for all servicemen/women of the Armed Forces of the Commonwealth and former U.K. 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 C.W.G.C. the dates of inclusion for Commonwealth War Dead are 03/09/1939 to 31/12/1947.
Charts and graphs
Footnotes
- Albania
No reliable statistics on Albania's wartime losses exist, but the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration reported about 30,000 Albanian war dead. Albanian official statistics claim somewhat higher losses.
Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 200, these Jews were Yugoslav citizens resident in Albania. Jews of Albanian origin survived the Holocaust - Australia
The Australian War MemorialAustralian War MemorialThe Australian War Memorial is Australia's national memorial to the members of all its armed forces and supporting organisations who have died or participated in the wars of the Commonwealth of Australia...
reports 39,761 military deaths. This figure includes all personnel who died from war-related causes during 1939–47.
The Australian government does not regard merchant marinersMerchant NavyThe Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...
as military personnel and the 349 Australians killed in action while crewing merchant ships around the world, are included in the total civilian deaths. Other civilian fatalities were due to air raids and attacks on passenger shipsAxis naval activity in Australian watersAlthough Australia was remote from the main battlefronts, there was considerable Axis naval activity in Australian waters during the Second World War. A total of 54 German and Japanese warships and submarines entered Australian waters between 1940 and 1945 and attacked ships, ports and other targets...
.
The preliminary 1945 data for Australian losses was 23,365 killed, 6,030 missing, 39,803 wounded and 26,363 POWs. - Austria
Military war dead reported by Dr. Rüdiger Overmans of 260,749 are included with Germany. The Embassy of Austria, Washington DC USA, provides the following information on human losses during the rule of the Nazis. For Austria the consequences of the Nazi regime and the Second World War were disastrous: During this period 2,700 Austrians had been executed and more than 16,000 citizens murdered in the concentration camps. Some 16,000 Austrians were killed in prison, while over 67,000 Austrian Jews were deported to death camps, only 2,000 of them lived to see the end of the war. In addition, 247,000 Austrians lost their lives serving in the army of the Third Reich or were reported missing, and 24,000 civilians were killed during bombing raids. These figures include the genocide of Romani people of 6,500 persons and Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaling 65,000. - Belgium
Belgian government sources reported that military war dead included 8,800 killed, 500 missing in actionMissing in actionMissing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
, 200 executed, 800 resistance movementResistance movementA resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
fighters and 1,800 POWs. Civilian losses included deaths due to military operations of 32,200 and 16,900 non-Jewish victims of Nazi reprisals and repression. Losses of about 10,000 in the German Armed Forces are not included in these figures, they are included with German military casualties. The genocide of Roma people was 500 persons. Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 24,387. - Brazil
The Brazilian Expeditionary ForceBrazilian Expeditionary ForceThe Brazilian Expeditionary Force or BEF was a force about 25,700 men and women arranged by the Army and Air Force to fight alongside the Allied forces in the Mediterranean Theatre of World War II...
war dead were 510, Navy losses in the Battle of the Atlantic were 492. Civilian losses due to attacks on merchant shipping were 470 merchant mariners and 502 passengers. - Bulgaria
Bulgarian military war dead were as follows, 2,000 military with Axis in Yugoslavia and Greece; 10,124 military dead as allies of the USSRMilitary history of Bulgaria during World War IIThe military history of Bulgaria during World War II encompasses an initial period of neutrality until 1 March 1941, a period of alliance with the Axis Powers until 9 September 1944 and a period of alignment with the Allies until the end of the war. Bulgaria was a constitutional monarchy during...
and 10,000 Anti-Fascist Partisan deaths. Regarding partisan and civilian casualties the Russian journalist Vadim Erlikman notes "According to the official data of the royal government 2,320 were killed and 199 executed. The communists claim that 20–35,000 persons died. In reality deaths were 10,000, including and unknown number of civilians." 3,000 civilians were killed by Anglo-American air raids., including 1,374 in Bombing of Sofia in World War IIBombing of Sofia in World War IIThe Bulgarian capital of Sofia suffered a series of Allied bombing raids during World War II, from late 1943 to early 1944. Bulgaria declared a token war on the United Kingdom and the United States on 13 December 1941...
. - Burma
Military dead of 22,000 were with the pro-Japanese Burma National ArmyBurma National ArmyThe Burma National Army served as the armed forces of the Burmese government created by the Japanese during World War II and fought in the Burma Campaign...
. Civilian deaths during the Japanese occupation of BurmaJapanese occupation of BurmaThe Japanese occupation of Burma refers to the period between 1942 and 1945 during World War II, when Burma was a part of the Empire of Japan. The Japanese had assisted formation of the Burma Independence Army, and trained the Thirty Comrades, who were the founders of the modern Armed Forces...
totaled 250,000; 110,000 Burmese, plus 100,000 Indian and 40,000 Chinese civilians in Burma. Werner Gruhl estimates Burma's dead at 170,000 civilians due to the Japanese occupation - Canada
The Commonwealth War Graves CommissionCommonwealth War Graves CommissionThe Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
lists 45,383 war dead. including 102 deaths from Newfoundland with the Canadian forces. The Canadian War MuseumCanadian War MuseumThe Canadian War Museum is Canada’s national museum of military history. Located in Ottawa, Ontario, the museum covers all facets of Canada’s military past, from the first recorded instances of death by armed violence in Canadian history several thousand years ago to the country’s most recent...
puts military losses at 42,000 plus 1,600 Merchant NavyMerchant NavyThe Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...
deaths The Canadian Virtual War Memorial contains a registry of information about the graves and memorials of Canadians and Newfoundlanders who served valiantly and gave their lives for their country
The preliminary 1945 data for Canadian losses was killed 37,476, missing 1,843, wounded 53,174 and POW 9,045. - China
Sources for total Chinese war dead range from 10 to 20 million as detailed below.
John W. DowerJohn W. DowerJohn W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...
has noted "So great was the devastation and suffering in China that in the end it is necessary to speak of uncertain 'millions' of deaths. Certainly, it is reasonable to think in general terms of approximately 10 million Chinese war dead, a total surpassed only by the Soviet Union."
The official Chinese government statistics for China's civilian and military casualties in the Second Sino-Japanese WarSecond Sino-Japanese WarThe Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
from 1937–1945 are 20 million dead and 15 million wounded. The figures for total military casualties, killed and wounded are: NationalistNational Revolutionary ArmyThe National Revolutionary Army , pre-1928 sometimes shortened to 革命軍 or Revolutionary Army and between 1928-1947 as 國軍 or National Army was the Military Arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947, as well as the national army of the Republic of China during the KMT's period of party rule...
3.2 million; CommunistPeople's Liberation ArmyThe People's Liberation Army is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China. The PLA was established on August 1, 1927 — celebrated annually as "PLA Day" — as the military arm of the Communist Party of China...
580,000 and collaborator forcesCollaborationist Chinese ArmyThe Collaborationist Chinese Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War went under different names at different times depending on which collaborationist leader or puppet regime it was organized under....
1.18 million; captured: collaborator forces 950,000.
The official account of the war published in Taiwan reported the Nationalist Chinese Army lost 3,238,000 men (1.797,000 WIA; 1,320,000 KIA and 120,000 MIA.) and 5,787,352 civilians in casualties
An academic study published in the United States estimates total war deaths of 15–20 million from all causes: military casualties: 1.5 million killed in battle, 750,000 missing in action, 1.5 million deaths due to disease and 3 million wounded; civilian casualties: due to military activity, killed 1,073,496 and 237,319 wounded; 335,934 killed and 426,249 wounded in Japanese air attacksBombing of ChongqingThe bombing of Chongqing was part of a terror bombing operation conducted by Imperial Japanese Army Air Service and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service on the Chinese provisional capital of Chongqing, authorized by the Imperial General Headquarters.A conservative estimate places the...
R. J. RummelR. J. RummelRudolph Joseph Rummel is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii. He has spent his career assembling data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination...
's estimate of total war dead from 1937–45 is 19,605,000 The details are as follows:
Military dead: 3,400,000 (including 400,000 POW) Nationalist/Communist and 432,000 collaborator forcesCollaborationist Chinese ArmyThe Collaborationist Chinese Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War went under different names at different times depending on which collaborationist leader or puppet regime it was organized under....
.
Civilian war deaths: 3,808,000 killed in fighting and 3,549,000 victims of Japanese war crimesJapanese war crimesJapanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
(not including an additional 400,000 POWs);
Other deaths: Repression by Chinese NationalistChinese nationalistChinese nationalist can refer to:* Chinese nationalism* Kuomintang - Chinese Nationalist Party in Taiwan....
's 5,907,000 (3,081,000 military conscripts who died due mistreatment and 2,826,000 civilian deaths caused by Nationalist government, including the 1938 Yellow River flood1938 Yellow River floodThe 1938 Yellow River flood was a flood created by the Nationalist Government in central China during the early stage of the Second Sino-Japanese War in an attempt to halt the rapid advance of the Japanese forces...
; political repression by Chinese Communists 250,000 and by WarlordWarlordA warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
s 110,000. Additional deaths due to famine were 2,250,000.
Werner Gruhl estimates China's war losses at 12,392,000 civilian dead due to the Japanese occupation and 3,162,00 military dead. He also estimates an additional 1,445,000 deaths due to internal Chinese conflicts - Cuba
Cuba lost 5 merchant ships and 79 dead merchant mariners. - Czechoslovakia
Military war dead of 25,000 included Killed during 1938 occupation(171); Czechoslovak Forces with the western allies (3,220); Czechoslovak military units on Eastern frontCzechoslovak military units on Eastern frontThe 1st Independent Field Battalion, which was formed in Buzuluk, in the Urals, was the first Allied unit fighting alongside the Red Army in Soviet territory...
(4,570); Slovak Republic (WWII) Axis forces (7,000); Partisan (military)Partisan (military)A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
losses of (2,170) and killed in 1945 uprising(8,000). Civilian losses in include killed during 1938 occupation(262); non Jewish victims of Nazi reprisals (26,500) and killed in military operations (10,000)., Civilian losses include the territories of prewar Czechoslovakia including Carpathian RutheniaCarpathian RutheniaCarpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
which was ceded to the USSR after the war. The genocide of Roma people was 7,500 persons. Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 277,000. - Denmark
During the Occupation of DenmarkOccupation of DenmarkNazi Germany's occupation of Denmark began with Operation Weserübung on 9 April 1940, and lasted until German forces withdrew at the end of World War II following their surrender to the Allies on 5 May 1945. Contrary to the situation in other countries under German occupation, most Danish...
military war dead included 1,281Merchant Marine, 797 resistance fighters and 39 Army personnel. Civilian deaths included 628 victims of Nazi reprisals and 427 killed during military operations. Total deaths 3,172. There were an additional 3,900 Danish deaths in German military service that are included with German losses.
.Deaths of Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 77. - Dutch East IndiesDutch East IndiesThe Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
John W. DowerJohn W. DowerJohn W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...
cites a UN report that estimated 4 million famine and forced labor dead during the Japanese Occupation of IndonesiaJapanese Occupation of IndonesiaThe Japanese Empire occupied Indonesia, known then as the Dutch East Indies, during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of War in 1945...
.
The United Nations reported in 1947 that "about 30,000 Europeans and 300,000 Indonesian internees and forced laborers died during the occupation." They reported, "The total number who were killed by the Japanese, or who died from, hunger, disease and lack of medical attention is estimated at 3,000,000 for Java alone, 1,000,000 for the Outer Islands. Altogether 35,000 of the 240,000 Europeans died; most of them were men of working age."
The Dutch Red Cross reported the deaths in Japanese custody of 14,800 European civilians out of 80,000 interned and 12,500 of the 34,000 POW captured.
