I would like to pitch in with a story of my great grandfather, who took part in war, as a driver in ranks of the Red Army. After the capture of Berlin, he has crushed a car their platoon got from Americans. As the crush happened not in a battle, he feared that he would be executed - that was not a laughing matter in Red Army. Somehow, an American soldiers came to know about that, and one of them offered to swap cars - so he would be blamed for the crush, and my great grandfather would be spared. The funniest part: that whole conversation was basically conducted in a pantomime, because no-one in great grandfather's crew knew English, and that American soldier didn't speak Russian. And, on top of that, that American soldier was the first black person my great grandfather has ever seen in his life. Unfortunately, my great grandfather forgot the name of that American soldier, but because of that selfless action he never believed the Cold War propaganda about "evil Americans". He always knew they are kind people in the essence, even at their own detriment.
You picked a good time to watch this video. Around the world various nations commemorate the 11th day Armistice. Video's like this are so important so we remember that it is something we should be on guard for, not celebrating.
Different war, but we definitely should always remain aware of the horrors of war. Especially in these times where conflict is at an all time high while at the same time total war becomes a distant memory for many.
Commemoration is a far cry from celebration. Remembrance events are very solemn. The sacrifices made by our forebears is at the heart of all of them. Commemoration not celebration.
The 11th of novembre is ww1 armistice. Not ww2. But still good to remember the great war too. Those who forget are prone to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Both my grandfathers were part of this war from the side of then Yugoslavia. Imagine listening to their stories firsthand. One of them was fighting on The Syrmian Front, luckily survived, and lived to be 89. RIP, grandpa!
This video describes the saddest part of my country’s history. What irks me about this video is that the Words Nazi and German soldier are used interchangeably. Most soldiers were not Nazis but to speak up against the system would have been suicide. My grandfather was working for the German Railway and his work was considered “important”. Normally, people like him were not called to the weapons because they had to keep the country going. But my grandfather refused to join the Nazi party. He was offered to choose between joining the party or being sent to Stalingrad. He went to Stalingrad, got severely injured and almost died. He was a social-democrate all of his life. Calling him a Nazi is an insult. Soldiers were between 16 and 60 years old. At the end of the war, young kids from the age of 12 had to fight. German cities got defended by a bunch of scared kids. They were not nazis. All of Europe has suffered terribly. Just as many other party of the world. That’s why Europe has worked so hard to build the European Union. The US have fought several wars since WW2 but never had to fight a war in their own territory. Consider yourselfs lucky!
Yeah look at the kids fighting for russia now. They're kidz tricked into that game. It's always more than 50% of the aggressors are victims of their systems too. Speaking up and protest is less possible than I always thought. I was arrogant in that point. Now I see worldwide how hard it is to form resistance.
The creator adressed this error and apologized for it in the discription of the original video. The video already had an insane amount of views, which lead to the decission to never change its narration and correct this.
Oh bullshit. Don't give me that PC crap - in WWII we didn't fight aliens from the planet Nazion, we fought Germans who fought for German values to build Germany. It wasn't NSDAP, it was everyone in Germany, no matter how now Germans desperately want to convince anyone. For 30+ years the Germans denied their crimes, refused to acknowledge crimes in Poland and today they have the gall to refuse WWII reparation to Poland because "it was them evil Nazis". You wouldn't have hitler without Bismarck, without Goethe, without the Teutonic Order. I'm Polish, I'm not prejudiced against Germans but i despise how history is being twisted to blame the victims.
All of these deaths are so sad and senseless. We MUST prevent something like this from ever happening again. There are people who want to take us back to these times
Both of my grandfathers had to fight on the side of the Nazis, but did not support the ideology. One of them deserted and joined the partisans, where he met my grandmother. The other was incredibly lucky, because his big mouth probably saved his life. He had an argument with one of his superiors and because of that he was transferred to another unit in Bulgaria. His old unit had to go to Russia and very few of them came back.
Same here. Both german grandfathers had to fight. There was no (good) way around it. One made sure to be a horrible soldier, he was always too late and one day that saved his life. His wife fled with a 1yo just before they discovered she was jewish. The other grandpa just surrendered where he could have escaped back to his unit. He was very lucky the greeks were nicer than the nazis and didn´t kill him as a prisoner.
My grandpa was in Russia. Not Stalingrad, but he was severely injured anyway. Somehow he made it back home on a military plane, but one leg had to be amputated to save his life. None of our family ever was a Nazi or ever will be. But how could anyone have escaped the general draft, or "mobilization"? Deserting was not an option if you didn't have enough money and friends to help you get out. Shame on those leaders who start a war, and shame on those who refuse to end it by negotiations and instead sacrifice human life, wherever it happens on this "pale blue dot" (Carl Sagan) that is our home.
part of my family was from the soviet union and one of them was a soviet soldier during ww2 but the fact that the creator used the word "nazis" still disgusts me
Yeah, shame on your German leaders who started another war in 2014. You will all pay for their decision. And you will whine again how it wasn't possible to "desert".
My father was also in Russia at the age of just 18 and a member of the “Army Group South”. He was also flown out with an injury to his foot and leg, but was able to keep his leg. My grandfather was an active social democrat and was arrested in 1940 and died of "pneumonia" in prison in 1942. My other grandfather was a communist. Not a particularly active one and also a miner in the coalfield, which is why he was not drafted as “war-important specialist personnel” and also had some freedoms that a simple farm worker could not afford. Despite this, we were and still are insulted as Nazis by many foreigners.... that hurts, especially as these people usually have such a low IQ that they would have enthusiastically joined in at the time and with full conviction. And I can see that in many young people today who are roaring and shouting old slogans.... and not in Germany (there too, but rather sporadically because it's a criminal offense), but increasingly abroad. Be it other European countries or the USA, the old brown ghost still roams the minds of people who lack education or who simply want to blame others for their problems. And that scares me! +++ in Deutsch+++ Mein Vater war mit gerade einmal 18 Jahren ebenfalls in Russland und Angehöriger der "Armeegruppe Süd". Er wurde ebenfalls mit einer Verletzung am Fuß und Bein ausgeflogen, konnte aber sein Bein behalten. Mein Großvater war aktiver Sozialdemokrat und wurde 1940 Verhaftet und ist 1942 im Gefängnis an einer "Lungenentzündung" gestorben. Mein anderer Großvater war Kommunist. Kein sonderlich aktiver und zudem Bergman im Kohlerevier, weshalb er als "Kriegswichtiges Fachpersonal" nicht eingezogen wurde und zudem einige Freiheiten hatte die sich ein einfacher Landarbeiter nicht erlauben konnte. Trotzdem wurden wir und werden wir bis heute von vielen Ausländern als Nazi beschimpft.... das schmerzt, zumal diese Personen meist einen so geringen IQ haben das sie damals mit Begeisterung mitgemacht hätten und das aus voller Überzeugung. Und das sehe ich an vielen jungen Leuten die heute wieder gröhlend durch die Gegend ziehen und alte PArolen schreien.... und nicht in Deutschland (da auch, aber eher vereinzelt weil strafbar), sondern vermehrt im Ausland. Sei es das Europäische Ausland oder die USA, das alte braune Gespenst streift noch immer durch die Köpfe von Leuten denen es an Bildung fehlt oder die einfach immer nur andere für ihre Probleme verantwortlich machen wollen. Und das macht mir Angst!
When most people think about Auschwitz today, what they really think about is Auschwitz-Birkenau which was the extermination camp. However, what most people don't realize is that even as horrible Auschwitz-Birkenau was, you had a chance to survive Auschwitz-Birkenau. You had no hope of surviving Belzec, Sorbibor and Treblinka. In Treblinka, victims arrived by train loads of up towards a couple of thousand at the time and within one hour after arriving, they would be dead. When people start to talk about genocide today, they really don't understand what that word really means. Nearly 900,000 Jews were killed in Treblinka and what makes it even more horrible is the fact that Treblinka was only in operation from July 1942 - October 1943. That's 60,000 killed every single month or 2,000 killed every single day. Nothing today compares to that. During the bombings of Germany by the allies, far more than 2,000 people died every single day. The total number of people killed during WWII simply has no equal in human history.
