The Fallen of World War II

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my students are watching it

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Lazy fricking teachers, man.

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Lazy fricking teachers, man.

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It is a 13 minute video to introduce an entire unit, but ok.

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The Russia part always causes shock, as intended.

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I think what most Americans are shocked at, because I didn't learn about it at all until I was an adult and started taking in material about WW2 on my own, is how many people were killed in China. They were 2nd in total deaths behind the Soviets.

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Is that WWII only or does that include battles previous to the start?

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Not sure. The video just calls it the Asian theater and includes civilian deaths.

The video starts out by stating WW2 started in '39 with Germany invading Poland and goes from there. I just don't know if they're including Chinese deaths from '37-'39 in that while they were already fighting. It's still a shitload of dead people.

Kings and Generals YouTube channel has some great videos on the Eastern Front... Very detailed about political and military strategies (or lack thereof).

Pretty unbelievable that 70 MM people were killed

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Lazy fricking teachers, man.

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As someone of nearly exclusive German / Swiss heritage, I weep at the tragic losses of these amazing genes

The biggest problems for the Soviets was the fact Stalin had killed off a lot of his top military leaders during his regime prior to WWII breaking out. He looked at them as a threat to his leadership and like any psychopath----Hitler, Sadam Hussein, etc. he feared they would topple him and take over in a coup.

Then add to that he trusted Hitler when they signed the "Non-Aggression Treaty" that said Hitler would not invade Russia, so he was not at all prepared for it when the Germans actually did invade.

Then on top of that, Russia, like England, depended on the U.S. to help supply them with the weapons of war early on and didn't have the capability to supply their own army at first.

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Lazy fricking teachers, man.

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It’s actually recommended watching by the College Board. You are likely unfamiliar with them as that is the group that handles all the AP courses. It’s a way to contextualize the unit after WW2.