Werner Gruhl estimates the civilian death toll due to the war and Japanese occupation at 3,000,000 Indonesians and 30,000 interned Europeans. - Estonia
Civilian deaths due to the Soviet and German occupation of Estonia from 1940 to 1945 were approximately 51,000 persons based on a study by Estonian State Commission on Examination of Policies of Repression
A.Civilian deaths due to the Soviet occupation in 1940–1941 were 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.
B.Losses during the 1941-1944 Occupation of Estonia by Nazi GermanyOccupation of Estonia by Nazi GermanyAfter Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Army Group North reached Estonia in July.Initially the Germans were perceived by most Estonians as liberators from the USSR and its repressions, having arrived only a week after the first mass deportations from the Baltics...
were 12,040, including (7,800) executed by Nazis and (1,040) killed in prison camps. (200) people died in forced labor in Germany. (800) deaths in Soviet bombing raids against Estonian cities, (1,000) killed in Allied air raids on Germany and (1,200) perished at sea while attempting to flee the country in 1944–45.
Included in the above figures is the genocide of Roma people of (243) persons, Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaling (1,000).
C.After the reoccupation by the U.S.S.R 5,000 Estonians died in Soviet prisons during 1944–45.
D.The figures do not include the military deaths of the illegally drafted conscripts by the Soviet (10,000) and German armed forces (11,000).
E.Figures do not include the executions, deportee deaths, and insurgent lossesForest BrothersThe Forest Brothers were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged a guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II...
in 1944–1989 during the Soviet reoccupation of 11,000 persons.
Total deaths from 1940–53 due the war and the Soviet occupation was approximately 82,000 persons (8% of the population). - Ethiopia
Total military and civilian dead in the East African CampaignEast African Campaign (World War II)The East African Campaign was a series of battles fought in East Africa during World War II by the British Empire, the British Commonwealth of Nations and several allies against the forces of Italy from June 1940 to November 1941....
were 100,000. Military losses were 5,000.
These totals do not include losses in the Italian Second Italo-Abyssinian WarSecond Italo-Abyssinian WarThe Second Italo–Abyssinian War was a colonial war that started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war was fought between the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy and the armed forces of the Ethiopian Empire...
and Italian occupation from 1935–41. The official Ethiopian government report lists 760,000 deaths due to the war and Italian occupation from 1935–41. However, R. J. RummelR. J. RummelRudolph Joseph Rummel is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii. He has spent his career assembling data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination...
estimates 200,000 Ethiopians and Libyans killed by the Italians from the 1920s–41, his estimate is "based on Discovery TV Cable Channel Program 'Timewatch 1/17/92. - Finland
The Finnish National Archives website lists the names of the 95,000 Finnish military war dead. Figures include killed and missing from the Winter WarWinter WarThe Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
and Continuation WarContinuation WarThe Continuation War was the second of two wars fought between Finland and the Soviet Union during World War II.At the time of the war, the Finnish side used the name to make clear its perceived relationship to the preceding Winter War...
with the Soviet Union as well as action against German forces in 1944–45, Winter WarWinter WarThe Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
(1939–40) losses were 22,830, military deaths from 1941–44 were 58,715 and 1,036 in 1944–45 in the Lapland WarLapland WarThe Lapland War were the hostilities between Finland and Nazi Germany between September 1944 and April 1945, fought in Finland's northernmost Lapland Province. While the Finns saw this as a separate conflict much like the Continuation War, German forces considered their actions to be part of the...
Soviet sources list the deaths of 403 of the 2,377 Finnish POW taken in the War. During the Winter warWinter WarThe Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
of 1939–40 the Swedish Volunteer Corps served alongside the Finns in combat. 1,407 Finnish volunteers served in the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS and 256 were killed in action.
Civilian war dead were 2,000, due in part to the Bombing of Helsinki in World War IIBombing of Helsinki in World War IIThe capital of Finland, Helsinki was bombed several times during World War II. Between 1939–1945 Finland fought three wars, two against the Soviet Union and one against Germany... - France
Military war dead include 150,000 regular forces (1939–40 Battle of FranceBattle of FranceIn the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
92,000; 1940–45 on Western Front (World War II)Western Front (World War II)The Western Front of the European Theatre of World War II encompassed, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and West Germany. The Western Front was marked by two phases of large-scale ground combat operations...
58,000; 20,000 French resistanceFrench ResistanceThe French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi German occupation of France and against the collaborationist Vichy régime during World War II...
fighters and 40,000 POWs in Germany. There were an additional 5,000 military deaths in French IndochinaFrench IndochinaFrench Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
. The pro-German Vichy FranceVichy FranceVichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
forces lost 2,653 killed. Vadim Erlikman a Russian journalist, estimates losses of Africans in the French Colonial ForcesFrench Colonial ForcesThe French Colonial Forces , commonly called La Coloniale, was a general designation for the military forces that garrisoned in the French colonial empire from the late 17th century until 1960. They were recruited from mainland France or from the French settler and indigenous populations of the...
at about 22,000. French deaths in German Army (30–40,000), mostly men conscripted in Alsace-LorraineAlsace-LorraineThe Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
, are not included in these totals, they are included with Germany
Civilian losses include 120,000 killed due to military action and 230,000 victims of the Nazi reprisals and genocide (including 83,000 Jews). 752 civilians were killed during the US air attacks on French TunisiaFrench occupation of TunisiaThe French conquest of Tunisia occurred in two phases in 1881: the first consisting of the invasion and securing of the country before the signing of a treaty of protection, and the second consisting in the suppression of a rebellion...
in 1942–43. R. J. RummelR. J. RummelRudolph Joseph Rummel is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii. He has spent his career assembling data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination...
estimates the deaths of 20,000 anti-Fascist Spanish refugees resident in France who were deported to Nazi camps, these deaths are included with French civilian casualties. The genocide of Roma people was 15,000 persons. Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 83,000. - French Indochina
Sources for total IndoChinese civilian war dead range from 1 to 1.5 million as detailed below.
John W. DowerJohn W. DowerJohn W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...
estimated 1.0 million deaths due to Vietnamese Famine of 1945Vietnamese Famine of 1945The Vietnamese Famine of 1945 was a famine that occurred in northern Vietnam from October 1944 to May 1945, during the Japanese occupation of French Indochina in World War II. Between 400,000 and 2 million people are estimated to have starved to death during this time.-Causes:There were many...
during Japanese occupation
Werner Gruhl estimates the civilian death toll due to the war and Japanese occupation at 1,500,000. - Germany
German Population
The 1939 Population is for Germany within 1937 borders and Danzig & Memel TerritoryKlaipedaKlaipėda is a city in Lithuania situated at the mouth of the Nemunas River where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County....
which were annexed in 1939, not included with the German population are Austria and the 6,700,000 ethnic Germans of Europe However, the 601,000 military deaths of ethnic Germans from Eastern and Western Europe and 261,000 Austrians are included with total German military losses.
Total German War Dead
Sources for total German war deaths, within 1937 borders, range from 5.5 to 6.9 million. In 1956 The German government estimated 5.5 million of deaths directly caused by the war. A German demographic study estimated 6.9 million excess deaths caused by the war, for the population within the 1937 borders. These losses included about 4.4 million military dead and missing; 1.0 million civilian deaths during the war and 1.5 civilians who died as a result of expulsions from Poland and the famine in Germany during 1945-46. There were additional deaths of the ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe. A recent study by Dr. Rüdiger Overmans found 538,000 military deaths of ethnic Germans who were conscripted by Germany in Eastern Europe. The number of war related civilian deaths among the ethnic Germans from Eastern European countries is disputed. An analysis by the West German government in 1958 estimated civilian deaths among the ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe countries at 886,000. However, a more recent study by the German government archives estimated c.200,000 civilian deaths directly caused by the war among the ethnic Germans from Eastern European countries.
German Military Casualties
Dr. Rüdiger Overmans, an associate of the German Armed Forces Military History Research OfficeGerman Armed Forces Military History Research OfficeThe German Armed Forces Military History Research Office is located at Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg, Germany.-Mission:...
until 2004, has provided an official reassessment of German military war dead based on a statistical surveySampling (statistics)In statistics and survey methodology, sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a population to estimate characteristics of the whole population....
of German military personnel records. The results of the Overmans research project were published with the endorsement of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office of the Federal Ministry of Defense (Germany). The study found that the statistics collected by German military during the war were incomplete and did not provide an accurate accounting of casualties. In the mid 1990's when Overmans began the project German military dead in the war were estimated at about 4.3 million men. Since the collapse of communism previously classified documentation regarding German military casualties became available to German researchers. The research by Overmans concluded in 2000 that German military dead and missing were 5,318,000. Included in this total are 344,000 deaths that were previously listed as civilian expulsion losses in eastern Europe; 230,000 deaths of paramilitaryParamilitaryA paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
, VolkssturmVolkssturmThe Volkssturm was a German national militia of the last months of World War II. It was founded on Adolf Hitler's orders on October 18, 1944 and conscripted males between the ages of 16 to 60 years who were not already serving in some military unit as part of a German Home Guard.-Origins and...
and police forces fighting with the regular forces and the deaths of 266,000 POW after the surrender in May 1945., The figure of 3.2 million German military dead that still appears in many sources was a preliminary estimate made in November 1949 by the West German government for losses only within the borders of 1937 Germany, not including Austria and VolksdeutscheVolksdeutscheVolksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
conscripted by Nazi Germany. Overmans did not include an additional 215,000 deaths of Soviet citizens conscripted by Germany.
Military Losses by Theatre
Overmans lists the following losses- Africa 16,066; the BalkansBalkansThe Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
103,693; Northern Europe 30,165; Western Europe until 12/31/44- 339,957; Italy 150,660; against the U.S.S.R. until 12/31/44- 2,742,909; final battles in Germany during 1945- 1,230,045; other (including air war in Germany & at sea) 245,561; confirmed deaths of POWs in captivity 459,475.
Military Losses by Country of origin
Overmans lists deaths of 4,456,000 men from pre-war Germany(1937 borders) and the Free City of DanzigFree City of DanzigThe Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig and surrounding areas....
, 261,000 from Austria, 534,000 ethnic Germans conscripted in eastern Europe, 30,000 French (mostly men conscripted in Alsace-LorraineAlsace-LorraineThe Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
), and 37,000 volunteers from western Europe.
Military Losses by branch of service
Overmans lists losses by branch as: Army-4,202,030; Air Force-432,706; Navy-138,429; Waffen SS – 313,749; VolkssturmVolkssturmThe Volkssturm was a German national militia of the last months of World War II. It was founded on Adolf Hitler's orders on October 18, 1944 and conscripted males between the ages of 16 to 60 years who were not already serving in some military unit as part of a German Home Guard.-Origins and...
– 77,726;Other ParamilitaryParamilitaryA paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
and support forces- 153,891-.
Military Prisoners of War and Missing
Overmans Includes in the total of 5,318,000 war dead 2,008,000 men that are listed as missing in action or unaccounted for after the war and 459,000 prisoners of war who died in captivity. The details of these POW deaths by country that held them in custody are as follows: USSR 363,000; France 34,000; USA 22,000; UK 21,000; Yugoslavia 11,000; other nations 8,000. Dr. Rüdiger Overmans believes that "It seems entirely plausible, while not provable, that one half of the missing were killed in action, the other half however in fact died in Soviet custody". A 1995 study by the Russian Academy of Science lists the deaths of 474,967 of the 2,652,672 German Armed Forces POW taken in the War.
German Civilian casualties during the war
German civilian deaths during the war and Holocaust victims totaled about 1,000,000 including:
A. 360,000–370,000 civilians killed by Strategic bombingStrategic bombing during World War IIStrategic bombing during World War II is a term which refers to all aerial bombardment of a strategic nature between 1939 and 1945 involving any nations engaged in World War II...
within the 1937 German boundaries, this estimate was made by the German Armed Forces Military History Research OfficeGerman Armed Forces Military History Research OfficeThe German Armed Forces Military History Research Office is located at Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg, Germany.-Mission:...
based on a study done in 1990.,
B. A 1974 study by the German government archives estimated a death toll of about 150,000 civilians (100,000 in pre war Germany and 50,000 ethnic Germans in other countries) who were killed in the 1944-45 campaign and deliberate killings by Soviet forces and their allies.