Now you can see why it´s such a big deal in Germany to say "Never again" and why we´re not so much waving flags like in the US. Yes it is teached in school but in this video the graphics shock even more. Hope the world takes alot care that no weard tyrann and dictator does that again. Sadly the UN is doing a bad job in it.
@@ThomasPaysen-Delleske I believe he was referencing your election last week. You effing idiots elected a man that wishes he had Hitler's generals.( not understanding that hitler's generals tried to assassinate him 3 times ) that has directly quoted Hitler numerous times. Your country claimed a LOT of glory after WWII, but you came to the party almost 3 years after it started. Back in the late 30's and early 40's, there was a very strong Nazi movement in the US. The ONLY reason you entered the war was you got a wake up call from Japan.
Since first seeing this it's been one of the best videos on TH-cam, so powerful and important. Plus now we can compare, the US lost fewer soldiers during the war than Russia has lost so far in its war with Ukraine.
This video is very well done. You see the losses of life as numbers on a page, and you might THINK you get it. But that is nothing compared to how those same losses are shown here. I feel like this should be required viewing for any class anywhere that is learning 20th century history..
Right after the war, when asked who contributed most to Allies victory, French people responded in large majority the USSR. 10 yrs later, same answer. 70yrs later, the same question was asked and this time French people answered in majority the US. How living and growing up through the events really differ from living and growing up with how the events are depicted in movies...
Because in fact without lend-lease the USSR would have lost the war.. Nikita Khrushchev, having served as a military commissar and intermediary between Stalin and his generals during the war, addressed directly the significance of Lend-lease aid in his memoirs: I would like to express my candid opinion about Stalin's views on whether the Red Army and the Soviet Union could have coped with Nazi Germany and survived the war without aid from the United States and Britain. First, I would like to tell about some remarks Stalin made and repeated several times when we were "discussing freely" among ourselves. He stated bluntly that if the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war. If we had had to fight Nazi Germany one on one, we could not have stood up against Germany's pressure, and we would have lost the war. No one ever discussed this subject officially, and I don't think Stalin left any written evidence of his opinion, but I will state here that several times in conversations with me he noted that these were the actual circumstances. He never made a special point of holding a conversation on the subject, but when we were engaged in some kind of relaxed conversation, going over international questions of the past and present, and when we would return to the subject of the path we had traveled during the war, that is what he said. When I listened to his remarks, I was fully in agreement with him, and today I am even more so
Years ago I visited a former concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria, together with some guests from another country. The concentration camp is now some kind of museum so you can get a glimpse of the horrors from when it was active. From where I live its a 2 hour drive. We had a lot of fun in the car on our way to Mauthausen. On our way back though, the mood was really heavily muted. Everybody was quiet and sad and horrified. It made a deep impression on all of us.
My grandfather was injured in the war, which saved his life, because as a "Kradmelder" you most likely won't survive for long. He got a few bullets in his body. One on the side of his belly, one in his butt (which is always funny in movies, but not so much in real life) and one in his leg, which later on had to be amputated under his knee. With all that wounds he had to lay on the ground for hours until he got rescued. That he even survived all those injuries was because he was able to get to a lot of whine in the hospital and the alcohol preserved him, or so he said at least. He often had problems with the prothesis, as the materials weren't as good as today and so his leg got inflamed and what not. But still the wound in his butt (on the side of the good leg) was a bigger problem for him for the loss of a good portion of muscle there. My grandfather was a Nazi I think as he joined the FPÖ, which was the successor of the NSDAP, but we never talked about it. The FPÖ to this day is the party to the extreme right here in Austria. Though for US standards they would be at best left of the middle of the political spectrum there, if not very left. However, calling all German oldiers Nazis is not fair. You had no say in the matter once you are drafted. And most certainly many many of them were not actual Nazis.
My grandparents were kids when the war was. Grandma told how nazis tried to burn the house they were in and they escaped just because something took their attention from house. And also, one of my teachers survived siege of Leningrad. She was one of the children that was saved through the lake road during winter. She died this spring, i really miss her.
As a European, I humbly and deeply thank all the brave men and women, especially American soldiers, who sacrificed their lives to free our continent during World War II. Your courage and selflessness delivered us from a dark and terrible occupation, and your legacy of freedom lives on in our hearts. We will never forget your sacrifice.With eternal gratitude.
I'd like to remind you of the countless warcrimes against civilians commited by both the US and the Soviets against the european that they never stood trial for as that would dirty the white vest of the "saviours"
I’m sorry, but this is VERY misleading. USSR did have all that casualties, but there’s a small detail worth mentioning: 90% of that losses is Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. It’s these 3 countries that were totally devastated. Also important fact: USSR started that war together with Hitler. They’re responsible for killing dozens of thousands poles prior to 1941. And one of the main reasons losses were so high, is because USSR was planning to invade and divide Baltics. Their military simply was prepared for attacking, not defending. On top of that, they just treated their own people as meat, killing thousands of their soldiers. Just as russia does at this very moment in Ukraine. AGAIN.
I live near the Huertgen forest in Germany. The Germans won the battle of the Huertgen Forest and when US retreated, Germany started the Ardennes offence (the Ardennes are next to the Huertgen Forest). They are still finding remains of dead soldiers in the Huertgen Forest and nearby every year. About 40,000 US troops(and 35,000 Germans) died in the Huertgen forest in only a few months. The movie "when Trumpets fade" is about the battle of the Huertgen Forest and is well-made.
The end of the video would have a very different tone if it was made a few years later. The so called long peace is certainly over. How far we fall remains to be seen, but with recent developments I don't see a peaceful future, things might get much worse.
The most recent event trump getting elected. trump promises to end the war with Ukraine (which does not seem likely) and based on his actions in his last term, he'll probably help flair up a war with Iran instead. 😞 And intensifying the conflict with China, but that probably is hard to prevent.
Exactly. Technically a Nazi was a card carrying member of the National-Socialist Labour Party, the NSDAP. This membership meant loyalty to Hitler, and also gave access to high administrative and military positions, but the Wehrmacht still consisted of ordinary drafted soldiers, those were the ones killed in masses. So it was an army of the Nazis, not an army of Nazis.
There are also weird side effects. You might not count things like civilians dying of dysintery during that time, but they maybe should be, because the reason for peace has not been removed.
Since this Video got published, we got horrible wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Mali, Ethiopia, Jemen, Libanon, Palestine, Myanmar, Ukraine, Arminia,... The death toll among civilians relative to soldiers grew significantly due to new technologies. The Long Peace is definitely over.
Sorry, I take offense when that video creator said that "half a million Nazis" died in Stalingrad. Of those dead only truly a few were real Nazis. The rest were simply soldiers just dragged into that war without being too closely connected to the Nazis (meaning the party and its leaders). My father had been one of them. He did not like to be shipped around at all, from Westwall to Belarus, this I can tell you. He was prisoner of war in the Sovjetunion, but made it home after the war had ended. Heavily traumatised, PTSD, of course. Almost the same goes for my father-in-law, who'd returned from the East severely injured. He lost half of his right hand in some detonation. He wasn't a convinced Nazi either. I need to protest over the generalisation being made here. When he narrates about the fallen on the German side , he should say German soldiers, or members of the Wehrmacht etc. but not saying "Nazis". Most of them simply were not. Just for clarification: I do not condone any of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime, just to the contrary! I detest what they did!
