Statistics for German World War II military casualties are divergent. The wartime military casualty figures compiled by the German: [[Oberkommando der Wehrmacht]] (the German High Command, abbreviated as OKW) through January 31, 1945 are often cited by military historians in accounts of individual campaigns in the war. A study by German historian Rüdiger Overmans concluded that total German military deaths were much higher than those originally reported by the German High Command, amounting to 5.3 million, including 900,000 men conscripted from outside Germany's 1937 borders, in Austria and in east-central Europe.[1] [2] The German government reported that its records list 4.3 million dead and missing military personnel.[3] [4]
Air raids were a major cause of civilian deaths. Estimates of German civilians killed only by Allied strategic bombing have ranged from around 350,000[5] [6] to 500,000.[7] [8] [9] [10] [4] Estimates of civilian deaths due to the flight and expulsion of Germans, Soviet war crimes and the forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union are disputed and range from 500,000[11] [12] [13] to over 2.0 million.[14] [4] [15] According to the German government Suchdienste (Search Service) there were 300,000 German victims (including Jews) of Nazi racial, political and religious persecution.[16] This statistic does not include 200,000 German people with disabilities who were murdered in the Action T4 and Action 14f13 euthanasia programs.[17] [18]
In the post-war era the military search service Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) was responsible for providing information to the families of those military personnel who were killed or went missing in the war. They maintained the files of over 18 million men who served in the war. By the end of 1954, they had identified approximately 4 million military dead and missing (2,730,000 dead and 1,240,629 missing).[19] After German reunification, the records kept in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) became available to the WASt. The German Red Cross reported in 2005 that the records of the WASt showed total Wehrmacht losses to have been 4.3 million men (3.1 million dead and 1.2 million missing) in World War II. Their figures include men conscripted from Austria and conscripted ethnic Germans from lands in Eastern Europe.[4] The German historian Rüdiger Overmans used the files of the WASt to conduct his research on German military casualties.
The German military system for reporting casualties was based on a numerical reporting of casualties by individual units and a separate listing of the names of individual casualties. The system was not uniform because the various military branches (Army, Air Force, Navy, and Waffen SS) and the military hospitals used different reporting systems. In early 1945 the High Command (OKW) prepared a summary of total losses through January 31, 1945. The German historian Rüdiger Overmans believes, based on his research, that these figures are far from complete. According to Overmans, the casualty reporting system broke down in the chaos at the end of the war; many men who went missing or were taken prisoner were not included in the OKW figures, and many individual reports of casualties were not processed by the end of the war and were not reflected in the OKW statistics.[20] The following schedules summarize the OKW figures published in the post-war era.
According to a report published by the Reuters News Agency, on July 29 1945 highly confidential archives found at Flensburg, in the house of General Reinecke showed German losses up to November 30, 1944, as 3.6 million, detailed in the following schedule.
| Army | Navy | Air Force | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Killed | 1,710,000 | 52,000 | 150,000 | 1,912,000 | |
| Missing | 1,541,000 | 32,000 | 141,000 | 1,714,000 | |
| Total | 3,251,000 | 84,000 | 291,000 | 3,626,000 |
Percy Ernst Schramm was responsible for maintaining the official OKW diary during the war. In 1949 he published an article in the newspaper Die Zeit, in which he listed OKW Casualty Figures[21] these figures also appeared in a multi-volume edition of the OKW diaries.
OKW casualty figures (September 1, 1939 – January 31, 1945)
| Description | Dead | Missing & POW | Total | Wounded & Sick |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army | ||||
| Eastern Front | 1,105,987 | 1,018,365 | 2,124,352 | 3,498,059 |
| North: Norway/Finland | 16,639 | 5,157 | 21,796 | 60,451 |
| Southwest: N Africa/Italy | 50,481 | 194,250 | 244,731 | 163,602 |
| Southeast: Balkans | 19,235 | 14,805 | 34,040 | 55,069 |
| West: France/Low Countries | 107,042 | 409,715 | 516,757 | 399,856 |
| Training Forces | 10,467 | 1,337 | 11,804 | 42,174 |
| Died of Wounds-All Fronts | 295,659 | - | 295,659 | - |
| Location not Given | 17,051 | 2,687 | 19,738 | - |
| Subtotal (Army) | 1,622,561 | 1,646,316 | 3,268,877 | 4,188,037 |
| Navy | 48,904 | 100,256 | 149,160 | 25,259 |
| Air Force | 138,596 | 156,132 | 294,728 | 216,579 |
| Total Combat: All Branches | 1,810,061 | 1,902,704 | 3,712,765 | 4,429,875 |
| Other deaths (Disease, accidents, etc.) | 191,338 | - | 191,338 | - |
| Overall total | 2,001,399 | 1,902,704 | 3,904,103 | 4,429,875 |
Notes:
1-These statistics include losses of the Waffen SS as well as Volkssturm and paramilitary serving with the regular forces.[22]
2-These statistics include casualties of the volunteer forces from the Soviet Union. 83,307 dead; 57,258 missing and 118,127 wounded.