C.22,000 civilians were killed in the Battle of BerlinBattle of BerlinThe Battle of Berlin, designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II....
D.The German government reported that 300,000 Germans were victims of Nazi political, racial and religious persecution (including 160,000 German Jews, 15,000 Roma people and 130,000 political prisoners). In addition there were at least 100,000 German victims of the Action T4Action T4Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
euthanasia program.
E.However, The German newspaper Die Welt on May 5, 2005 listed 500.000 - 600.000 civilian deaths caused by Allied bombing, as well as 250.000 civilian deaths in the period from autumn 1944 to May 1945 caused by the Allied invasion of Germany. The Deutsches Historisches MuseumDeutsches Historisches MuseumThe German Historical Museum , DHM for short, is a museum in Berlin devoted to German history and defines itself as a place of enlightenment and understanding of the shared history of Germans and Europeans....
also gives a figure of 500.000 - 600.000 civilian deaths from Allied bombing In 1956 West German government published statistics on deaths in the Air War within the German borders of 1937- Total dead 593,000 (including 410.000 civilians killed in Allied Strategic Bombing and 128,000 refugees killed in the flight from the Russians in 1945. The remaining balance of 55,000 dead were military, police, POWs and foreign workers. There were an additional 42,000 dead in the annexed territories (including 24,000 in Austria).
Civilian deaths due to the Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950) and the Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet UnionForced labor of Germans in the Soviet UnionForced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered by the Soviet Union to be part of German war reparations for the damage inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union during World War II. German civilians in Eastern Europe were deported to the USSR after World War II as forced laborers...
These losses are sometimes included with World War II Casualties. The figures for these losses are currently disputed, estimates of the total deaths range from 500,000 to 2,000,000. The following is a summary of the various estimates for German civilian deaths in Eastern Europe.
A. In 1950 the West German government made a preliminary estimate of 3.0 million civilian deaths in the expulsions. At the same time German Red Cross began to investigate the cases of persons reported missing in the area of the expulsions. The first attempt to compute the losses was made in 1953 by the German scholar Gotthold Rhode who estimated German military and civilian deaths in the East Europe at 3,140,000. The Schieder commissionSchieder commissionDocuments on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern-Central Europe is the abridged English translation of a multi-volume publication that was created by a commission of West German historians between 1951 and 1961...
estimated a civilian death toll in the expulsions of about 2.3 million persons, broken out as follows: Poland 2,000,000; Czechoslovakia 225,600; Yugoslavia 69,000; Rumania 20,000; Hungary 6,000. These early estimates are no longer considered valid because subsequent investigations provided a revised accounting of the losses
B. A 1958 West German government demographic study estimated 2,225,000 civilians died during the flight during the war, post war expulsions and the forced labor in the Soviet Union, broken out as follows: Poland 1,607,000; Czechoslovakia 273,000; Yugoslavia 136,000; Rumania 101,000; Hungary 57,000; Baltic States 51,000. A figure of about 2 million civilian deaths is often cited in English language sources dealing with the expulsions based on the 1958 German government statistical analysis as well as the report of the Schieder commissionSchieder commissionDocuments on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern-Central Europe is the abridged English translation of a multi-volume publication that was created by a commission of West German historians between 1951 and 1961...
. In 1967 the West German government issued a revised figure of 2,111,000 total dead. In 2006 The German government reaffirmed its belief that 2 million civilians perished in the flight and expulsion from Eastern Europe. However, the German historian Ingo Harr believes that civilian losses in the expulsions have been overstated in Germany for decades for political reasons. Harr argues that Cold WarCold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
political pressure influenced the findings of the Schieder commissionSchieder commissionDocuments on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern-Central Europe is the abridged English translation of a multi-volume publication that was created by a commission of West German historians between 1951 and 1961...
and the 1958 West German government demographic study of Expulsion deaths. The German scholar Dr. Rüdiger Overmans believes that the statistical foundations of the 1958 West German government demographic report to be questionable and cannot be regarded as definitive. A recent analysis by a Polish scholar found that; Generally speaking, the German estimates...are not only highly arbitrary, but also clearly tendentious in presentation of the German losses He maintains that the German government figures from 1958 overstated the total number of the ethnic Germans living in Poland prior to war as well as the total civilian deaths due to the expulsions.
C. By 1965, the Suchdienst (search service) of the German churches was able to confirm 473,013 civilian deaths in eastern Europe due to the war and expulsions, broken out as follows: Poland 367,392; Czechoslovakia 18,889; Yugoslavia 50,864 other countries 35,871. There were an additional 1,905,991 unconfirmed cases of persons reported missing and presumed dead. Dr.Rüdiger Overmans gave a summary of this unpublished data at a 1994 historical symposium in Poland. Overmans pointed out that the figures are incomplete and only a partial not an exact accounting of total deaths. Overmans believes that since there are only about 500,000 confirmed deaths of German civilians in eastern Europe, the balance being a demographic estimate, that new research on the number of expulsion deaths is needed. However, the German historian Ingo Harr believes that the Church Service figure of 473,000 confirmed deaths is a realistic view of the total deaths due to the flight during the war and expulsions
D. A 1974 study by the German government archives estimated a death toll of about 600,000 of civilians who died as a result of what they call "crimes against international law". Their definition of crimes includes deaths caused by military activity in the 1944-45 campaign as well as deliberate killings. The total of 600,000 is broken out as follows: Poland: c. 400,000(-120,000 Killed by Soviet forces and their Allies; 200,000 dead during the Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet UnionForced labor of Germans in the Soviet UnionForced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered by the Soviet Union to be part of German war reparations for the damage inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union during World War II. German civilians in Eastern Europe were deported to the USSR after World War II as forced laborers...
; 60,000 dead in labor camps in Communist Poland and 40,000 in Soviet camps in Poland.) Czechoslovakia 30,000 killed by Soviet forces and their Allies and an estimated 100,000 in internment camps. Yugoslavia- c. 80,000(-Killed by Soviet forces and their Allies 15-20,000; dead during the Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet UnionForced labor of Germans in the Soviet UnionForced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered by the Soviet Union to be part of German war reparations for the damage inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union during World War II. German civilians in Eastern Europe were deported to the USSR after World War II as forced laborers...
4,500; dead in internment camps c.60,000). This report did not provide an estimate for ethnic German deaths in Rumania and Hungary. Dr. Rüdiger Overmans believes that the 1974 report is only a partial not a definitive accounting of total deaths in the expulsions. However, the German historian Ingo Harr believes the Archives study has provided a more realistic view of the total deaths due to the expulsions.
E. A revised demographic analysis published in 1995, which has the support of the German government, estimated 2,020,000 civilians died during the post war expulsions and the Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet UnionForced labor of Germans in the Soviet UnionForced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered by the Soviet Union to be part of German war reparations for the damage inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union during World War II. German civilians in Eastern Europe were deported to the USSR after World War II as forced laborers...
broken out as follows: Poland 1,192,000; Czechoslovakia 220,000; Yugoslavia 106,000; Rumania 75,000; Hungary 84,000; Baltic States 33,000; USSR 310,000. The German government maintains that the figure of about 2 million deaths is correct because it includes additional post war deaths from hunger and disease of those civilians subject to the expulsions.
F. In 1996 a joint Czech-German Historical Commission determined that between 15,000 and 30,000 Germans perished in the expulsions. The commission found that the demographic estimates by the German government of 220,000 to 270,000 civilian deaths due to expulsions from Czechoslovakia were based on faulty data. The Commission determined that the demographic estimates by the German government counted as missing 90,000 ethnic Germans assimilated into the Czech population; military deaths were understated and that the 1950 census data used to compute the demographic losses was unreliable.
G. Research by former ethnic Germans from Yugoslavia determined that 58,730 civilians perished after the war. Broken out as follows:-Killed by partisans 8,049; dead during the Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union 1,994; dead in internment camps 48,687.
H. In his 2000 study of German military casualties Dr. Rüdiger Overmans found 344,000 additional military deaths of Germans from the Former eastern territories of Germany and conscripted ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. Overmans believes this will reduce the number of civilians previously listed as missing in the expulsions.
H. The Polish historian Bernadetta Nitschke has provided a summary of the research in Poland on the calculation of German losses due to the flight and resettlement of the Germans from Poland only, not including other eastern European countries. Nitschke contrasted the estimate of 1.6 million deaths in Poland reported in 1958 by the West German government with the more recent figure of 400,000 that was detailed by Rudiger Overmans in 1994. She noted that the Polish researcher Stefan Banasiak estimated in 1963 that the death toll was 1.136 million, a figure accepted by other Polish historians who maintain that that most of the deaths occurred during the flight and evacuation during the war, the deportation to the U.S.S.R. for forced labor and after the resettlement due to the harsh conditions in the Soviet occupation zone in post war Germany. This is in sharp contrast to the West German Schieder commissionSchieder commissionDocuments on the Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern-Central Europe is the abridged English translation of a multi-volume publication that was created by a commission of West German historians between 1951 and 1961...
report which maintained that 1.7 million civilian deaths occurred after the war on Polish territory.
Famine Deaths 1945-1946.
The German economist Bruno Gleitze from the German Institute for Economic ResearchGerman Institute for Economic ResearchThe German Institute for Economic Research, German Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung is one of the leading economic research institutes in Germany. It is an independent, non-profit academic institution which is involved in basic research and policy advice...
estimated that there were 1,200,000 deaths caused by an increase in mortality due to harsh conditions in Germany during and after the war In Allied occupied Germany the shortage of food was an acute problem in 1946–47 the average kilocalorie intake per day was only 1,600 to 1,800, an amount insufficient for long-term health.,
Prior estimates made in the 1950s by German government
A preliminary estimate of war dead made in 1949 by the West German government for the population only within the borders of 1937 Germany, was 3,250,000 military dead; 500,000 civilian dead in the strategic bombing of Germany and 1,533,000 missing civilians in eastern Europe .
In 1956 these figures were revised by the West German government for losses only within the borders of 1937 Germany; 3,760,000 military dead and missing, 410,000 civilians killed by Strategic bombingStrategic bombing during World War IIStrategic bombing during World War II is a term which refers to all aerial bombardment of a strategic nature between 1939 and 1945 involving any nations engaged in World War II...
, 20,000 civilians killed in ground fighting, 1,260,000 civilian refugees killed in the flight from the Former eastern territories of Germany and the expulsions from Poland. These figures did not include additional losses from Austria, 280,000 in the German military and 24,000 civilians killed in air raids; A separate accounting of ethnic Germans from eastern Europe was made in 1958, 411,000 deaths in the German military and 886,000 ethnic German civilians killed in expulsions; not including 60,000 German military deaths of men conscripted in France and western Europe. Total 4,500,000 for entire German Armed Forces and 2,576,000 civilians. - Greece
The Greek National Council for Reparations from Germany reports the following casualties during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II. Military dead: 35,077 including, 13,327 killed in the Greco-Italian WarGreco-Italian WarThe Greco-Italian War was a conflict between Italy and Greece which lasted from 28 October 1940 to 23 April 1941. It marked the beginning of the Balkans Campaign of World War II...
of 1940–41; 1,100 with the Greek Forces in the Mid East and 20,650 partisan deaths. Civilian Deaths: 771,845 including: 56,225 executed by Axis forces; 105,000 dead in German concentration camps (including Jews); 7,120 deaths due to bombing, 3,500 merchant marine dead, and 600,000 war related famine deaths Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 69,500.