So why didn’t they joined a resistance it was everywhere France Italy Belgium Poland etc etc. They knew their life is in danger no matter what so why not fight against the Nazi not joining them. Those soldiers you called innocent were guilty of gunning down innocent civilians concentration camps killing. So don’t pretend they are victims. Victims are those innocent died in holocaust ones died for resistance soldiers who died freeing their countries and innocent villagers who were gunned down by soldiers like your father. So yes every soldier every woman man who joined the Nazi regime are Nazis. There’s no getting around that so please stop defending atrocities committed by soldiers like your father and admit to their guilt. If they suffered later life they deserved that for the suffering they have caused to all allied states all Russians all Jewish people.
Just a little thing to think about. Not 500.000 Nazis died in Stalingrad, 500.000 german soldiers did. There is a difference. Not every soldier, dying in Iraq, was a fan of George W. Bush. And there, only volunteers died. Im Deutschen Reich you were drafted. On Stalingrad, 18 year old soldiers died that were 9 years old, when the last free elections were in March 1934. If you know the resistance group "Weiße Rose/White Rose" - had members like Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell and Will Graf, that fought on the eastern front. I know it is easy to say "every German in WW II was a Nazi. But this is incorrect.
nice t see an american learn that. there only war is glorified and they learn a false narative of world wars. young country just needs to do a global libary share
they leave many million civilian deaths in the Middle East and Africa. More than 3 million Iranian death during the Iranian Famine while they were occupied by the UK and Soviets. Iran was an important transport corridor for allied material support of the Soviets.
What's really crazy is that all the USA seems to write/care/make movies about are their own involvement - why aren't schools educating them - Ryan shouldn't feel stupid for not knowing stuff - it's partly down to not been taught a more expansive history at school - that's where you can learn at least the bare bones and then if your interest is piqued you can do your own research
the reason is very simple: you are not supposed to question how "clean" the US acted during and especially after every conflict, especially during and after WW2
The "long peace" section was before Ukraine and Palestine, but I'm surprised it didn't mention the Balkan wars as wars in Europe. The narrator was right about the general trend though - long may it continue.
If you notice there's a spike in American deaths in 1942 then nothing until 1943. This is because American soldiers were sent to fight in North Africa in 1942 after causing trouble among the locals in the UK. This highlighted just how badly trained American soldiers were, hence why they had to undergo 6 months of training in the UK before being sent into battle. Basically, the American's idea of fighting was to throw everything at the problem and hope they had more men and guns than the enemy.
UK also wanted to train Polish pilots, especially in English language. But then it turned out British pilots should learn from Poles, and Polish pilots eventually were decisive in winning the Battle of Britain.
@@rotmistrzjanm8776 I don't know where you heard that from, but no they didn't. American troops were mainly used as support and relief troops for the allied forces. When they did actually fight it was always alongside allied troops to keep them in check.
This why Europeans get so upset by America saying it saved Europe. America has no idea what the war in Europe was like. America did not suffer the amount of civilian casualties that Europe and Asia did. The American civilian population was insulated from the horrors of WWII and for most of the war carried on as normal. America civilians need to wise up about what war actually does.
True, but there were still tenths of thousands of American 18-year olds running into machine gun fire at the Normany landing. That was crucial to ending the war and the sooner it ended the sooner the killing stopped. They were also crucial in Asia. It is their part of the story and it is a big part.
This is why it's kinda hurtful when I hear American people talk only about their involvement and their losses during these wars, completely ignoring everyone else :( Same goes when victory is discussed, it was a team effort. The Canadians did so much for my hometown!
While the majority of German soldiers followed the Nazis, not all did.. So it’s not fair to just call of of them Nazis… I’m not talking about special troops like SS and such who were 100% all Nazis!
Technically the Nazi's were those that had a NSDAP membership. Those were moved into crucial positions and ranks in the Wehrmacht but not dominant in numbers and certainly not at the trench level. The SS was a different story.
NO Democratic country could take the losses the USSR & China did, It took the manufacturing might of the US & the massive man power & losses of the USSR to defeat Germany (The US was also arming & supplying the USSR)
I'm a Jewish Ukrainian living in Spain, all my grandparents and great grandparents were involved in this mess. The numbers in this video are very conservative. Around 40M Soviets died during that era. Killed by Hitler or by Stalin. Stalin was worst than Hitler. But that is a story for another day
It's difficult, if not impossible,to know for sure the number of death's, especially civilian. There were no computers back then. People's registries were on paper,stored in buildings that were destroyed. So there is no record they ever existed. Entire family trees wiped out from existence and from memory.
You are correct. My father was 12 when WW2 started. He joined up when he was 16 or 17 (he may have lied about his age). He died in 2023 at 96 years old. Towards the end he suffered from Vascular Dementia (mostly loss of memory, couldn't remember his wife sister or mother) I took him to a group meeting. They were asked what they remembered about the war. He could only remember one thing and it was vivid to him. He could just remember feeling scared, all the time. He had lost most other memories, but could always feel that memory.
I want to point out two things: 1. The listing by country is a bit misleading as many were still empires. E.g. UK numbers do not only include today's GB (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) but the commonwealth, like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India (including today's Pakistan and Bangladesh) as well as territories like Egypt, Malaysia, Singapore. The Russian Empire turned Soviet Union is the most misleading in this regard, I think. The Russian military losses were "only" about 40 or 50% (iirc by Churchill's memoirs), followed by Ukrainians (incl. Krim Cossaks) and Belarusian. Additionally, the Russian Soviet "republic" included many ethnic minorities which were sent preferably on dangerous tasks. (Some things never change...) The civilian losses were also predominantly in these western Soviet entities. Not even counting the post war forced famine there (Holodomor), which showed up in the graphics under "Stalin". 2. The video states that no more colonial wars occurred in recent years. I disagree: the Chechnyan wars (among other interventions) clearly were, the Western perspective just doesn't recognize the neo Russian empire as such. Also several civil wars "with foreign intervention" have quite a smell of colonial interests...
The whole "proportion of the world population" is always good to keep in mind. A lot of people died, but there's also an incredible amount of humans on earth today. The further you go back the more extreme those population dips were due to a low total population. When there were only 10k humans on earth total, an unlucky flood could have caused a comparable loss in terms of percentage as a world war in the 20th century.
A lot of people say that we need to live in the present or look into the future and we should forget the past, otherwise we get stuck in there and rob ourselves of our future. However, the past is very important. If we dont study the past, we wont be able to prevent making the same mistakes again. The past is very much important for that reason. But, as mentioned, people who remember the 1st/2nd World Wars, are dying out and modern people and modern thinking, pushes the Past into the nothingness with todays thinking about the present and future. If this ignorance continues, we will definetaly repeat the mistakes of the past. How is the saying? "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it"
Many people think that this won’t or can’t happen again, but we’re still the same people. We’re still just as susceptible to cruelty and nationalism as they were.
@ryanwuzer In my hometown there was a bridge that the allied wanted to destroy. They sent multiple american bombers wings at once. The americans destroyed the town causing hundreds of civilian deaths BUT the americans missed completely the bridge. The day after the english sent one (1) single bomber who destroyed the bridge and only the bridge.
I had three direct relatives in WWII. One was a hero, one died and Grandpa just never talked about it. My husband's Grandfather lost a foot at Normandy. We're Canadian. I'm tired of these men being ignored or lumped in with others in the conflict. We had heros and men who did incredible things during this war, and a great many more who didn't come home. Men and women. Lest We Forget.
@@zirilan3398 I don't know about that. I think someone who captured about 93 Germans by himself with hardly a shot fired. Then ran more Germans out of a Dutch town that was going to be bombarded by Canadian troops. (By himself). He saved that town and the citizens in it. Look up Leo Major.
America was indifferent before Dec 7, 1941, and even after, were not prepared to fight against Germany. Hitler declared war on US, not the US on Germany. Before that, US was selling supplies to UK through Lend Lease expecting to eventually be paid. Americans needed to be trained by Brits. At first, the high American casualties was because of American arrogance.
44,000 canadians died in WW II. Not a colony of Great Britain at this time. Over 1.1 million people served from a population of 11 million. The US had a population of 132 million in 1941. 417,000 deaths. over 16 million americans served.