3-Included in these statistics are 322,807 POWs held by the US and UK.
4-The figures for Army wounded add up to 4,219,211. Schramm put the total at 4,188,057.
5-Figures of missing include POWs held by Allies.
A. OKW figures from 9/1/1939 to 12/31/1944
| Description | Dead | Missing and prisoners of war | Total | Wounded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army and Waffen SS | 1,750,000 | 1,610,000 | 3,360,000 | 5,026,000 | |
| Navy | 60,000 | 100,000 | 160,000 | 21,000 | |
| Air Force | 155,000 | 148,000 | 303,000 | 193,000 | |
| Total Wehrmacht | 1,965,000 | 1,858,000 | 3,823,000 | 5,240,000 |
B. Monthly Field Army (Feldheer) casualties September 1939 to November 1944
| Year | Casualties | January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1939 | Dead | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 16,400 | 1,800 | 1,000 | 900 |
| Missing | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 400 | - | - | - | |
| 1940 | Dead | 800 | 700 | 1,100 | 2,600 | 21,600 | 26,600 | 2,200 | 1,800 | 1,600 | 1,300 | 1,200 | 1,200 |
| Missing | - | 100 | - | 400 | 900 | 100 | - | - | 100 | 100 | 100 | - | |
| 1941 | Dead | 1,400 | 1,300 | 1,600 | 3,600 | 2,800 | 22,000 | 51,000 | 52,800 | 45,300 | 42,400 | 28,200 | 39,000 |
| Missing | 100 | 100 | 100 | 600 | 500 | 900 | 3,200 | 3,500 | 2,100 | 1,900 | 4,300 | 10,500 | |
| 1942 | Dead | 44,400 | 44,500 | 44,900 | 25,600 | 29,600 | 31,500 | 36,000 | 54,100 | 44,300 | 25,500 | 24,900 | 38,000 |
| Missing | 10,100 | 4,100 | 3,600 | 1,500 | 3,600 | 2,100 | 3,700 | 7,300 | 3,400 | 2,600 | 12,100 | 40,500 | |
| 1943 | Dead | 37,000 | 42,000 | 38,100 | 15,300 | 16,200 | 13,400 | 57,800 | 58,000 | 48,800 | 47,000 | 40,200 | 35,300 |
| Missing | 127,600 | 15,500 | 5,200 | 3,500 | 74,500 | 1,300 | 18,300 | 26,400 | 21,900 | 16,800 | 17,900 | 14,700 | |
| 1944 | Dead | 44,500 | 41,200 | 44,600 | 34,000 | 24,400 | 26,000 | 59,000 | 64,000 | 42,400 | 46,000 | 31,900 | - |
| Missing | 22,000 | 19,500 | 27,600 | 13,000 | 22,000 | 32,000 | 310,000 | 407,600 | 67,200 | 79,200 | 69,500 | - |
Notes: Figures include Waffen SS, Austrians and conscripted ethnic Germans. Figures for missing include POW held by Allies. Source: Statistisches Jahrbuch für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1960, Page 78
In 1969, the West German military historian Burkhart Müller-Hillebrand (de) published the third volume of his study of the German Army in World War II Das Heer 1933–1945 that listed OKW casualty figures and his estimate of total German casualties. Müller-Hillebrand maintained that the OKW figures did not present an accurate accounting of German casualties because they understated losses in the final months of the war on the eastern front and post war deaths of POW in Soviet captivity. According to Müller-Hillebrand actual irrecoverable losses in the war were between 3.3 and 4.5 million men. Overall Müller-Hillebrand estimated the total dead and missing at 4.0 million men.[23]
A. Losses Reported by OKW September 1 1939April 30 1945 (For all branches of service)
| Period | Dead from all causes | MIA and Prisoners of War | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual:Sept 1, 1939- Dec 31,1944 | 1,965,324 | 1,858,404 | 3,823,728 | |
| Estimated: Jan 1, 1945 - April 30, 1945 | 265,000 | 1,012,000 | 1,277,000 | |
| Total | 2,230,324 | 2,870,404 | 5,100,728 |
Source: Müller-Hillebrand Das Heer 1933–1945 Vol 3. Page 262
The figure of 1,277,000 killed and missing from January 1 1945 - April 30 1945 was estimated by the U.S. Army in the 1947 report German Manpower[24]
B. Field Army (Feldheer) casualties September 1939 to November 1944
| Year | Dead | Missing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1939/40 | 76,848 | 2,038 | |