Gregory Frumkin, who was throughout its existence editor of the Statistical Year-Book of the. League of Nations gave the following assessment of Greek losses in the war. He points out that that, "the data on Greek war losses are frequently divergent and even inconsistent". His estimates for Greek losses are as follows: The war dead included 20,000 military deaths in the Greco-Italian War of 1940–41, 60,000 non-Jewish civilians, 20,000 non Jewish deportees, 60,000 Jews and 140,000 famine deaths during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II - Hungary
Tamás Stark of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has provided the following assessment of losses from 1941–45 in Hungary. Military losses were 300,000–310,000 including 110,000–120,000 killed in battle and 200,000 missing in actionMissing in actionMissing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
and POW in the Soviet Union. Hungarian military losses include 110,000 men who were conscripted from the annexed territories of Greater Hungary in SlovakiaSlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
, Romania and Yugoslavia and the deaths of 20,000–25,000 Jews conscripted for Army labor units. Civilian losses were 44,500 killed in the 1944–45 military campaign and in air attacks, Russian sources give the deaths of 54,700 of the 513,700 Hungarian POW taken in the War. The genocide of Roma people of 28,000 persons. Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims within the 1939 borders were 200,000. - Iceland
Confirmed losses of civilian sailors due to German attacks and mines. - India
1939 Population of IndiaBritish RajBritish Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
included the present day IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, PakistanPakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and BangladeshBangladeshBangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
. The war dead listed here are those reported by the Commonwealth War Graves CommissionCommonwealth War Graves CommissionThe Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
, total deaths were 87,032. The 'Debt of Honour Register' from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists the men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars. GurkhaGurkhaGurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...
s recruited from NepalNepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
fought with the British Indian ArmyBritish Indian ArmyThe British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
during the Second World War. Gurkha casualties with the British Indian Army can be broken down as: 8,985 killed or missing and 23,655 wounded The preliminary 1945 data for Indian losses was, killed 24,338, missing 11,754, wounded 64,354 and POW 79,489. Out of “60,000" Indian Army POWs taken at the Fall of Singapore, 11,000 died in captivity The pro-Japanese Indian National ArmyIndian National ArmyThe Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance...
lost 2,615 dead and missing.
Sources for total Indian civilian war dead range from 1.5 to 2.5 million as detailed below.
John W. DowerJohn W. DowerJohn W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...
estimated 1.5 million civilian deaths in the Bengal famine of 1943Bengal famine of 1943The Bengal famine of 1943 struck the Bengal. Province of pre-partition India. Estimates are that between 1.5 and 4 million people died of starvation, malnutrition and disease, out of Bengal’s 60.3 million population, half of them dying from disease after food became available in December 1943 As...
. Amartya SenAmartya SenAmartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...
currently the Lamont University Professor at Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
has recently estimated that a figure of 2.0 to 2.5 million fatalities may be more accurate.
Werner Gruhl estimates the civilian death toll due to the Bengal famine of 1943Bengal famine of 1943The Bengal famine of 1943 struck the Bengal. Province of pre-partition India. Estimates are that between 1.5 and 4 million people died of starvation, malnutrition and disease, out of Bengal’s 60.3 million population, half of them dying from disease after food became available in December 1943 As...
at 2,000,000. - Iran
Losses during allied occupation in 1941. - Iraq
Losses during Anglo-Iraqi WarAnglo-Iraqi WarThe Anglo-Iraqi War was the name of the British campaign against the rebel government of Rashid Ali in the Kingdom of Iraq during the Second World War. The war lasted from 2 May to 31 May 1941. The campaign resulted in the re-occupation of Iraq by British armed forces and the return to power of the...
and UK occupation in 1941. - Ireland
Despite being neutral, Ireland suffered casualties. In 1995 Irish Taoiseach(Prime Minister)John BrutonJohn BrutonJohn Gerard Bruton is an Irish politician who served as Taoiseach of Ireland from 1994 to 1997. A minister under two taoisigh, Liam Cosgrave and Garret FitzGerald, Bruton held a number of the top posts in Irish government, including Minister for Finance , and Minister for Industry, Trade,...
claimed at least 10,000 Irish were killed serving in the British or Commonwealth armed forces. The civilian death figure includes 33 Irish merchantmen were killed when a U-BoatU-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
torpedoed the SS Irish Pine (1919)SS Irish Pine (1919)Irish Pine was a 5,621 GRT cargo ship which was built in 1919 for the United States Maritime Commission . She was chartered in 1941 by Irish Shipping Ltd. On 16 November 1942, Irish Pine was torpedoed and sunk by .-Description:...
and deaths caused by the presumably accidental bombing of IrelandBombing of Dublin in World War IIThe first bombing of neutral Ireland during World War II took place on 26 August 1940, when the German Air Force dropped bombs at Campile, County Wexford killing three people. The first bombing of the city of Dublin occurred early on the morning of 2 January 1941 when German bombs were dropped...
in three instances. - Italy
The official Italian government accounting of World War II 1940–45 losses listed the following data. Total military dead and missing from 1940–45 were 291,376, losses prior to the September 8, 1943 Armistice with ItalyArmistice with ItalyThe Armistice with Italy was an armistice signed on September 3 and publicly declared on September 8, 1943, during World War II, between Italy and the Allied armed forces, who were then occupying the southern end of the country, entailing the capitulation of Italy...
totaled 204,346 (66,686 killed, 111,579 missing, 26,081 died of disease), after the September 8, 1943 Armistice with ItalyArmistice with ItalyThe Armistice with Italy was an armistice signed on September 3 and publicly declared on September 8, 1943, during World War II, between Italy and the Allied armed forces, who were then occupying the southern end of the country, entailing the capitulation of Italy...
, 87,030 (42,916 killed, 19,840 missing, 24,274 died of disease). Losses by branch of service: Army 201,405; Navy 22,034; Air Force 9,096; Colonial Forces 354; Chaplains 91; Fascist militia 10,066; ParamilitaryParamilitaryA paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
3,252; not indicated 45,078. Military Losses by theatre of war: Italy 74,725 (37,573 post armistice); France 2,060 (1,039 post armistice); Germany 25,430 (24,020 post armistice); Greece, Albania & Yugoslavia 49,459 (10,090 post armistice); USSR 82,079 (3,522 post armistice); Africa 22,341 (1,565 post armistice), at sea 28,438 (5,526 post armistice); other & unknown 6,844 (3,695 post armistice). POW losses are included with military losses mentioned above. Civilian losses were 153,147 (123,119 post armistice) including 61,432 (42,613 post armistice) in air attacks. A brief summary of data from this report can be found online
There were in addition to these losses the deaths of African soldiers conscripted by Italy which were estimated by the Italian military at 10,000 in East African CampaignEast African Campaign (World War II)The East African Campaign was a series of battles fought in East Africa during World War II by the British Empire, the British Commonwealth of Nations and several allies against the forces of Italy from June 1940 to November 1941....
of 1940–41. Civilian losses as a result of the fighting in Italian LibyaItalian LibyaItalian Libya was a unified colony of Italian North Africa established in 1934 in what represents present-day Libya...
were estimated by an independent Russian journalist to be 10,000.
Included in the losses are 64,000 victims of Nazi reprisals and genocide including 30,000 POWs and 8,500 Jews Russian sources list the deaths of 28,000 of the 49,000 Italian war prisoners in Soviet Union 1942-1954Italian war prisoners in Soviet Union 1942-1954Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet union is related to the POWs, from the Italian ARMIR and CSIR, and their fate in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union during and after World War II.-Characteristics:...
. Military losses in Italy after the September 1943 Armistice with ItalyArmistice with ItalyThe Armistice with Italy was an armistice signed on September 3 and publicly declared on September 8, 1943, during World War II, between Italy and the Allied armed forces, who were then occupying the southern end of the country, entailing the capitulation of Italy...
, included 5,927 with the Allies, 17,488 Italian resistance movementItalian resistance movementThe Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
fighters and 13,000 RSI Italian Social RepublicItalian Social RepublicThe Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
Fascist forces. The genocide of Roma people was 1,000 persons. Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 8,562 (including Libya) - Japan
1939 Japanese population includes 1.7 million Japanese in China and Korea.
Japanese military losses were 2,120,000 including 1,740,000 in the war from 1937 to 1945 and 380,000 POW deaths after the surrender. John W. DowerJohn W. DowerJohn W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...
reported that Japanese government figures list the military deaths of 1,740,955 during 1937–45. The details are as follows: 185,647 in China from 1937 to 1941 and 1,555,308 from 1941 to 45 in the Pacific WarPacific WarThe Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
. Army - Against US- 485,717; Against UK/Netherlands-208,026; In China-202,958; Against Australia -199,511; French Indochina -2,803; Against USSR -7,483; Other overseas -23,388; Japan proper -10,543. Navy 1941/45 -414,879."only one third of the military deaths occurred in actual combat, the majority being caused by illness and starvation" In addition there were the deaths of prisoners after the surrender. According to John W. DowerJohn W. DowerJohn W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...
; the "Known deaths of Japanese troops awaiting repatriation in Allied (non-Soviet) hands were listed as 81,090 by U.S. authorities An additional 300,000 Japanese prisoners died in Soviet hands after the surrender in Manchuria, Korea and the U.S.S.RJapanese prisoners of war in the Soviet UnionBy the end of :World War II there were from 560,000 to 760,000 Japanese POWs in the Soviet Union and Mongolia interned to work in labor camps. Of them, about 10% died , mostly during the winter of 1945–1946....
." The Japanese Ministry of Welfare and Foreign Office reported that 347,000 military personnel and civilians were dead or missing in Soviet hands after the war. The Japanese list the losses of 199,000 in ManchuriaManchuriaManchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
n transit camps, 36,000 in North KoreaNorth KoreaThe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, 9,000 from SakhalinSakhalinSakhalin or Saghalien, is a large island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N.It is part of Russia, and is Russia's largest island, and is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast...
and 103,000 in the U.S.S.R.. These figures were disputed by the Soviet Union, Russian sources report the POW deaths of 62,105(61,855 Japanese and 214 collaborator forces) out of the 640,105 captured(609,448 Japanese and 30,657 collaborator forces).
Military deaths include Koreans and Chinese from Taiwan conscripted by Japan. Not included in Japanese war dead are 432,000 Chinese military forces collaborating with Japan.Collaborationist Chinese ArmyThe Collaborationist Chinese Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War went under different names at different times depending on which collaborationist leader or puppet regime it was organized under....
Estimates for Japanese civilian losses range from 500,000, to 1,000,000 dead. The lower figure of 500,000 includes those deaths during the war caused by allied bombing and the fighting on Okinawa. The higher estimate of 1,000,000 includes additional post war deaths of persons injured in the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiAtomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiDuring the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
and excess deaths due to adverse post war conditions. In Allied occupied Japan the shortage of food was an acute problem, in 1946 the average kilocalorie intake per day was only 1,530 compared to the average of 1,950 during the war years, this was an amount insufficient for long-term health. The General Headquarters for the Allied Powers in Tokyo reported the civilian death rate in Japan in the first year after the war to be 2.1% compared to the pre-war level of 1.6%.
John W. DowerJohn W. DowerJohn W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...
reports civilian losses due to U.S. Strategic bombingStrategic bombing during World War IIStrategic bombing during World War II is a term which refers to all aerial bombardment of a strategic nature between 1939 and 1945 involving any nations engaged in World War II...
according to official Japanese figures were 393,367 dead, including 210,000 killed in the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiAtomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiDuring the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
and 97,031 in the Bombing of Tokyo in World War IIBombing of Tokyo in World War IIThe bombing of Tokyo, often referred to as a "firebombing", was conducted by the United States Army Air Forces during the Pacific campaigns of World War II. The U.S. mounted a small-scale raid on Tokyo in April 1942, with large morale effects...