The Canadians are certainly not forgotten here in the Netherlands. Actually they made conmemorating a bit more comfortable with the Americans in Vietnam and Iraq and where not.
And somehow Americans still think they made the ultimate sacrifice and that they deserve the biggest gratitude for defeating the Nazis and winning the War.
"kinda weird when you say like that" yes, because it sounds suspiciously like other icky terms, like bullying or colonizing or similar not so cool names.
My country Poland was in the middle of this shitshow. Show's you that every European suffered greatly and war is never a pleasant solution. But that's history for you. Americans soon should learn more of this with What Trump plans to do with the education.
As a German I feel really bad for the polish people. It wasn’t only the Germans that invaded your country. The Russian were part of it too. I heard many stories from old polish ladies, who explained, how they had to be „thankful“ to the Red Army to be freed from the German occupation. 😢 You were the first people to fight against all the oppression and were punished for it. I always liked how proud and strong Poland was.
I like to watch documentaries about history, but the ones that hit me the most are the first and second world war documentaries, because 99% of the people who participated in them end up in tears and say that it was the most tragic thing they ever experienced 😔😔😔
Have you considered that you may not be able to visit that site due to restrictions in your country? Maybe they don't want you to consider the Russian losses due to current events? The site is still up and working here in the UK (so far). When you look at the figures for Russia, is it really any wonder that Russians are very suspicious of the other Western Powers?
Soviet numbers are heavily modified. What I mean is - official data of civilian and military casualties were never told. At least not truthfully. Soviets, especially during Stalins regime, had a cult of a nation. Meaning anything that would harm image of the nation is either destroyed or modified. Not to mention how many soldiers were mobilized from occupied territories (Molotov-Ribbentrop pact). So you can safely assume approximately 40 million casulties on Soviet Union alone My country, who was forcefully occupied during WW2 by both Nazi Germany and Soviet Union, lost 14% of its population. "Viņi mira, lai dzīvot tu" = "They died so you could live"
that why we need to never forget history, we have movie and video game to see blood and war, in real life this suck af, one day maybe we will all understand that peace is harder but worth everything
This is why I always say ww2 allies victory was not due to Uk nor USA but the human sacrifice given by Russian soldiers. They have monuments everywhere in Europe for British USA soldiers but never one for these poor Russian men and women who died who really deserve the biggest merit for Nazi Germany’s loosing the war( l’m not a fan of today’s Russia but I do respect Russian soldiers of the world war 2 after seeing the documentaries of their gruesome fight and brutality of the Nazi towards Russians people)
If you haven't seen it, I'd strongly recommend watching the TV series Band Of Brothers. It's a masterpiece, and everyone should see it at some point! I watch it at least once per year.
Actually my uncle wasn't that traumatized by the war and occupation itself but much more by the aftermath. He witnessed some of the millons of displaced people throughout Europe moving back to what was left of their homes and families, often on foot, starved, injured, diseased, empoverished, horrified, broken. That took years, this is almost entirely forgotten about and of course relatively insignificant, it's just an illustration of the scale of the devastation that even the immediate aftermath when peace was achieved was such horrible scene.
Video use "not less than" logic taking lowest numbers for known intervals. Also Poland and Belarus are tricky to count. About half of today's Belarus was part of Poland before WWII so you should check how sources count to make sure that you doesn't include this area or people twice. IMO we should count Poland and Belarus as 3 regions. Poland, Belarus and part occupied by Soviets at 1939 to avoid this issue
The brother of my grandpa was imprisoned in Siberia during the war. He was 18 when he went to war... After he escaped the prison he was a slave for 8 years for a rich Russian man. Only after that he was able to come back home.
8:15 that's acctually common missconception. Yeah most people fought and died in eastern front but that's was due to inefficiency of both Germans (that focused war effort on western front for majority of the war) and Soviet Union (just pure incopentency)
Not all German soldiers or people were Nazis. My father was forced at the age 17 to join the war. It was the 19th Jan 1945 when they took him from the family farm in Selisia. He was never a Nazi. He was taken prisoner by the Americans on the 4th April and survived the POW camp Bad Bretzenheim were at one point 100000 prisoner were held on open mudfields. He was than a POW in France and returned back to Germany in 1949.
an excellent video and so well done, unfortunately history repeats itself over and over... The phrase “lest we forget” after WWII , how easily we forget. .just 80 years ago, and 1 life span. Hence the precursor is happening right now in Eastern Europe
All very sad, but it’s nothing compared to the first day of the battle of the Somme WW1. Literally, the men were machine gun fodder. ‘Over the top’ truly was a crime against humanity. Boys only in their mid teens were there.
There are some beautiful books known in old soviet block counties (including Poland) about the siege of Stalingrad. The books are beautifully written. Not the history.
"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it"
Happening right now.
And there are people who create their own history and by that repeat it again.
And the USA moron voters have now put the USA at the start of "THE IGNORANT REPETITION".
I am calling it. 16 Nov 2024. AEDT. PUBLISHED.
M 🦘🏏😎
And yet Trump gets elected.
@@TukikoTroy It's scary, man. I'm genuinely getting worried lately.
I would like to pitch in with a story of my great grandfather, who took part in war, as a driver in ranks of the Red Army. After the capture of Berlin, he has crushed a car their platoon got from Americans. As the crush happened not in a battle, he feared that he would be executed - that was not a laughing matter in Red Army.
Somehow, an American soldiers came to know about that, and one of them offered to swap cars - so he would be blamed for the crush, and my great grandfather would be spared. The funniest part: that whole conversation was basically conducted in a pantomime, because no-one in great grandfather's crew knew English, and that American soldier didn't speak Russian. And, on top of that, that American soldier was the first black person my great grandfather has ever seen in his life.
Unfortunately, my great grandfather forgot the name of that American soldier, but because of that selfless action he never believed the Cold War propaganda about "evil Americans". He always knew they are kind people in the essence, even at their own detriment.
What a wonderful story! Your grandfather sounds like a very wise man, indeed. I am grateful to him, and to all those who served. #LestWeForget
That is an amazing story, worth to be remembered, thank you for sharing it.
You picked a good time to watch this video. Around the world various nations commemorate the 11th day Armistice. Video's like this are so important so we remember that it is something we should be on guard for, not celebrating.
Different war, but we definitely should always remain aware of the horrors of war. Especially in these times where conflict is at an all time high while at the same time total war becomes a distant memory for many.
Commemoration is a far cry from celebration. Remembrance events are very solemn. The sacrifices made by our forebears is at the heart of all of them. Commemoration not celebration.
The 11th of novembre is ww1 armistice.
Not ww2.
But still good to remember the great war too.
Those who forget are prone to repeat the mistakes of the past.
@@etienne8110 WW1 was the cause of WW2.
Both my grandfathers were part of this war from the side of then Yugoslavia. Imagine listening to their stories firsthand. One of them was fighting on The Syrmian Front, luckily survived, and lived to be 89. RIP, grandpa!
This video describes the saddest part of my country’s history.
What irks me about this video is that the Words Nazi and German soldier are used interchangeably. Most soldiers were not Nazis but to speak up against the system would have been suicide.
My grandfather was working for the German Railway and his work was considered “important”. Normally, people like him were not called to the weapons because they had to keep the country going. But my grandfather refused to join the Nazi party. He was offered to choose between joining the party or being sent to Stalingrad. He went to Stalingrad, got severely injured and almost died. He was a social-democrate all of his life. Calling him a Nazi is an insult.
Soldiers were between 16 and 60 years old. At the end of the war, young kids from the age of 12 had to fight. German cities got defended by a bunch of scared kids. They were not nazis.
All of Europe has suffered terribly. Just as many other party of the world. That’s why Europe has worked so hard to build the European Union.
The US have fought several wars since WW2 but never had to fight a war in their own territory. Consider yourselfs lucky!
Yeah look at the kids fighting for russia now. They're kidz tricked into that game. It's always more than 50% of the aggressors are victims of their systems too. Speaking up and protest is less possible than I always thought. I was arrogant in that point. Now I see worldwide how hard it is to form resistance.
