Heavy casualties

The Second World War can be described as a terrible catastrophe for humankind. In 1939, there were approximately 2 billion people on the earth. According to the most conservative figures, between 62 and 78 million people would die as a result of World War II, making up more than 3% of the global population. Around 24 million people were injured or disabled after the war.

While previous wars have caused civilian deaths, World War 2 disproportionately impacted civilians. Furthermore, civilians accounted for about half of all World War II European casualties. In addition to civilian deaths, the Nazi regime killed between 9.8 and 10.4 million people for ideological or racial causes.

However, whether as war dead, lives lost, or Holocaust victims, deaths from the battle were unequally distributed among nations. Germany and Poland were the European nations that were most affected in terms of fatalities. More than 400,000 Americans were killed in the European and Asian theaters combined. Most of these people were servicemen. Likewise, the total number of deaths in the UK is estimated to be roughly 450,000, with civilians making up 15% of the total. The atomic bombs launched by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed 160,000 people and demolished the entire city.