. In addition to these deaths 150,000 civilians were killed on Okinawa and 10,000 on SaipanSaipanSaipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...
during the fighting. The Japanese government reported that 60,000 civilians dead or missing in Soviet hands after the war. War related deaths of Japanese merchant marine personnel were 27,000. The US Strategic bombing surveyStrategic bombing surveyThe United States Strategic Bombing Survey was a board tasked with examination and analysis of the United States' involvement in the World War II. Its primary purpose was to determine the effectiveness of Allied, and more specifically American, strategic bombing campaigns in Europe and in Asia...
estimated 252,769 killed Japanese in the air war They also estimated the death toll in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at 105,000 to 115,000.
The Yasukuni ShrineYasukuni Shrineis a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is dedicated to the soldiers and others who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan. Currently, its Symbolic Registry of Divinities lists the names of over 2,466,000 enshrined men and women whose lives were dedicated to the service of...
in Japan lists a total of 2,325,128 military deaths from 1937 to 1945 including civilians who participated in combat, Chinese(Taiwan) and Koreans in the Japanese Armed Forces. - Korea
Sources for total Korean civilian war dead range from 378,000 to 483,000 as detailed below.
The American researcher R. J. RummelR. J. RummelRudolph Joseph Rummel is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii. He has spent his career assembling data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination...
's estimates 378,000 Korean dead due to forced labor in Japan and Manchuria. According to Rummel "Information on Korean deaths under Japanese occupation is difficult to uncover. We do know that 5,400,000 Koreans were conscripted for labor beginning in 1939, but how many died can only be roughly estimated.".
John W. DowerJohn W. DowerJohn W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...
has noted "Between 1939 and 1945, close to 670,000 Koreans were brought to Japan for fixed terms of work, mostly in mines and heavy industry, and it has been estimated that 60,000 or more of them died under harsh conditions of their work places. Over 10,000 others were probably killed in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki".
Werner Gruhl estimates the civilian death toll due to the war and Japanese occupation at 483,000 and an additional 50,000 deaths of Koreans conscripted in the Japanese military service
A Korean demographic study reports "the mortality level and the course of mortality changes among Koreans in Korea during the war, appear not to have been much affected. Even for all Koreans living in Korea, Japan and Manchuria, the impact of World War II on the trend and level of mortality is not likely to have been significant. The same source reports '6,369 Koreans to have died in the Japanese military forces, and the number rises to 14,527 when civilians attached to the military forces is added
Korean military forces fighting against Japan were the Korean Liberation ArmyKorean Liberation ArmyThe Korean Liberation Army, established on September 17, 1941 in Chongqing, China, was the armed force of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea...
under Chinese NationalistChinese nationalistChinese nationalist can refer to:* Chinese nationalism* Kuomintang - Chinese Nationalist Party in Taiwan....
command and the Korean Volunteer ArmyKorean People's ArmyThe Korean People's Army , also known as the Inmin Gun, are the military forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Kim Jong-il is the Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army and Chairman of the National Defence Commission...
which fought with the Chinese Communist guerrillas. - Latvia
Includes civilian losses due to war (220,000) and Soviet occupation in 1940–41Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 refers, according to the European Court of Human Rights, the Government of Latvia, the State Department of the United States of America, and the European Union, to the military occupation of the Republic of Latvia by the Soviet Union ostensibly under the...
(7,000). Does not include military dead with Soviet(13,000) and German Armed Forces (24,000).Total deaths from 1940 to 1953 due the war and the Soviet occupation were 287,000(14% of the population) The genocide of Roma people was 2,500 persons. Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 80,000 - Lithuania
Includes civilian losses due to war (345,000) and Soviet occupation in 1940–41(8,000). Does not include military dead with Soviet (27,000) and German Armed Forces (8,000).Total deaths from 1940 to 1953 due the war and the Soviet occupation were 448,000(15% of the population) The genocide of Roma people was 1,000 persons. Jewish Holocaust victims totaled 141,000 - Luxembourg
Total war dead were 5,000 which included military losses of about 3,000 with the German Armed Forces and 200 in Belgian Army. The genocide of Roma people was 200 persons. Jewish Holocaust victims totaled 700 - Malaysia
Victims of forced labor and reprisals during the Japanese occupation.". - Malta
Air attack victims. The BBC has an online report on the siege of Malta - Mexico
Mexico lost 7 merchant ships and 63 dead merchant mariners. A Mexican Air Force unit Escuadrón 201Escuadrón 201El Escuadrón 201 was a Mexican fighter squadron, part of the Fuerza Aérea Expedicionaria Mexicana that aided the Allied war effort during World War II...
served in the Pacific and suffered 5 combat deaths. - Mongolia
Military losses with USSR against Japan in the 1939 Battle of Khalkhin GolBattle of Khalkhin GolThe Battles of Khalkhyn Gol was the decisive engagement of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese Border Wars fought among the Soviet Union, Mongolia and the Empire of Japan in 1939. The conflict was named after the river Khalkhyn Gol, which passes through the battlefield...
(200) and the 1945 Soviet invasion of Manchuria (72) campaigns.) - Nauru
Deaths are 463 Nauruan labourers deported by Japanese authorities to the Caroline Islands - Nepal
GurkhaGurkhaGurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...
s recruited from NepalNepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
fought with the British Indian ArmyBritish Indian ArmyThe British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
and Nepalese Army during the Second World War. The war dead reported by the Commonwealth War Graves CommissionCommonwealth War Graves CommissionThe Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
for India include Nepalese in the British Indian ArmyBritish Indian ArmyThe British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
and Nepalese Army. Gurkha casualties can be broken down as: 8,985 killed or missing and 23,655 wounded In addition to the Nepalese serving in the British Indian Army Nepal sent 16 battilialions to fight in the Burma campaign There was a bilateral treaty between Nepal and Britain about the mobilization of Nepalese soldiers. The units which took part were Sri Nath, Kalibox, Surya Dal, Naya Gorakh, Barda Bahadur, Kali Bahadur, Mahindra Dal, Second Rifle, Bhairung, Jabbar Jung, Shumsher Dal, Sher, Devi Dutta, Bhairab Nath, Jagannath and Purano Gorakh Battalions. Besides, there were many high ranking Nepalese in the Joint Army HQ. Late Commander-in-Chief Kiran Shumsher Rana and ex-Commander-in-Chief and Field Marshal Nir Shumsher Rana were amongst the officers deployed by the Nepalese Army. Nepalese battalions – Mahindra Dal, Sher, Kali Bahadur and Jagannath- were also deployed. These Nepalese battalions fought under Allied Command. The Jagannath Battalion took part as engineers to construct tracks, bridges, water points etc. Nepalese troops fought with distinction in the 14th Army under Slim and helped force the eventual Japanese retreat. - Netherlands
Dutch government figures for losses in Europe released in 1948 listed 210,000 direct war casualties plus an additional 70,000 post war disease deaths caused by the war. The details are as follows: Military deaths of 8,100; which included 2,200 regular Army, 1,700 Dutch ResistanceDutch resistanceDutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized by its prominent non-violence, summitting in over 300,000 people in hiding in the autumn of 1944, tended to by some 60,000 to 200,000 illegal landlords and caretakers and tolerated knowingly...
forces, 2,600 Navy forces, 250 POW in Germany and 1,350 Merchant seaman. Civilian deaths of 271,900; which included 27,000 forced workers in Germany, 7,500 missing and presumed dead in Germany, 2,800 victims of executions, 2,500 deaths in Dutch concentration camps, 18,000 political prisoners in Germany, 20,400 deaths due to military activities, 3,700 Dutch serving in the German military, 104,000 deported Jews and 16,000 deaths in the Dutch famine of 1944Dutch famine of 1944The Dutch famine of 1944, known as the Hongerwinter in Dutch, was a famine that took place in the German-occupied part of the Netherlands, especially in the densely populated western provinces above the great rivers, during the winter of 1944-1945, near the end of World War II. A German blockade...
. The official statistics also reported an additional 70,000 "indirect war casualties", which are attributed to various diseases caused by wartime conditions. Not included in these figures are an additional 1,650 foreign nationals killed while serving in the Dutch Merchant Marine The losses of the 3,700 Dutch in the German Armed Forces are not in Dutch war casualties in this article, they are included with the military of Germany.
The Dutch suffered additional losses in the Far East which were not included in the above figures except for the Navy. Military losses in Asia were 900 in the 1942 Dutch East Indies campaignDutch East Indies campaignThe Dutch East Indies campaign of 1941–1942 was the conquest of the Dutch East Indies by forces from the Empire of Japan in the early days of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Forces from the Allies attempted unsuccessfully to defend the islands. Indonesia was targeted by the Japanese for its...
and 8,500 military POW deaths in Japanese captivity. The Australian War Memorial reports 8,000 of the 37,000 Dutch POW died in Japanese captivity. Civilian losses in Asia reported by the Dutch Red Cross included the deaths in Japanese custody of 14,800 Europeans out of 80,000 interned in the Dutch East IndiesDutch East IndiesThe Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
.
The Netherlands War Graves Foundation maintains a registry of the names of Dutch war dead. The genocide of Roma people was 500 persons. - Newfoundland
Newfoundland's losses are not listed separately by the Commonwealth War Graves CommissionCommonwealth War Graves CommissionThe Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
since they served with U.K. and Canadian Forces during the war. Military losses were 1,058: with 956 with the UK: Navy(351),Army (115),Air Force (134) and Merchant Navy (356) and 102 with Canada: Navy (21), Army(41) and Air Force (40). The losses of the Newfoundland Merchant NavyMerchant NavyThe Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...
are commemorated at the Allied Merchant Navy Memorial in Newfoundland, Civilian losses were due to the sinking of the SS CaribouSS CaribouThe SS Caribou was a passenger ferry used by the Newfoundland government's ferry service between Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and North Sydney, Nova Scotia....
in October 1942 - New Zealand
The military deaths listed here are those reported by the Commonwealth War Graves CommissionCommonwealth War Graves CommissionThe Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
Total deaths were 11,929. The 'Debt of Honour Register' from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists the men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars. Details can be found online at the New Zealand Armed Forces Memorial Project The preliminary 1945 data for New Zealand losses was, killed 10,033, missing 2,129, wounded 19,314 and POW 8,453. - Norway
Military deaths were 2,000 regular forces; 1,500 resistance fighters and political prisoners. Civilian dead include 3,600 merchant marine, 1,800 war related civilian deaths and 700 Jews. The 700 deaths with German Armed Forces are included with Germany on this schedule. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry reported that "10,262 Norwegians had been killed, including 3,670 seamen. The Germans had executed 366 and tortured 39 to death. Among political prisoners and members of the underground, 658 died at home and 1,433 abroad. About 6,000 Norwegians had served the German war cause, and 709 of them had fallen in battle. Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 728. - Papua New GuineaPapua New GuineaPapua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
Civilian deaths were caused by Allied bombing and shellfire and Japanese atrocities. Both the Allies and Japanese also conscripted civilians to work as laborers and porters. - Philippines
Sources for total Filipino civilian war dead range from 500,000 to 1,000,000 as detailed below.
The United States State Dept. has reported that, In total, an estimated one million Filipinos lost their lives in the war The primary reason for this high death toll was war related famine and disease. Civilian losses included victims of Japanese war crimesJapanese war crimesJapanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
, such as the Bataan Death MarchBataan Death MarchThe Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer, by the Imperial Japanese Army, of 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of prisoners.The march was characterized by...
and the Manila massacreManila massacreThe Manila massacre refers to the February 1945 atrocities conducted against Filipino civilians in Manila, Philippines by Japanese troops during World War II.-Description:...
which claimed the lives of 90,000 Filipinos.
Werner Gruhl estimates the civilian death toll due to the war and Japanese occupation at 500,000 (141,000 massacred, 22,500 forced labor deaths and 336,500 deaths due war related famine).