Yes, as a Dutch person who when young actually hated the Germans for a while.... I also don't like how he says Nazi when he meant Germans.
The creator adressed this error and apologized for it in the discription of the original video. The video already had an insane amount of views, which lead to the decission to never change its narration and correct this.
@@dnocturn84 Now you mentioned it, I do remember that
Oh bullshit. Don't give me that PC crap - in WWII we didn't fight aliens from the planet Nazion, we fought Germans who fought for German values to build Germany. It wasn't NSDAP, it was everyone in Germany, no matter how now Germans desperately want to convince anyone. For 30+ years the Germans denied their crimes, refused to acknowledge crimes in Poland and today they have the gall to refuse WWII reparation to Poland because "it was them evil Nazis".
You wouldn't have hitler without Bismarck, without Goethe, without the Teutonic Order. I'm Polish, I'm not prejudiced against Germans but i despise how history is being twisted to blame the victims.
All of these deaths are so sad and senseless. We MUST prevent something like this from ever happening again. There are people who want to take us back to these times
Its starting to happen again... tough times ahead...
the precursor is happening now in Eastern Europe.
Both of my grandfathers had to fight on the side of the Nazis, but did not support the ideology. One of them deserted and joined the partisans, where he met my grandmother. The other was incredibly lucky, because his big mouth probably saved his life. He had an argument with one of his superiors and because of that he was transferred to another unit in Bulgaria. His old unit had to go to Russia and very few of them came back.
Same here. Both german grandfathers had to fight. There was no (good) way around it. One made sure to be a horrible soldier, he was always too late and one day that saved his life. His wife fled with a 1yo just before they discovered she was jewish. The other grandpa just surrendered where he could have escaped back to his unit. He was very lucky the greeks were nicer than the nazis and didn´t kill him as a prisoner.
Dutchie here and same thing. My grand-uncle fled the Nazi army in Russia and walked all the way to Holland and hid
My grandpa was in Russia. Not Stalingrad, but he was severely injured anyway. Somehow he made it back home on a military plane, but one leg had to be amputated to save his life. None of our family ever was a Nazi or ever will be. But how could anyone have escaped the general draft, or "mobilization"? Deserting was not an option if you didn't have enough money and friends to help you get out.
Shame on those leaders who start a war, and shame on those who refuse to end it by negotiations and instead sacrifice human life, wherever it happens on this "pale blue dot" (Carl Sagan) that is our home.
yep, calling every german nazi was a shitty move from the creator.
part of my family was from the soviet union and one of them was a soviet soldier during ww2 but the fact that the creator used the word "nazis" still disgusts me
Yeah, shame on your German leaders who started another war in 2014. You will all pay for their decision. And you will whine again how it wasn't possible to "desert".
My father was also in Russia at the age of just 18 and a member of the “Army Group South”. He was also flown out with an injury to his foot and leg, but was able to keep his leg.
My grandfather was an active social democrat and was arrested in 1940 and died of "pneumonia" in prison in 1942.
My other grandfather was a communist. Not a particularly active one and also a miner in the coalfield, which is why he was not drafted as “war-important specialist personnel” and also had some freedoms that a simple farm worker could not afford.
Despite this, we were and still are insulted as Nazis by many foreigners.... that hurts, especially as these people usually have such a low IQ that they would have enthusiastically joined in at the time and with full conviction.
And I can see that in many young people today who are roaring and shouting old slogans.... and not in Germany (there too, but rather sporadically because it's a criminal offense), but increasingly abroad. Be it other European countries or the USA, the old brown ghost still roams the minds of people who lack education or who simply want to blame others for their problems. And that scares me!
+++ in Deutsch+++
Mein Vater war mit gerade einmal 18 Jahren ebenfalls in Russland und Angehöriger der "Armeegruppe Süd". Er wurde ebenfalls mit einer Verletzung am Fuß und Bein ausgeflogen, konnte aber sein Bein behalten.
Mein Großvater war aktiver Sozialdemokrat und wurde 1940 Verhaftet und ist 1942 im Gefängnis an einer "Lungenentzündung" gestorben.
Mein anderer Großvater war Kommunist. Kein sonderlich aktiver und zudem Bergman im Kohlerevier, weshalb er als "Kriegswichtiges Fachpersonal" nicht eingezogen wurde und zudem einige Freiheiten hatte die sich ein einfacher Landarbeiter nicht erlauben konnte.
Trotzdem wurden wir und werden wir bis heute von vielen Ausländern als Nazi beschimpft.... das schmerzt, zumal diese Personen meist einen so geringen IQ haben das sie damals mit Begeisterung mitgemacht hätten und das aus voller Überzeugung.
Und das sehe ich an vielen jungen Leuten die heute wieder gröhlend durch die Gegend ziehen und alte PArolen schreien.... und nicht in Deutschland (da auch, aber eher vereinzelt weil strafbar), sondern vermehrt im Ausland. Sei es das Europäische Ausland oder die USA, das alte braune Gespenst streift noch immer durch die Köpfe von Leuten denen es an Bildung fehlt oder die einfach immer nur andere für ihre Probleme verantwortlich machen wollen. Und das macht mir Angst!
When dictators fight it ends badly for their soldiers. Dictators do not care about death toll. They care about results.
It wasn't about dictators though; more about big money.
Look at what is happening in Russia and Ukraine. And no, Zelensky is not a dictator.
@@allykid4720 indeed war generates big money for the rich and the peons die...
Stalin wasn't an a dictator. Stop believing your idiotic propaganda.
@@wessexdruid7598Zelensky is a Peaceduke
When most people think about Auschwitz today, what they really think about is Auschwitz-Birkenau which was the extermination camp.
However, what most people don't realize is that even as horrible Auschwitz-Birkenau was, you had a chance to survive Auschwitz-Birkenau. You had no hope of surviving Belzec, Sorbibor and Treblinka.
In Treblinka, victims arrived by train loads of up towards a couple of thousand at the time and within one hour after arriving, they would be dead.
When people start to talk about genocide today, they really don't understand what that word really means.
Nearly 900,000 Jews were killed in Treblinka and what makes it even more horrible is the fact that Treblinka was only in operation from July 1942 - October 1943. That's 60,000 killed every single month or 2,000 killed every single day. Nothing today compares to that.
During the bombings of Germany by the allies, far more than 2,000 people died every single day.
The total number of people killed during WWII simply has no equal in human history.
Same amount about 950,000 Jews were killed in Auschwitz and about another 200,000 non-Jews .
Sadly, the video also showed how if scaled by population size maybe in the past were even worse things.
What horrific statistics! And I thank you for providing them. 😳😭
Now you can see why it´s such a big deal in Germany to say "Never again" and why we´re not so much waving flags like in the US. Yes it is teached in school but in this video the graphics shock even more. Hope the world takes alot care that no weard tyrann and dictator does that again. Sadly the UN is doing a bad job in it.
Why are you doing it again right now then? It's not the UN. It's you.
@@gogaonzhezhora8640 We are? Where? Who did we attack? Did i missed anything? We aren´t at war. What are you talking about?
@@ThomasPaysen-Delleske I believe he was referencing your election last week. You effing idiots elected a man that wishes he had Hitler's generals.( not understanding that hitler's generals tried to assassinate him 3 times ) that has directly quoted Hitler numerous times. Your country claimed a LOT of glory after WWII, but you came to the party almost 3 years after it started. Back in the late 30's and early 40's, there was a very strong Nazi movement in the US. The ONLY reason you entered the war was you got a wake up call from Japan.
We barely have a functional army. Wtf are you even talking about?
@@gogaonzhezhora8640 too much russian propaganda? Watch REAL russian tv to learn and see.
Since first seeing this it's been one of the best videos on TH-cam, so powerful and important.
Plus now we can compare, the US lost fewer soldiers during the war than Russia has lost so far in its war with Ukraine.
