The Fallen of World War II - visualizing the human cost

[CCIP]

A 15-minute animation/visualization explaining the human cost of world war 2 - very worth watching and spreading around, in my view :yep:

http://io9.com/this-animated-data-visualization-of-world-war-ii-fatali-1709065880

Even being born in Leningrad, USSR and growing up with constant material (and human) reminders of the war all around me, I always find it incredibly sad and unsettling confronting the sheer scale of what happened, especially in Eastern Europe.

[Torplexed]

Pretty sobering stuff, especially once the Eastern Front enters into the cold equations. That red skyscraper endlessly going up is a staggering indicator of the mind numbing magnitude of that conflict. :o

China often gets overlooked, but that was no sideshow either,for civilians especially.

[Betonov]

Interesting the ratio between invasion and post invasion casualties in Yugoslavia.

European countries have not fought eachother since WW2 except Soviet ivnasion of Hungary.
What about the Balkans post 1991.

[CCIP]

European countries have not fought eachother since WW2 except Soviet ivnasion of Hungary.
What about the Balkans post 1991.

I think it was talking about 1945-1991 when that was said (in the context of the Cold War-era "long peace"). There's been a whole bunch of fighting in Europe since - even besides the Balkans, places like the Transdniester and Georgia come to mind.

[Betonov]

I think it was talking about 1945-1991 when that was said (in the context of the Cold War-era "long peace"). There's been a whole bunch of fighting in Europe since - even besides the Balkans, places like the Transdniester and Georgia come to mind.

I'm sure he was refering to the long/new peace 1945-today.

Doesn't matter anyway, including the Balkan wars the death toll was lower than one large battle in WW2.

[Jimbuna]

Those comparators are quite staggering...certainly brings the whole picture into perspective :o

Great share George :cool:

[CCIP]

It's also quite interesting when you consider that the USSR was not a nation-state - and when you break it down by countries within the Soviet Union, there also some pretty shocking numbers. Ukraine and Belarus suffered disproportionately.

Belarus has the unfortunate distinction of exceeding even Poland's record, and by a long shot - by most estimates, 25-27% of the entire population of Belarus died in WWII, including some 90% of Belorussian Jews. The majority all known buildings in the country were leveled in the fighting or by the Germans - the occupation forces deliberately destroyed more than 5000 villages in the country, including some 600 villages that were burned with their entire populations. While not a huge country, it's not a small one either - almost 10 million at the start of the war. So on any scale, it was pretty tremendous.