The estimate in 1946 by the U.S. War Dept. for Filipino military war dead was 27,260. More recent figures for military war dead, include 7,000 in the Battle of the Philippines (1941-42)Battle of the Philippines (1941-42)The Philippines Campaign or the Battle of the Philippines was the invasion of the Philippines by Japan in 1941–1942 and the defense of the islands by Filipino and United States forces....
, 8,000 anti-Japanese guerrillasHukbalahapThe Hukbalahap , was the military arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines , formed in 1942 to fight the Japanese Empire's occupation of the Philippines during World War II. It fought a second war from 1946 to 1954 against the pro-Western leaders of their newly independent country...
and 42,000 (out of 98,000) POWs in Japanese captivity Werner Gruhl estimates an 27,000 Filipinos died serving in the military(including 20,000 POW). - Poland
Total Polish War Dead.
In August 2009 the Polish Institute of National RemembranceInstitute of National RemembranceInstitute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
(IPN) put the figure of Poland's dead at between 5,620,000 and 5,820,000; including an estimated 150,000 Polish citizens who died due to Soviet repression. The IPN's figures include 3 million Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust, as well as ethnic PolesPolesthumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
and other ethnic groups (Ukrainians and Belarussians). The Institute of National RemembranceInstitute of National RemembranceInstitute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
(IPN) classifies the various ethnic groups by language spoken. Jews, Ukrainians and Belarussians who spoke Polish were considered Poles.
The Institute of National RemembranceInstitute of National RemembranceInstitute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
(IPN) figure for deaths of Poles due the German occupation is 2,770,000. This figure includes "Direct War Losses" -543,000; "Murdered in Camps and in Pacification" -506,000; "Deaths in prisons and Camps" 1,146,000; "Deaths outside of prisons and Camps" 473,000; "Murdered in Eastern Regions" 100,000; "Deaths in other countries" 2,000. These figures include about 200,000 Polish speaking Jews who are considered Poles in Polish sources.
Polish resarchers have determined that the Nazis murdered 1,860,000 Polish Jews in the extermination camps in Poland, in addition over 1.0 million Polish Jews were murdered by the EinsatzgruppenEinsatzgruppenEinsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
in the eastern regions or died of starvation and disease while in ghettos.
The classification of ethnic groups in pre-war Poland by language spoken is disputed. The Polish demographer Piotr Eberhardt maintains that it is commonly agreed that the criterion of declared language led to an overestimation of the number of Poles in pre-war Poland. He notes that in general, the numbers declaring a particular language do not mesh with the numbers declaring the corresponding nationality. Members of ethnic minority groups believe that the language criterion led to an overestimation of Poles.
Czesław ŁuczakCzesław ŁuczakCzesław Łuczak was a Polish historian. He was a rector of the Adam Mickiewicz University from 1965 to 1972, and from 1969 to 1981 and from 1987 to 1991, director the University's Institute of History...
estimated in 1994 the actual total of war dead to be 5.9 to 6.0 million, including 2.9 to 3.0 million Jews. He estimated the number of ethnic PolesPolesthumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
who died at 2.0 million, including 1.5 million, due to the German occupation of the territory of modern day Poland and the balance of 500,000 in the former eastern Polish regions under both Soviet and German occupation. Łuczak also included in his figures an estimated 1,000,000 war dead of Polish citizens from the ethnic UkrainianUkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and BelarusianBelarusiansBelarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
ethnic groups who comprised 20% of Poland's pre-war population. The Polish government estimate made in 1947 of 6.0 million war dead excluded ethnic UkrainianUkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and BelarusianBelarusiansBelarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
losses.
Dr. Tadeusz PiotrowskiTadeusz Piotrowski (sociologist)Tadeusz Piotrowski or Thaddeus Piotrowski is a Polish-American sociologist. He is a Professor of Sociology in the Social Science Division of the University of New Hampshire at Manchester in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he lives....
estimated in 2005 Poland's losses in World War II to be 5.6 million; including 5,150,000 victims of Nazi crimes against ethnic PolesNazi crimes against ethnic PolesIn addition to about 2.9 million Polish Jews , about 2.8 million non-Jewish Polish citizens perished during the course of the war...
and The HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, 350,000deaths during the Soviet occupation in 1940–41Treatment of Polish citizens by occupiersThe occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during the Second World War began with invasion of Poland in September 1939, and formally concluded with the defeat of Nazism by the Four Powers in May 1945. Throughout the entire course of foreign occupation the territory of Poland was...
and about 100,000 PolesPolesthumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
killed in 1943–44 during the massacres of Poles in VolhyniaMassacres of Poles in VolhyniaThe Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia were part of an ethnic cleansing operation carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army West in the Nazi occupied regions of the Eastern Galicia , and UPA North in Volhynia , beginning in March 1943 and lasting until the end of...
. Losses by ethnic group were 3,100,000 Jews; 2,000,000 ethnic PolesPolesthumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
; 500,000 UkrainiansUkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and BelarusiansBelarusiansBelarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
Civilian losses by geographic area were about 3.5 million in present day Poland and about 2.0 million in the Polish areas annexed by the Soviet UnionPolish areas annexed by the Soviet UnionImmediately after the German invasion of Poland in 1939, which marked the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded the eastern regions of the Second Polish Republic, which Poles referred to as the "Kresy," and annexed territories totaling 201,015 km² with a population of 13,299,000...
Contemporary Russian sources also include Poland's losses in the annexed territories with Soviet war deaths.
The official Polish government report on war damages prepared in 1947 listed 6,028,000 war victims during the German occupation (including 123,178 military deaths, 2.8 million Poles and 3.2 million Jews), out of a population of 27,007,000 ethnic PolesPolesthumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
and Jews; this report excluded ethnic UkrainianUkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and BelarusianBelarusiansBelarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
losses. Losses were calculated for the territory of Poland in 1939, including the territories annexed by the U.S.S.R. The figure of 6.0 million war dead has been disputed by Polish scholars since the fall of communism who now put the total actual losses at about 3.0 million Jews and 2.0 million ethnic PolesPolesthumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
, not including other ethnic groups (Ukrainians and Belarussians). They maintain that the official statistics include those persons who were missing and presumed dead, but actually remained abroad in the west and the USSR after the war. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum maintains that in addition to 3 million Polish Jews killed in the Holocaust. "Documentation remains fragmentary, but today scholars of independent Poland believe that 1.8 to 1.9 million Polish civilians (non-Jews) were victims of German Occupation policies and the war",
The genocide of Roma people was 35,000 persons Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims, in 1939 borders, totaled 3,000,000, including 2 million within the borders of contemporary Poland and 1 million in the territories annexed by the U.S.S.R.
Polish Losses during the Soviet Occupation (1939–1941)
In August 2009 the Polish Institute of National RemembranceInstitute of National RemembranceInstitute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
(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. Andrzej PaczkowskiAndrzej PaczkowskiProf. Andrzej Paczkowski is a Polish historian. Professor of Collegium Civitas, director of Modern History Studies in the Political Institute of Polish Academy of Sciences, member of Collegium of Institute of National Remembrance.In 1960 he finished studies at the history department of the...
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. In 2005 Tadeusz PiotrowskiTadeusz Piotrowski (sociologist)Tadeusz Piotrowski or Thaddeus Piotrowski is a Polish-American sociologist. He is a Professor of Sociology in the Social Science Division of the University of New Hampshire at Manchester in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he lives....
estimated the death toll in Soviet hands at 350,000 An earlier estimate made in 1987 by Franciszek Proch of the Polish Association of Former Political Prisoners of Nazi and Soviet Concentration Camps estimated the total dead due to the Soviet occupation at 1,050,000.
Polish military casualties.
Poland lost a total of 139,800 regular soldiers and 100,000 Polish resistance movementPolish resistance movement in World War IIThe Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
fighters during the war. Polish military casualties. Military dead and missing were 66,000 and 130,000 wounded in the 1939 Invasion of PolandInvasion of Poland (1939)The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
, in addition 17,000–19,000 were killed by the Soviets in the Katyn massacreKatyn massacreThe Katyn massacre, also known as the Katyn Forest massacre , was a mass execution of Polish nationals carried out by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs , the Soviet secret police, in April and May 1940. The massacre was prompted by Lavrentiy Beria's proposal to execute all members of...
and 12,000 died in German POW camps. The Polish contribution to World War IIPolish contribution to World War IIThe European theater of World War II opened with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The Polish Army was defeated after over a month of fighting. After Poland had been overrun, a government-in-exile , armed forces, and an intelligence service were established outside of Poland....
included the Polish Armed Forces in the WestPolish Armed Forces in the WestPolish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies...
, and the 1st Polish ArmyFirst Polish Army (1944-1945)The Polish First Army was a Polish Army unit formed in the Soviet Union in 1944, from the previously existing Polish I Corps as part of the People's Army of Poland . The First Army fought westward, subordinated to the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front, during the offensive against Germany that led to...
fighting under Soviet command. Total casualties of these forces in exile were 33,256 killed in action, 8,548 missing in action, 42,666 wounded and 29,385 interned. The Polish Red Cross reported that the 1944 Warsaw UprisingWarsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...
cost the lives of 120,000 -130,000 Polish civilians and 16,000–17,000 Polish resistance movement fightersPolish resistance movement in World War IIThe Polish resistance movement in World War II, with the Home Army at its forefront, was the largest underground resistance in all of Nazi-occupied Europe, covering both German and Soviet zones of occupation. The Polish defence against the Nazi occupation was an important part of the European...
The names of Polish war dead are presented at a database online
During the war 2,762,000 Polish citizens of German descent declared their loyalty to Germany by signing the Deutsche Volksliste. A West German government report estimated the deaths of 108,000 Polish citizens serving in the German armed forces, these men were conscripted in violation of international law The Institute of National RemembranceInstitute of National RemembranceInstitute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...
(IPN) estimates 200-210,000 Polish citizens, including 76,000 ethnic Poles were conscripted into the Soviet armed forces in 1940-1941 during the occupation of the eastern regions. The (IPN) also reported that the Germans conscripted 250,000 Polish nationals into the Wehrmacht, 89,300 later deserted and joined the Polish Armed Forces in the WestPolish Armed Forces in the WestPolish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies...
. - Timor
Officially neutral, East TimorEast TimorThe Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
was occupied by Japan during 1942–45. Allied commandos initiated a guerilla resistance campaign and most deaths were caused by Japanese reprisals against the civilian population. The civilian death toll is estimated at 40,000 to 70,000 - Romania
Total Romanian military war dead were approximately 300,000 Total Killed were 93,326 (72,291 with Axis and 21,035 with allies): Total missing and POW were 341,765 (283,322 with Axis and 58,443 with allies) only about 80,000 survived Soviet captivity) Russian sources list the deaths of 54,600 of the 201,800 Romanian POW taken in the War. Figures do not include an additional estimated 40,000 to 50,000 dead included with the Hungarian Army. Civilian losses of 64,000 included 20,000 during Soviet occupation of BessarabiaBessarabiaBessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
and BukovinaBukovinaBukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
in 1940–41; the genocide of Roma people 36,000 deaths; Allied air raids on Romania caused the deaths of 7,693 civilians.
Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 469,000 in 1939 borders which includes 300,000 in BessarabiaBessarabiaBessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
and BukovinaBukovinaBukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
occupied by the U.S.S.R. in 1940. - Ruanda Urundi
The 1943 famine in Ruanda which took 300,000 lives was due to a local drought and the harsh wartime policies of the Belgian colonial administration to increase food production for the war effort in the Congo. Since Rwanda was not occupied nor the supply of food cut off, these deaths are not usually included with World War II casualties. However, at least one historian has compared the 1943 famine in Ruanda to the Bengal famine of 1943Bengal famine of 1943The Bengal famine of 1943 struck the Bengal. Province of pre-partition India. Estimates are that between 1.5 and 4 million people died of starvation, malnutrition and disease, out of Bengal’s 60.3 million population, half of them dying from disease after food became available in December 1943 As...
which is attributed to the war. - Singapore
Victims of Japanese war crimesJapanese war crimesJapanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
including the Japanese Occupation of SingaporeJapanese Occupation of SingaporeThe Japanese occupation of Singapore in World War II occurred between about 1942 and 1945 after the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. Military forces of the Empire of Japan occupied Singapore after defeating the combined Australian, British, Indian and Malayan garrison in the Battle of Singapore...
and the Sook Ching massacreSook Ching massacreThe Sook Ching massacre was a systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore by the Japanese military during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, after the British colony surrendered on 15 February 1942 during the Second World War. Sook Ching was later...