This video is very well done. You see the losses of life as numbers on a page, and you might THINK you get it. But that is nothing compared to how those same losses are shown here. I feel like this should be required viewing for any class anywhere that is learning 20th century history..
Right after the war, when asked who contributed most to Allies victory, French people responded in large majority the USSR. 10 yrs later, same answer. 70yrs later, the same question was asked and this time French people answered in majority the US.
How living and growing up through the events really differ from living and growing up with how the events are depicted in movies...
Yes it was the USSR specifically Russia that stopped the Nazi's not the US !
"we are all living in America" - Rammstein's song Amerika
American propaganda is very very strong, and global. Their movies, tv series, video games, documentaries, etc
Because in fact without lend-lease the USSR would have lost the war..
Nikita Khrushchev, having served as a military commissar and intermediary between Stalin and his generals during the war, addressed directly the significance of Lend-lease aid in his memoirs:
I would like to express my candid opinion about Stalin's views on whether the Red Army and the Soviet Union could have coped with Nazi Germany and survived the war without aid from the United States and Britain. First, I would like to tell about some remarks Stalin made and repeated several times when we were "discussing freely" among ourselves. He stated bluntly that if the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war. If we had had to fight Nazi Germany one on one, we could not have stood up against Germany's pressure, and we would have lost the war. No one ever discussed this subject officially, and I don't think Stalin left any written evidence of his opinion, but I will state here that several times in conversations with me he noted that these were the actual circumstances. He never made a special point of holding a conversation on the subject, but when we were engaged in some kind of relaxed conversation, going over international questions of the past and present, and when we would return to the subject of the path we had traveled during the war, that is what he said. When I listened to his remarks, I was fully in agreement with him, and today I am even more so
Years ago I visited a former concentration camp in Mauthausen, Austria, together with some guests from another country. The concentration camp is now some kind of museum so you can get a glimpse of the horrors from when it was active. From where I live its a 2 hour drive. We had a lot of fun in the car on our way to Mauthausen. On our way back though, the mood was really heavily muted. Everybody was quiet and sad and horrified. It made a deep impression on all of us.
My grandfather was injured in the war, which saved his life, because as a "Kradmelder" you most likely won't survive for long. He got a few bullets in his body. One on the side of his belly, one in his butt (which is always funny in movies, but not so much in real life) and one in his leg, which later on had to be amputated under his knee. With all that wounds he had to lay on the ground for hours until he got rescued. That he even survived all those injuries was because he was able to get to a lot of whine in the hospital and the alcohol preserved him, or so he said at least. He often had problems with the prothesis, as the materials weren't as good as today and so his leg got inflamed and what not. But still the wound in his butt (on the side of the good leg) was a bigger problem for him for the loss of a good portion of muscle there. My grandfather was a Nazi I think as he joined the FPÖ, which was the successor of the NSDAP, but we never talked about it. The FPÖ to this day is the party to the extreme right here in Austria. Though for US standards they would be at best left of the middle of the political spectrum there, if not very left. However, calling all German oldiers Nazis is not fair. You had no say in the matter once you are drafted. And most certainly many many of them were not actual Nazis.
My grandparents were kids when the war was. Grandma told how nazis tried to burn the house they were in and they escaped just because something took their attention from house. And also, one of my teachers survived siege of Leningrad. She was one of the children that was saved through the lake road during winter. She died this spring, i really miss her.
As a European, I humbly and deeply thank all the brave men and women, especially American soldiers, who sacrificed their lives to free our continent during World War II. Your courage and selflessness delivered us from a dark and terrible occupation, and your legacy of freedom lives on in our hearts. We will never forget your sacrifice.With eternal gratitude.
I'd like to remind you of the countless warcrimes against civilians commited by both the US and the Soviets against the european that they never stood trial for as that would dirty the white vest of the "saviours"
What about the Australians? 😏
I’m sorry, but this is VERY misleading. USSR did have all that casualties, but there’s a small detail worth mentioning:
90% of that losses is Ukraine, Belarus and Poland. It’s these 3 countries that were totally devastated. Also important fact: USSR started that war together with Hitler. They’re responsible for killing dozens of thousands poles prior to 1941. And one of the main reasons losses were so high, is because USSR was planning to invade and divide Baltics. Their military simply was prepared for attacking, not defending. On top of that, they just treated their own people as meat, killing thousands of their soldiers. Just as russia does at this very moment in Ukraine. AGAIN.
I live near the Huertgen forest in Germany. The Germans won the battle of the Huertgen Forest and when US retreated, Germany started the Ardennes offence (the Ardennes are next to the Huertgen Forest). They are still finding remains of dead soldiers in the Huertgen Forest and nearby every year. About 40,000 US troops(and 35,000 Germans) died in the Huertgen forest in only a few months. The movie "when Trumpets fade" is about the battle of the Huertgen Forest and is well-made.
The end of the video would have a very different tone if it was made a few years later. The so called long peace is certainly over.
How far we fall remains to be seen, but with recent developments I don't see a peaceful future, things might get much worse.
The most recent event trump getting elected. trump promises to end the war with Ukraine (which does not seem likely) and based on his actions in his last term, he'll probably help flair up a war with Iran instead. 😞
And intensifying the conflict with China, but that probably is hard to prevent.
This should be shown in every school in the world for all the youngsters that still don't know that war is definitely a bad thing.
6:51 "How many nazis were there?"
Many of the nazi soldiers WEREN'T nazi. They were forced to. Especially later on in the war.
Exactly. Technically a Nazi was a card carrying member of the National-Socialist Labour Party, the NSDAP. This membership meant loyalty to Hitler, and also gave access to high administrative and military positions, but the Wehrmacht still consisted of ordinary drafted soldiers, those were the ones killed in masses.
So it was an army of the Nazis, not an army of Nazis.
There are also weird side effects. You might not count things like civilians dying of dysintery during that time, but they maybe should be, because the reason for peace has not been removed.
Since this Video got published, we got horrible wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Mali, Ethiopia, Jemen, Libanon, Palestine, Myanmar, Ukraine, Arminia,... The death toll among civilians relative to soldiers grew significantly due to new technologies. The Long Peace is definitely over.
I did the maths. Roughly 31,000 people died daily from WWII
Damn Ryan 😯 you surpassed yourself with this one 👏👍🏻✌🏼
Sorry, I take offense when that video creator said that "half a million Nazis" died in Stalingrad. Of those dead only truly a few were real Nazis. The rest were simply soldiers just dragged into that war without being too closely connected to the Nazis (meaning the party and its leaders). My father had been one of them. He did not like to be shipped around at all, from Westwall to Belarus, this I can tell you. He was prisoner of war in the Sovjetunion, but made it home after the war had ended. Heavily traumatised, PTSD, of course. Almost the same goes for my father-in-law, who'd returned from the East severely injured. He lost half of his right hand in some detonation. He wasn't a convinced Nazi either. I need to protest over the generalisation being made here. When he narrates about the fallen on the German side , he should say German soldiers, or members of the Wehrmacht etc. but not saying "Nazis". Most of them simply were not. Just for clarification: I do not condone any of the crimes committed by the Nazi regime, just to the contrary! I detest what they did!
So why didn’t they joined a resistance it was everywhere France Italy Belgium Poland etc etc. They knew their life is in danger no matter what so why not fight against the Nazi not joining them. Those soldiers you called innocent were guilty of gunning down innocent civilians concentration camps killing. So don’t pretend they are victims. Victims are those innocent died in holocaust ones died for resistance soldiers who died freeing their countries and innocent villagers who were gunned down by soldiers like your father. So yes every soldier every woman man who joined the Nazi regime are Nazis. There’s no getting around that so please stop defending atrocities committed by soldiers like your father and admit to their guilt. If they suffered later life they deserved that for the suffering they have caused to all allied states all Russians all Jewish people.
And the US still thinks its too far away from Europe to worry. In fact you are just 1 button away. Wake up.