| 1940/41 | 140,378 | 8,769 | |
| 1941/42 | 455,635 | 58,049 | |
| 1942/43 | 413,009 | 330,904 | |
| 1943/44 | 502,534 | 925,088 | |
| 1944 until Nov 30. | 121,335 | 215,981 | |
| Total | 1,709,739 | 1,540,829 |
Source: Müller-Hillebrand Das Heer 1933–1945 Vol 3. Page 264
C. Field Army (Feldheer) casualties September 1939 to November 1944
| Campaign | Dead | Missing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poland 1939 | 16,343 | 320 | |
| Norway 1940 | 4,975 | 691 | |
| West until May 31, 1944 | 66,266 | 3,218 | |
| West June 1944-November 30, 1944 | 54,754 | 338,933 | |
| Africa 1940 - May 1943 | 12,808 | 90,052 | |
| Balkans 1941 - November 30, 1944 | 24,267 | 12,060 | |
| Italy May 1943 - November 30, 1944 | 47,873 | 97,154 | |
| Russia June 1941-November 30, 1944 | 1,419,728 | 997,056 | |
| Home front 1939-November 30, 1944 | 64,055 | 1,315 |
Source: Müller-Hillebrand Das Heer 1933–1945 Vol.3 Page 265
| Branch | May 1941 | Middle 1944 | |||
| Army(Heer) | 3,800,000 | 4,400,000 | |||
| Home Army(Ersatzheer) | 1,200,000 | 2,500,000 | |||
| Air Force (including infantry units) | 1,680,000 | 2,100,000 | |||
| Navy | 404,000 | 800,000 | |||
| Waffen SS | 150,000 | 550,000 | |||
| Total | 7,234,000 | 10,300,000 |
The German historian Rüdiger Overmans in 2000 published the study Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg (German Military Casualties in the Second World War), which has provided a reassessment of German military war dead based on a statistical survey of German military personnel records. The financial support for the study came from a private foundation. When Overmans conducted his research project during 1992 to 1994 he was an officer in the German Armed Forces. Overmans was an associate of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office from 1987 until 2004 and was on the faculty of the University of Freiburg from 1996 to 2001. In 1992 when Overmans began the project, German military dead in the war listed at the military search service Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) were 4.3 million men (3.1 million confirmed dead and 1.2 missing and presumed dead). Since the collapse of communism previously classified documentation regarding German military casualties became available to German researchers.
The research project involved taking a statistical sample of the confidential German military personnel records located at the (WASt). The project sought to determine total deaths and their cause, when and in which theatre of war the losses occurred as well as a demographic profile of the men who served in the war. Nineteen employees at Deutsche Dienststelle assisted in the survey. The personnel records included 3,070,000 men who were confirmed dead in the Death Files and another 15,200,000 men in the General Files who had served in the war including those listed as missing and presumed dead. The total sample pulled for the research consisted of the files of 4,844 personnel dead or missing in military service during the war: The first group 4,137 from Army, Air Force and 172 from Waffen SS and paramilitary organizations including (3,051 confirmed dead from the Death Files and another 1,258 found to be dead or missing in the General Files) The Second Group of 535 men found to be dead or missing was selected from the separate Navy files. Overmans maintains that based on the size of the sample selected that there was a 99% confidence level that the results were accurate. The research by Overmans concluded in 2000 that the total German military dead and missing were 5,318,000. 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).[25]
The following schedules give a brief overview of the Overmans study.