. - South Africa
The military deaths listed here are those reported by the Commonwealth War Graves CommissionCommonwealth War Graves CommissionThe Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
Total deaths were 11,903. The 'Debt of Honour Register' from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists the men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars. The preliminary 1945 data for South African losses was killed 6,840, missing 1,841 wounded 14,363 and POW 14,589. - South Pacific MandateSouth Pacific MandateThe was the Japanese League of Nations mandate consisting of several groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean which came under the administration of Japan after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I.-Early history:Under the terms of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, after the start of World...
- This territory includes areas now known as the Marshall IslandsMarshall IslandsThe Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...
, MicronesiaFederated States of MicronesiaThe Federated States of Micronesia or FSM is an independent, sovereign island nation, made up of four states from west to east: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae. It comprises approximately 607 islands with c...
, PalauPalauPalau , officially the Republic of Palau , is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and south of Tokyo. In 1978, after three decades as being part of the United Nations trusteeship, Palau chose independence instead of becoming part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a...
, and the Northern Mariana IslandsNorthern Mariana IslandsThe Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , is a commonwealth in political union with the United States, occupying a strategic region of the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines...
.
The estimate by R. J. RummelR. J. RummelRudolph Joseph Rummel is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii. He has spent his career assembling data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination...
of the number of victims due to Japanese war crimesJapanese war crimesJapanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
on the various Pacific Islands is 57,000.
Micronesian war related civilian deaths were caused by American bombing and shellfire; and malnutrition caused by the U.S. blockade of the islands. In addition the civilian population was conscripted by the Japanese as forced laborers and were subjected to numerous mindless atrocities.
During the Battle of Guam (1944) the number of Chamorro people killed or wounded is not accurately known but it was well over six hundred., During the Battle of SaipanBattle of SaipanThe Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June-9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was...
10,000 persons in a mass suicide of the Japanese civilian population. - Soviet Union
Military Losses
Military deaths from 1939 to 1945, totaling 10.7 million, include 7.7 million killed or missing in action; 2.6 million POW dead, and 400,000 paramilitary and Soviet partisan losses.
The official Russian Ministry of Defense figure for military total dead and missing from 1941 to 1945 is 8,668,400; including 6,330,000 killed in action or died of wounds and 556,000 dead from non-combat causes; 500,000 MIAMissing in actionMissing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
and 1,283,000 dead and missing POWPrisoner of warA prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
. Official Russian figures indicate 4,559,000 POWs and missing, out of which about 500,000 missing were killed in battle, 939,700 were conscripted back into the Soviet army during the war as territories were being liberated,2,016,000 POW survived the war, 1,836,000 POWs are known to have returned to the U.S.S. R. after the war, this leaves 1,103,300 POW dead and another 180,000 missing POWs who most likely emigrated to other countries. Richard OveryRichard OveryRichard Overy is a British historian who has published extensively on the history of World War II and the Third Reich. In 2007 as The Times editor of Complete History of the World he chose the 50 key dates of world history....
has noted that "The official figures themselves must be viewed critically, given the difficulty of knowing in the chaos of 1941 and 1942 exactly who had been killed, wounded or even conscripted". The official Russian statistics for military dead do not include an additional estimated 500,000 conscripted reservists missing or killed before being listed on active strength, 1,000,000 civilians treated as POW by Germany; and an estimated 150,000 militia and 250,000 Soviet partisan dead, which are considered civilian war losses in the official figures. The estimate by most western historians of Soviet military POW deaths is about 3 million out of 5.7 million total POWs in German hands
There were additional casualties in 1939–40, which totaled 136,945: Battle of Khalkhin GolBattle of Khalkhin GolThe Battles of Khalkhyn Gol was the decisive engagement of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese Border Wars fought among the Soviet Union, Mongolia and the Empire of Japan in 1939. The conflict was named after the river Khalkhyn Gol, which passes through the battlefield...
in 1939 (8,931); Invasion of PolandInvasion of Poland (1939)The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
of 1939 (1,139); and the Winter WarWinter WarThe Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
with Finland (1939–40) (126,875).
The names of many Soviet war dead are presented in the OBD MemorialOBD MemorialOBD Memorial is a project by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation to scan and make available online data on all Soviet personnel who were killed or were missing in action during the Second World War and afterwards....
database online
Total Population Losses of the Soviet Union 1941–1945
A report published by the Russian Academy of Science in 1993 estimated that the total Soviet population losses from 1941 to 1945, within Soviet borders of 1946–1991, were 26.6 million out of a total population of 196.7 million, which included the annexed territories.
In 2000 the late Dr. S. N. Mikhalev of the History department of Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University published a critical analysis of the official Russian wartime casualty statistics, he estimated actual Soviet military war dead at more than 10.9 million persons. He maintained that the official figures cannot be reconciled to the total men drafted and that POW deaths were understated. Mikhalev believed that the official figure of 26.6 million war dead should not be regarded as definitive. His analysis of the demographic balance of the USSR in the war indicated total losses ranging from 21.240 million to 25.854 million, with the mid range being 23.568 million total war dead. Mikhalev pointed out that the estimate of total war deaths are based on a range of estimates for the population in 1939 and the population of the annexed territories that are by no means certain.
Michael Haynes has noted that "We do not know the total number of deaths as a result of the war and related policies" We do know that the demographic estimate of excess deaths was 26.6 million plus an additional 16.1 million natural deathsDeath by natural causesA death by natural causes, as recorded by coroners and on death certificates and associated documents, is one that is primarily attributed to natural agents: usually an illness or an internal malfunction of the body. For example, a person dying from complications from influenza or a heart attack ...
that would have occurred in peacetime, bringing the total dead to 42.7 million. At this time the actual total number of deaths caused by the war is unknown since among the 16.1 million "natural deaths" some would have died peacefully and others as a result of the war.
Civilian War Dead
Civilian deaths listed on the table above of 12.7 million are for the USSR within 1939 borders and does not include an estimated 3.0 million civilian dead in the territories annexed by the USSR in 1939-1945 and the 215,000 Soviet war dead in the German armed forces. Civilian losses in territories annexed by USSR are included in totals of the Baltic statesBaltic statesThe term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
(650,000)., Poland(2,000,000)- Romania(300,000) and CzechoslovikiaCarpathian RutheniaCarpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
(50,000)
The deaths of Soviet civilians, including Jews, were documented from 1942 to 1946 by the Soviet Extraordinary State CommissionExtraordinary State CommissionThe Extraordinary State Commission – fully: "Extraordinary State Commission for ascertaining and investigating crimes perpetrated by the German–Fascist invaders and their accomplices, and the damage inflicted by them on citizens, collective farms, social organisations, State enterprises and...
In 1995 the Russian Academy of Science published a report that summarized Soviet losses in the war. They reported civilian deaths in the German occupied USSR(including annexed territories) totaling 13.7 million, which includes 7.4 million victims of Nazi genocide and reprisals; 2.2 million deaths of persons deported to Germany for forced labor; and 4.1 million famine and disease deaths in occupied territory. Total Soviet war dead include losses include an estimated 2.5 to 3.2 million civilian dead due to famine in Soviet territory not occupied by the Germans Additional famine deaths which totaled 1 million during 1946–47 are not included with World War II casualties. Documents from the Soviet archives list the total deaths of prisoners in the GulagGulagThe Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
from 1941 to 1945 at 621,637. An independent Russian journalist believes the actual death toll may be as high as 1.7 million, when one takes into account summary executions and deaths of those forcibly deported during the war.Population transfer in the Soviet UnionPopulation transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population, often classified as "enemies of workers," deportations of entire nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite...
.,
The genocide of Roma people was 30,000 persons. Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims, within 1939 borders, totaled 1,000,000. - Spain
There were 4,500 military deaths with the all Spanish Blue DivisionBlue DivisionThe Blue Division officially designated as División Española de Voluntarios by the Spanish Army and 250. Infanterie-Division in the German Army, was a unit of Spanish volunteers that served in the German Army on the Eastern Front of the Second World War.-Origins:Although Spanish leader Field...
serving with the German Army in the U.S.S.R. The unit was withdrawn by Spain in 1943. R. J. RummelR. J. RummelRudolph Joseph Rummel is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii. He has spent his career assembling data on collective violence and war with a view toward helping their resolution or elimination...
estimates the deaths of 20,000 anti-Fascist Spanish refugees resident in France who were deported to Nazi camps, these deaths are included with French civilian casualties. - Sweden
During the Winter warWinter WarThe Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet offensive on 30 November 1939 – three months after the start of World War II and the Soviet invasion of Poland – and ended on 13 March 1940 with the Moscow Peace Treaty...
of 1939–40 the Swedish Volunteer Corps served with the Finnish Armed Forces and lost 117 men in combat. About 300 Swedish volunteers served in the German Wehrmacht and 30–45 were killed in action.
33 Swedish sailors were killed when submarine HMS Ulven was sunk by a German mine on April 16, 1943.
During 1939-1941 Swedish merchant shipping was attacked by German submarines and 391 merchant seamen were killed. Soviet attacks on Swedish merchant shipping from 1941-1944 cost the lives of 187 merchant seamen. The Red Cross Ship Stureborg was attacked by Italian aircraft in July 1942 resulting in the deaths of 19 of the crew and a Red Cross Official. - Switzerland
The Americans accidentally bombed Switzerland during the war causing civilian casualties. Losses of about 300 Swiss in the German Armed Forces are included with German casualties. - Thailand
Military deaths included: 108 dead in the French-Thai WarFrench-Thai WarThe Franco-Thai War was fought between Thailand and Vichy France over certain areas of French Indochina that had once belonged to Thailand....
(1940–41) and 5,559 who died either resisting the Japanese invasionJapanese Invasion of ThailandThe Japanese invasion of Thailand occurred on December 8, 1941. It was fought between Thailand and the Empire of Japan. Despite fierce fighting in Southern Thailand, Thai resistance lasted only a few hours before ending in a ceasefire.-Background:...
(1941), or fighting alongside Japanese forces in the Burma Campaign of 1942–45. Allied bombing in 1944–45 caused 2,000 civilian deaths. Unlike other parts of South East Asia, Thailand did not suffer from famine during the war. - United Kingdom and Colonies
The losses listed here are those reported by the Commonwealth War Graves CommissionCommonwealth War Graves CommissionThe Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
. Total military deaths were 383,786. The losses of NewfoundlandNewfoundland and LabradorNewfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
(956 military) are included in these figures. The 'Debt of Honour Register' from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists the men and women of the Commonwealth forces who died during the two world wars.
The Commonwealth War Graves CommissionCommonwealth War Graves CommissionThe Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves, and places of commemoration, of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars...
maintains a Roll of Honour of those civilians under Crown Protection who died as a result of enemy actions in the Second World War. The names of 67.080 are commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour.
UK casualties include losses of the colonial forces UK colonial forces included units from East AfricaKing's African RiflesThe King's African Rifles was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from the various British possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions within the East African colonies as well as external service as...
, West AfricaRoyal West African Frontier ForceThe West African Frontier Force was a multi-battalion field force, formed by the British Colonial Office in 1900 to garrison the West African colonies of Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and Gambia. The decision to raise this force was taken in 1897 because of concern at French colonial...