I guess, now you see, why the whole world cringes and feels insulted when they hear Americans say: "We won WW2!"
Just a little thing to think about. Not 500.000 Nazis died in Stalingrad, 500.000 german soldiers did. There is a difference. Not every soldier, dying in Iraq, was a fan of George W. Bush. And there, only volunteers died. Im Deutschen Reich you were drafted. On Stalingrad, 18 year old soldiers died that were 9 years old, when the last free elections were in March 1934. If you know the resistance group "Weiße Rose/White Rose" - had members like Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell and Will Graf, that fought on the eastern front. I know it is easy to say "every German in WW II was a Nazi. But this is incorrect.
Every war is tragic
nice t see an american learn that. there only war is glorified and they learn a false narative of world wars.
young country just needs to do a global libary share
they leave many million civilian deaths in the Middle East and Africa. More than 3 million Iranian death during the Iranian Famine while they were occupied by the UK and Soviets. Iran was an important transport corridor for allied material support of the Soviets.
What's really crazy is that all the USA seems to write/care/make movies about are their own involvement - why aren't schools educating them - Ryan shouldn't feel stupid for not knowing stuff - it's partly down to not been taught a more expansive history at school - that's where you can learn at least the bare bones and then if your interest is piqued you can do your own research
the reason is very simple: you are not supposed to question how "clean" the US acted during and especially after every conflict, especially during and after WW2
The "long peace" section was before Ukraine and Palestine, but I'm surprised it didn't mention the Balkan wars as wars in Europe. The narrator was right about the general trend though - long may it continue.
I think he included it in the civil wars in total without mention any specific wars
The website still works for me
The page is still up actually
Also take into perspective what was the number of people living in the country... And think about the percentage of people who died
If you were listening..they did.
That was a GREAT video, with the animation totally awesome!
If you notice there's a spike in American deaths in 1942 then nothing until 1943. This is because American soldiers were sent to fight in North Africa in 1942 after causing trouble among the locals in the UK. This highlighted just how badly trained American soldiers were, hence why they had to undergo 6 months of training in the UK before being sent into battle.
Basically, the American's idea of fighting was to throw everything at the problem and hope they had more men and guns than the enemy.
UK also wanted to train Polish pilots, especially in English language. But then it turned out British pilots should learn from Poles, and Polish pilots eventually were decisive in winning the Battle of Britain.
Ah - thanks. I wondered about that spike!
Yeah but let's be honest, when they figured all stuff up, US Army became extremely efficient
@@rotmistrzjanm8776 I don't know where you heard that from, but no they didn't.
American troops were mainly used as support and relief troops for the allied forces. When they did actually fight it was always alongside allied troops to keep them in check.
@educatednumpty71 it was group effort yes but it wasn't that US didn't participate in frontline fighting. They provided both.
Ryan, you called it a 'barbaric time'. Yes it was, but the same thing can happen today, in any country... ANY country.
This why Europeans get so upset by America saying it saved Europe. America has no idea what the war in Europe was like. America did not suffer the amount of civilian casualties that Europe and Asia did. The American civilian population was insulated from the horrors of WWII and for most of the war carried on as normal. America civilians need to wise up about what war actually does.
True, but there were still tenths of thousands of American 18-year olds running into machine gun fire at the Normany landing. That was crucial to ending the war and the sooner it ended the sooner the killing stopped. They were also crucial in Asia. It is their part of the story and it is a big part.
This is why it's kinda hurtful when I hear American people talk only about their involvement and their losses during these wars, completely ignoring everyone else :( Same goes when victory is discussed, it was a team effort. The Canadians did so much for my hometown!
While the majority of German soldiers followed the Nazis, not all did..
So it’s not fair to just call of of them Nazis…
I’m not talking about special troops like SS and such who were 100% all Nazis!
Technically the Nazi's were those that had a NSDAP membership. Those were moved into crucial positions and ranks in the Wehrmacht but not dominant in numbers and certainly not at the trench level. The SS was a different story.
“Germany and the Soviet Union, that was the real war!” By George, he’s got it! :)
Frostbite, starvation and using civilian hostages are a horrendous way to fight a war! 🤕 Rather like Napoleon! 🤔
NO Democratic country could take the losses the USSR & China did, It took the manufacturing might of the US & the massive man power & losses of the USSR to defeat Germany (The US was also arming & supplying the USSR)
I'm a Jewish Ukrainian living in Spain, all my grandparents and great grandparents were involved in this mess. The numbers in this video are very conservative. Around 40M Soviets died during that era. Killed by Hitler or by Stalin. Stalin was worst than Hitler. But that is a story for another day
Yes, I agree. There were no easy or quick deaths under Stalin! 😪
It's difficult, if not impossible,to know for sure the number of death's, especially civilian. There were no computers back then. People's registries were on paper,stored in buildings that were destroyed. So there is no record they ever existed. Entire family trees wiped out from existence and from memory.
The long peace is over.
And what is Incredible, we did rebuild europe after this madness 😅
If the USA think, they defeated Germany - no, they didn't. The commis did.
Oh my god. The current Bulgarian population in 6,7m. To think that 8.7 Russians died in the world war is mind-blowing.
It's not 8,7m russians, it's 8,7 m people of soviets
You are correct. My father was 12 when WW2 started. He joined up when he was 16 or 17 (he may have lied about his age). He died in 2023 at 96 years old. Towards the end he suffered from Vascular Dementia (mostly loss of memory, couldn't remember his wife sister or mother) I took him to a group meeting. They were asked what they remembered about the war. He could only remember one thing and it was vivid to him. He could just remember feeling scared, all the time. He had lost most other memories, but could always feel that memory.
I want to point out two things:
1. The listing by country is a bit misleading as many were still empires. E.g. UK numbers do not only include today's GB (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) but the commonwealth, like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India (including today's Pakistan and Bangladesh) as well as territories like Egypt, Malaysia, Singapore.
The Russian Empire turned Soviet Union is the most misleading in this regard, I think. The Russian military losses were "only" about 40 or 50% (iirc by Churchill's memoirs), followed by Ukrainians (incl. Krim Cossaks) and Belarusian. Additionally, the Russian Soviet "republic" included many ethnic minorities which were sent preferably on dangerous tasks. (Some things never change...)
The civilian losses were also predominantly in these western Soviet entities. Not even counting the post war forced famine there (Holodomor), which showed up in the graphics under "Stalin".
2. The video states that no more colonial wars occurred in recent years. I disagree: the Chechnyan wars (among other interventions) clearly were, the Western perspective just doesn't recognize the neo Russian empire as such.
Also several civil wars "with foreign intervention" have quite a smell of colonial interests...
People don't really understand how bad way is after a long time of relative peace, so it becomes easier to start new wars. 😞
The whole "proportion of the world population" is always good to keep in mind. A lot of people died, but there's also an incredible amount of humans on earth today. The further you go back the more extreme those population dips were due to a low total population. When there were only 10k humans on earth total, an unlucky flood could have caused a comparable loss in terms of percentage as a world war in the 20th century.
A lot of people say that we need to live in the present or look into the future and we should forget the past, otherwise we get stuck in there and rob ourselves of our future.
However, the past is very important. If we dont study the past, we wont be able to prevent making the same mistakes again. The past is very much important for that reason.
But, as mentioned, people who remember the 1st/2nd World Wars, are dying out and modern people and modern thinking, pushes the Past into the nothingness with todays thinking about the present and future.
If this ignorance continues, we will definetaly repeat the mistakes of the past.
How is the saying?
"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it"
Many people think that this won’t or can’t happen again, but we’re still the same people. We’re still just as susceptible to cruelty and nationalism as they were.
@ryanwuzer In my hometown there was a bridge that the allied wanted to destroy. They sent multiple american bombers wings at once. The americans destroyed the town causing hundreds of civilian deaths BUT the americans missed completely the bridge. The day after the english sent one (1) single bomber who destroyed the bridge and only the bridge.