| By Official Status (per R. Overmans)[26] | ||
| Description | Number of Deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| Confirmed Dead | 3,068,000 | |
| Declared dead in legal proceedings | 1,095,787 | |
| Recorded in Records (Registrierfall) | 1,154,744 | |
| Total Dead | 5,318,531 | |
| By Official Cause of Death (per R. Overmans) | ||
| Cause of Death | Number of dead | |
|---|---|---|
| Killed in Action | 2,303,320 | |
| Died of Wounds, Illness etc. | 500,165 | |
| Suicides | 25,000 | |
| Sentenced to Death | 11,000 | |
| No Information | 12,000 | |
| Subtotal-Dead in Active Service | 2,851,485 | |
| Missing | 1,306,186 | |
| Final Report "Letzte Nachricht" | 701,385[27] | |
| Sub-total- Presumed Dead | 2,007,571 | |
| Confirmed deaths as POW | 459,475 | |
| Total Dead | 5,318,531 | |
Of the 2 million presumed dead, Overmans believes 700,000 died in Soviet custody without being reported as POWs.[28]
| By Front (per R. Overmans)[29] | |||
| Front | Total Dead | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Front until 12/31/44 | 2,742,909 | ||
| Western Front until 12/31/44 | 339,957 | ||
| Final Battles in Germany (East & West fronts Jan.-May, 1945) | 1,230,045 | ||
| Other (Germany,Naval, Poland etc.) | 245,561 | ||
| Italy (until the surrender in 1945) | 150,660 | ||
| The Balkans (until Oct. 1944) | 103,693 | ||
| Northern Europe (Scandinavia without Finland) | 30,165 | ||
| Africa | 16,066 | ||
| Prisoners of War | 459,475 | ||
| Total | 5,318,531 | ||
Monthly German military casualties at point of death per Overmans study. (Not including living POWs still held.)
| Year | January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1939 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 15,000 | 3,000 | 1,000 | - | 19,000 | |
| 1940 | 2,000 | - | 5,000 | 3,000 | 21,000 | 29,000 | 7,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 5,033 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 83,000 | |
| 1941 | 10,000 | 1,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 13,000 | 29,000 | 67,132 | 51,066 | 53,033 | 44,099 | 38,000 | 42,198 | 357,000 | |
| 1942 | 53,165 | 52,099 | 46,132 | 24,066 | 44,099 | 34,033 | 46,099 | 74,231 | 46,033 | 30,000 | 38,231 | 83,792 | 572,000 | |
| 1943 | 185,376 | 74,363 | 59,099 | 21,066 | 31,099 | 21,066 | 79,231 | 66,198 | 69,495 | 61,330 | 77,396 | 66,330 | 812,000 | |
| 1944 | 81,330 | 91,495 | 112,759 | 92,363 | 78,495 | 182,178 | 215,013 | 348,960 | 151,957 | 184,089 | 103,561 | 159,386 | 1,802,000 | |
| 1945 | 451,742 | 294,772 | 284,442 | 281,848 | 94,528 | 20,066 | 13,000 | 27,099 | 22,132 | 19,000 | 21,033 | 10,066 | 1,540,000 | |
| 1946 | 7,000 | 13,099 | 14,000 | 6,000 | 10,066 | 3,000 | 3,000 | 6,000 | 5,033 | 3,000 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 76,000 | |
| 1947 | 3,008 | 2,000 | 5,033 | 3,000 | 1,000 | 5,033 | 2,000 | 5,033 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 3,000 | 1,000 | 33,000 | |
| After 1947 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 25,000 | |
| Total All Years | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5,318,000 |
Notes: Figures include Waffen SS, Austrians, conscripted ethnic Germans, Volkssturm, and other paramilitary forces. Figures do not include prisoners held by Allies. Prisoners held during the war are listed in a separate schedule below. Monthly figures do not add because of rounding.
| Total Missing and Presumed Dead (not including POW) per Overmans[32] | |||
| Year of Death | Number | (of which on Soviet-German front) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1941 & before | 30,000 | (26,000) | |
| 1942 | 116,000 | (108,000) | |
| 1943 | 289,000 | (283,000) | |
| 1944 | 845,000 | (719,000) | |
| 1945 | 728,000 | (400,000) | |
| 1946 & later | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 2,007,000 | (1,536,000) | |
| German military dead on the Eastern Front (per R. Overmans) | |||
| Total During Year | Total Dead | ||
| 1941 | 302,000 | ||
| 1942 | 507,000 | ||
| 1943 | 701,000 | ||
| 1944 | 1,233,000 | ||
| Total 1941-1944 | 2,742,000 | ||
Soviet sources reported that "In 1945 the German Army lost more than 1,000,000 men killed on the Soviet-German front alone."