, GhanaGhana RegimentThe Ghana Regiment is an infantry regiment that forms the main fighting element of the Ghanaian Army.The regiment was formed in 1879 as the Gold Coast Constabulary, from personnel of the Hausa Constabulary of Southern Nigeria, to perform internal security and police duties in the British colony of...
, the CaribbeanCaribbean RegimentThe Caribbean Regiment was formed in World War II. The regiment which went overseas in July 1944 and saw service in the Middle East and Italy....
, MalayaRoyal Malay RegimentThe Royal Malay Regiment is the premier unit of the Malaysian Army's two infantry regiments. At its largest, the Malay Regiment comprised 27 battalions. At present, two battalions are parachute trained and form part of the Malaysian Army Rapid Deployment Force...
, BurmaBurma RiflesThe Burma Rifles were a regiment of the British Indian Army created in 1917. The regiment re-used the name of an unrelated earlier unit, the 10th Regiment Madras Infantry, which evolved into the 10th Princess Mary's Own Gurkha Rifles....
, Hong Kong, JordanArab LegionThe Arab Legion was the regular army of Transjordan and then Jordan in the early part of the 20th century.-Creation:...
, SudanSudan Defence ForceThe Sudan Defence Force was a Sudanese military unit formed in 1925, as its name indicates, to maintain the borders of the Sudan under the British administration...
, MaltaArmed Forces of MaltaThe Armed Forces of Malta is the name given to the combined armed services of Malta. The AFM is a brigade sized organisation consisting of a headquarters and three separate battalions, with minimal air and naval forces.- Headquarters, AFM :...
and the Jewish BrigadeJewish BrigadeThe Jewish Infantry Brigade Group was a military formation of the British Army that served in Europe during the Second World War. The brigade was formed in late 1944, and its personnel fought the Germans in Italy...
.The Cyprus Regiment made up of volunteers that fought with the UK Army, and suffered about 358 killed and 250 missing GurkhaGurkhaGurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...
s recruited from NepalNepalNepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
fought with the British Army during the Second World War.
The preliminary 1945 data for colonial forces was killed 6,877, missing 14,208, wounded 6,972 and POW 8,115.
The official UK report on war casualties of June 1946 provided a preliminary tally of war losses. This report listed the war deaths of 357,116; Navy (50,758); Army (144,079); Air Force (69,606); Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service (624); Merchant NavyMerchant NavyThe Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...
(30,248); British Home GuardBritish Home GuardThe Home Guard was a defence organisation of the British Army during the Second World War...
(1,206) and Civilians (60,595). The total still missing on 2/28/1946 was 6,244; Navy (340); Army (2,267); Air Force (3,089); Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service (18); Merchant NavyMerchant NavyThe Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency...
(530); British Home GuardBritish Home GuardThe Home Guard was a defence organisation of the British Army during the Second World War...
(0) and Civilians (0). These figures included the losses of NewfoundlandNewfoundland and LabradorNewfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
and Southern RhodesiaSouthern RhodesiaSouthern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
. There were an additional 31,271 military deaths due to "natural causes" which are not included in these figures. Deaths due to air and rocket attacks were 60,595 civilians and 1,206 British Home GuardBritish Home GuardThe Home Guard was a defence organisation of the British Army during the Second World War...
. The deaths of civilians interned was not given in the report. - United States
Total U. S. military deaths in battle and from other causes were 416,837 The breakout by service is as follows, Army 318,274 Navy 62,614, Marine Corps 24,511 United States Coast GuardUnited States Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
1,917. and United States Merchant MarineUnited States Merchant MarineThe United States Merchant Marine refers to the fleet of U.S. civilian-owned merchant vessels, operated by either the government or the private sector, that engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine is...
9,521.
Deaths in battle were 292,131. The breakout by service is as follows: Army 234,874 Navy 36,950, Marine Corps 19,733 United States Coast GuardUnited States Coast GuardThe United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
574. These losses were incurred during the period 12/1/41 until 12/31/46 including an additional 126 men in October 1941 when the USS Kearny and the USS Reuben JamesUSS Reuben James (DD-245)USS Reuben James —a post-World War I four-funnel Clemson-class destroyer—was the first United States Navy ship sunk by hostile action in World War II and the first named for Boatswain's Mate Reuben James , who distinguished himself fighting in the Barbary Wars.Reuben James was laid down on 2 April...
were attacked by U-Boats. The United States Army Air ForcesUnited States Army Air ForcesThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
losses, which are included in the Army total, were 52,173 deaths due to combat and 35,946 from non combat causes U.S. Combat Dead by Theater of war - Europe-Atlantic 183,588; Army ground forces 141,088; United States Army Air ForcesUnited States Army Air ForcesThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
36,461 and Navy/Coast Guard 6,039; Asia-Pacific 108,504; Army ground forces 41,592; United States Army Air ForcesUnited States Army Air ForcesThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
15,694; Navy/Coast Guard 31,485; Marine Corps 19,733. Unidentified Theatres- Army 39 Included with combat deaths are 14,059 POWs, in Europe (1,124) and (12,935) in Asia The details of U.S. casualties are listed online: The US Army The U.S. Army Air Force The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The U.S. Merchant Marine
Civilian dead were 1,704 American civilians interned, by the Japanese(1,536) and by Germany(168),. During the Attack on Pearl HarborAttack on Pearl HarborThe attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
68 U.S. civilians were killed by friendly fireFriendly fireFriendly fire is inadvertent firing towards one's own or otherwise friendly forces while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire...
, and 6 U.S. civilians were killed in Oregon in 1945 by Japanese balloon bombsFire balloonA , or Fu-Go, was a weapon launched by Japan during World War II. A hydrogen balloon with a load varying from a incendiary to one antipersonnel bomb and four incendiary devices attached, they were designed as a cheap weapon intended to make use of the jet stream over the Pacific Ocean and wreak...
.
The names of individual U.S. military personnel killed in World War II can be found at the U.S. National Archives
The names of U.S. Merchant Mariners killed in World War II are listed by USMM.org
American Battle Monuments CommissionAmerican Battle Monuments CommissionThe American Battle Monuments Commission is a small independent agency of the United States government. Established by Congress in 1923, it is responsible for:...
website lists the names of military and civilian war dead from World War II buried in ABMC cemeteries or listed on Walls of the Missing - Yugoslavia
The U.S. Bureau of the Census published a report in 1954 that concluded that Yugoslav war related deaths were 1,067,000. The U.S. Bureau of the Census noted that the official Yugoslav government figure of 1.7 million war dead was overstated because it "was released soon after the war and was estimated without the benefit of a postwar census" A recent study by Vladimir ŽerjavićVladimir ŽerjavicVladimir Žerjavić was a Croatian economist and a United Nations expert. He published a series of historical articles and books during the 1980s and 1990s in which he argued that the scope of the Holocaust in World War II-era territory of Yugoslavia was intentionally exaggerated...
estimates total war related deaths at 1,027,000 which included military losses of 237,000 resistance fighters Yugoslav partisans;ChetniksChetniksChetniks, or the Chetnik movement , were Serbian nationalist and royalist paramilitary organizations from the first half of the 20th century. The Chetniks were formed as a Serbian resistance against the Ottoman Empire in 1904, and participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II...
and 209,000 UstašeUstašeThe Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
. Civilian dead of 581,000, including 57,000 Jews. Losses of the Yugoslav Republics were Bosnia 316,000; Serbia 273,000; Croatia 271,000; Slovenia 33,000; Montenegro 27,000; Macedonia 17,000; and killed abroad 80,000. Bogoljub KočovićBogoljub KocovicBogoljub Kočović is a Bosnian jurist and statistician, Yugoslav by ethnic affiliation.Kočović was born in Sarajevo; his father was a Serb and mother French by origin. He obtained a MA in economy at the Roosevelt University in Chicago, and a Ph. D. in law in Paris...
a Yugoslav statistician,calculated that the actual war losses were 1,014,000 The late Jozo Tomasevich, Professor Emeritus of Economics at San Francisco State University, believes that the calculations of Kočović and Žerjavić "seem to be free of bias, we can accept them as reliable"
The reasons for the high human toll in Yugoslavia were as follows:
A.Military operations between the Germans, Italians and their UstašeUstašeThe Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
collaborators on one hand against the Yugoslav partisans and ChetniksChetniksChetniks, or the Chetnik movement , were Serbian nationalist and royalist paramilitary organizations from the first half of the 20th century. The Chetniks were formed as a Serbian resistance against the Ottoman Empire in 1904, and participated in the Balkan Wars, World War I, and World War II...
B.German forces, under express orders from Hitler, fought with a special vengeance against the SerbsWorld War II persecution of SerbsThe Serbian Genocide refers to the attempt in extermination made towards ethnic Serbs in 1939-1945 by predominantly ethnic Croat Fascists and Nazi occupational forces....
, who were considered UntermenschUntermenschUntermensch is a term that became infamous when the Nazi racial ideology used it to describe "inferior people", especially "the masses from the East," that is Jews, Gypsies, Poles along with other Slavic people like the Russians, Serbs, Belarussians and Ukrainians...
One of the worst massacres during the German military occupation of Serbia was the Kragujevac massacreKragujevac massacreThe Kragujevac massacre was the murder of men and boys in Kragujevac, Serbia, by Nazi German soldiers between 20–21 October 1941. All males from the town between the ages of sixteen and sixty were assembled, including high school students, and the victims were selected from amongst them...
.
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 UstašeUstašeThe Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
collaborators were killed during the Bleiburg massacreBleiburg massacreThe Bleiburg massacre, which also encompasses Operation Keelhaul is a term encompassing events that took place during mid-May 1945 near the Carinthian town of Bleiburg, itself some four kilometres from the Austrian-Slovenian border....
D.The systematic extermination of large numbers of people for political, religious or racial reasons. The most numerous victims were SerbsSerbsThe Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
The USHMM reports between 77,000 and 99,000 persons were killed at the Jasenovac concentration campJasenovac concentration campJasenovac concentration camp was the largest extermination camp in the Independent State of Croatia and occupied Yugoslavia during World War II...
. The genocide of Roma was 40,000 persons. Jewish HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
victims totaled 67,122.<
E.The reduced food supply caused famine and disease.
F.Allied bombing of German supply lines caused civilian casualties. The hardest hit localities were PodgoricaPodgoricaPodgorica , is the capital and largest city of Montenegro.Podgorica's favourable position at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and the meeting point of the fertile Zeta Plain and Bjelopavlići Valley has encouraged settlement...
, LeskovacLeskovacLeskovac is a city and municipality in southern Serbia. It is the administrative center of the Jablanica District of Serbia...
, ZadarZadarZadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar county and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Population of the city is 75,082 citizens...
and BelgradeBelgradeBelgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
.:
G. The demographic losses due to a 335,000 reduction in the number of births and emigration of about 660,000 are not included with war casualties.
See also
- World War II casualties of the Soviet UnionWorld War II casualties of the Soviet UnionWorld War II casualties of the Soviet Union from all related causes are commonly estimated in excess of 20,000,000, both civilians and military, although the statistics vary to a great extent. Most of the casualties occurred from 22 June 1941, after Nazi Germany invaded the USSR.-Military losses:In...
- German casualties in World War IIGerman casualties in World War IIGerman casualties in World War II i.e. deaths, are broken down as follows:The German Army historian Dr. Rüdiger Overmans published a study in 2000 that estimated German military dead and missing at 5.3 million. Dr. Overmans, has provided an official reassessment of German military war dead based on...
- Equipment losses in World War IIEquipment losses in World War IIEquipment losses in World War II refers to military equipment destroyed during World War II, the deadliest and most costly war in history.-Air:* China: Total losses of the Nationalist Air Force were 2,468 ....
- World War I casualtiesWorld War I casualtiesThe total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I were over 35 million. There were over 15 million deaths and 20 million wounded ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history....
- List of wars and disasters by death toll