I had three direct relatives in WWII. One was a hero, one died and Grandpa just never talked about it. My husband's Grandfather lost a foot at Normandy. We're Canadian. I'm tired of these men being ignored or lumped in with others in the conflict. We had heros and men who did incredible things during this war, and a great many more who didn't come home. Men and women. Lest We Forget.
Remember their sacrifice. Never forget
There are no hero`s in war only survivors and victims
@@zirilan3398 I don't know about that. I think someone who captured about 93 Germans by himself with hardly a shot fired. Then ran more Germans out of a Dutch town that was going to be bombarded by Canadian troops. (By himself). He saved that town and the citizens in it. Look up Leo Major.
And than a clown showed up and calls the soldiers who died loosers….
Where's the link to the original video?
Of course with the Russo-Ukrainian war unfortunately it's another break in the peace in Europe, and it's not clear yet what the outcome will be...
Yeah you did not save us unilaterally from "the Nazis".
As a Dutch person I have heard the "WE SAVED YOU, SHUT UP" many times. But it was the Canadians and Polish army who liberated us.
America was indifferent before Dec 7, 1941, and even after, were not prepared to fight against Germany. Hitler declared war on US, not the US on Germany. Before that, US was selling supplies to UK through Lend Lease expecting to eventually be paid.
Americans needed to be trained by Brits. At first, the high American casualties was because of American arrogance.
In fact, Americans only started to do shit when they themselves got attacked
This is one of those videos people should be reminded now and then
would be nice to say we have learned but....
44,000 canadians died in WW II. Not a colony of Great Britain at this time.
Over 1.1 million people served from a population of 11 million.
The US had a population of 132 million in 1941. 417,000 deaths.
over 16 million americans served.
The Canadians are certainly not forgotten here in the Netherlands. Actually they made conmemorating a bit more comfortable with the Americans in Vietnam and Iraq and where not.
And somehow Americans still think they made the ultimate sacrifice and that they deserve the biggest gratitude for defeating the Nazis and winning the War.
Yugoslavian war wasn't in Europe?
What to rember from this Video is two things: " modern wars" are cruel and evil and faschism is its worst representation.
Russian loses were not just killed in battle, the Russian army also shot their own soldiers, millions died from starvation, illness, cold etc ...
20:26 aged like milk...
America lost fewer soldiers in WWII than Russia has in Ukraine.
"kinda weird when you say like that"
yes, because it sounds suspiciously like other icky terms, like bullying or colonizing or similar not so cool names.
My country Poland was in the middle of this shitshow. Show's you that every European suffered greatly and war is never a pleasant solution. But that's history for you. Americans soon should learn more of this with What Trump plans to do with the education.
As a German I feel really bad for the polish people. It wasn’t only the Germans that invaded your country. The Russian were part of it too. I heard many stories from old polish ladies, who explained, how they had to be „thankful“ to the Red Army to be freed from the German occupation. 😢 You were the first people to fight against all the oppression and were punished for it. I always liked how proud and strong Poland was.
@@JasminMernica Oh trust me. We Poles know damn well there was more than one invader.
One is still practicing this hobby.
This was a good one. :)
great video made. the graphics made me even wow despite the individually low numbers. might be because i just study too much chinese history.
I like to watch documentaries about history, but the ones that hit me the most are the first and second world war documentaries, because 99% of the people who participated in them end up in tears and say that it was the most tragic thing they ever experienced 😔😔😔
Have you considered that you may not be able to visit that site due to restrictions in your country? Maybe they don't want you to consider the Russian losses due to current events? The site is still up and working here in the UK (so far). When you look at the figures for Russia, is it really any wonder that Russians are very suspicious of the other Western Powers?
Soviet numbers are heavily modified. What I mean is - official data of civilian and military casualties were never told. At least not truthfully. Soviets, especially during Stalins regime, had a cult of a nation. Meaning anything that would harm image of the nation is either destroyed or modified. Not to mention how many soldiers were mobilized from occupied territories (Molotov-Ribbentrop pact). So you can safely assume approximately 40 million casulties on Soviet Union alone
My country, who was forcefully occupied during WW2 by both Nazi Germany and Soviet Union, lost 14% of its population.
"Viņi mira, lai dzīvot tu" = "They died so you could live"
that why we need to never forget history, we have movie and video game to see blood and war, in real life this suck af, one day maybe we will all understand that peace is harder but worth everything
Never forget !
This is why I always say ww2 allies victory was not due to Uk nor USA but the human sacrifice given by Russian soldiers. They have monuments everywhere in Europe for British USA soldiers but never one for these poor Russian men and women who died who really deserve the biggest merit for Nazi Germany’s loosing the war( l’m not a fan of today’s Russia but I do respect Russian soldiers of the world war 2 after seeing the documentaries of their gruesome fight and brutality of the Nazi towards Russians people)
If you haven't seen it, I'd strongly recommend watching the TV series Band Of Brothers. It's a masterpiece, and everyone should see it at some point! I watch it at least once per year.
And yet, your fellow Americans just voted for a guy who has said, "Hitler did some good things". 😢
Considering the current state of western europe, he was right
Actually my uncle wasn't that traumatized by the war and occupation itself but much more by the aftermath. He witnessed some of the millons of displaced people throughout Europe moving back to what was left of their homes and families, often on foot, starved, injured, diseased, empoverished, horrified, broken.
That took years, this is almost entirely forgotten about and of course relatively insignificant, it's just an illustration of the scale of the devastation that even the immediate aftermath when peace was achieved was such horrible scene.
Belarus lost 33% population.
Serbia (Yugoslavia) lost 25% population.
Poland lost 20% population.
Video use "not less than" logic taking lowest numbers for known intervals.
Also Poland and Belarus are tricky to count. About half of today's Belarus was part of Poland before WWII so you should check how sources count to make sure that you doesn't include this area or people twice. IMO we should count Poland and Belarus as 3 regions. Poland, Belarus and part occupied by Soviets at 1939 to avoid this issue
In Leningrad people could evacuate only in winter bc other months the water wasn't frosen and only safe way to evacuate was only by ice trail
This video also shows how both british and american forces were extremely efficient considering they it was them to do the heaviest lifting.
The brother of my grandpa was imprisoned in Siberia during the war. He was 18 when he went to war... After he escaped the prison he was a slave for 8 years for a rich Russian man. Only after that he was able to come back home.
What gets me is that we are the one planet we know of with life you'd think we'd be grateful, but we kill each other. It's crazy.
To my mind.. the question still remains.. Why? What for? A piece of land? We consider our specie to be intelligent. Really?
8:15 that's acctually common missconception. Yeah most people fought and died in eastern front but that's was due to inefficiency of both Germans (that focused war effort on western front for majority of the war) and Soviet Union (just pure incopentency)
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact analogy with Trump-Putin. Hope not
its just sad, especially if you see that simular things happen in the world right now.
Ukraine is a colonial war, though, so that no colonial wars in Europe statistic doesn't apply anymore.
Not all German soldiers or people were Nazis. My father was forced at the age 17 to join the war. It was the 19th Jan 1945 when they took him from the family farm in Selisia. He was never a Nazi. He was taken prisoner by the Americans on the 4th April and survived the POW camp Bad Bretzenheim were at one point 100000 prisoner were held on open mudfields. He was than a POW in France and returned back to Germany in 1949.
an excellent video and so well done, unfortunately history repeats itself over and over... The phrase “lest we forget” after WWII , how easily we forget. .just 80 years ago, and 1 life span. Hence the precursor is happening right now in Eastern Europe
All very sad, but it’s nothing compared to the first day of the battle of the Somme WW1. Literally, the men were machine gun fodder. ‘Over the top’ truly was a crime against humanity. Boys only in their mid teens were there.
For reference, the total casualties in Ukraine for both sides are likely in the seven figures by now.
There are some beautiful books known in old soviet block counties (including Poland) about the siege of Stalingrad. The books are beautifully written. Not the history.