Figures do not include POW deaths of 363,000 in Soviet captivity; these losses were listed separately by Overmans.
| Branch | Total Dead | Total Conscripted | |||
| Army | 4,200,000 | 13,600,000 | |||
| Air Force (including infantry units) | 430,000 | 2,500,000 | |||
| Navy | 140,000 | 1,200,000 | |||
| Waffen SS | 310,000 | 900,000 | |||
| Total | 5,080,000 | 18,200,000 |
| Branch | Total Dead | ||
| Army | 4,202,000 | ||
| Air Force (including infantry units) | 433,000 | ||
| Navy | 138,000 | ||
| Support Troops | 53,000 | ||
| Total Wehrmacht | 4,826,000 | ||
| Waffen SS | 314,000 | ||
| Volkssturm | 78,000 | ||
| Police | 63,000 | ||
| Other Organizations | 37,000 | ||
| Total | 5,318,000 |
| War dead(Wehrmacht & Waffen SS) | Conscripted(Wehrmacht only) | |||
| Germany (post war 1945 borders) | 3,546,000 | 11,813,000 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany (former Eastern Territories) and Danzig)[37] | 910,000 | 2,525,000 | ||
| Subtotal Germany (1937 borders including Danzig) | 4,456,000 | 14,338,000 | ||
| Foreign nationals of German ancestry in annexed regions of East and Southeast Europe[38] Annexed Territories (Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, Sudetenland, Eupen-Malmedy & Memel) | 206,000 | 588,000 | ||
| Austria | 261,000 | 1,306,000 | ||
| Subtotal Greater German Reich | 4,932,000 | 16,232,000 | ||
| Foreign nationals of German ancestry from East and Southeast Europe (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia) | 332,000 | 846,000 | ||
| French (Alsace-Lorraine) | 30,000 | 136,000 | ||
| Others (from Western Europe) | 33,000 | 86,000 | ||
| Total | 5,318,000 | 17,300,000 |
According to Overmans there are no reliable figures to breakout the national origin for the figure of 900,000 men of German ancestry conscripted into the Waffen-SS[38] Overmans maintains that records of the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) surveyed only persons of German ancestry "deutsche nach Abstammung"[38] However Polish sources maintain that during the war the Germans forcibly conscripted ethnic Poles into the German military. Professor Ryszard Kaczmarek of the University of Silesia in Katowice, author of a monograph titled Polacy w Wehrmachcie ("Poles in the Wehrmacht") noted that many Polish citizens in the Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany were forcibly conscripted in Upper Silesia and in Pomerania. They were declared citizens of the Third Reich by law and therefore subject to drumhead court-martial in case of draft evasion. A 1958 West German estimate put the military war dead of ethnic German(deutschen Bevölkerung) foreign nationals from east-central Europe in the German Armed Forces at 432,000 (Baltic States 15,000, Poland 108,000, Czechoslovakia 180,000, Hungary 32,000, Yugoslavia 40,000 and Romania 35,000)[39]
Overmans does not include Soviet volunteers in the Wehrmacht in his figures, only persons of German ancestry (Deutsche nach Abstammung). According to Overmans there is no reliable data on losses of Soviet volunteers[40] Russian military historian G. I. Krivosheev estimated losses in the Wehrmacht of volunteer formations and SS troops (Vlasovites, Balts, Muslims etc.) at 215,000. The statistics of the German High Command put casualties of the volunteer forces from the Soviet Union up until 1/31/1945 at: 83,307 dead; 57,258 missing and 118,127 wounded[41]
Overmans maintains that his research project taking a statistical sample of the records of the Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) found that the German military casualty reporting system broke down during the war and that losses were understated. The following schedule compares the total dead and living POW according to Overmans at 12/31/1944 with the figures of the German High Command.
| Description | - | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Dead per Overmans @12/31/44 | 3,643,000[42] | ||
| Add:POW held by Allies per Overmans | 1,283,000[43] | ||
| Add:Estimated losses of Soviet Volunteers | 140,000 | ||
| Adjusted Losses @12/31/1944 | 5,066,000 | ||
| Total Dead & Missing per OKW @12/31/1944 | 3,823,000[44] | ||
| Difference | 1,243,000 |
See also: German prisoners of war in northwest Europe, German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union and German prisoners of war in the United States
The fates of German prisoners of war have been a concern in post war Germany. By 1950 the Soviets reported that they had repatriated all German prisoners of war except a small number of convicted war criminals. During the cold war in West Germany there were claims that one million German prisoners of war were held in secret by the USSR. The West German government set up the Maschke Commission to investigate the fate of German POW in the war; in its report of 1974 the Maschke Commission found that about 1.2 million German military personnel reported as missing more than likely died as POWs, including 1.1 million in the USSR.[45] Based on his research, Rüdiger Overmans believes that the deaths of 459,000 dead POWs can be confirmed in the files of Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt)(including 363,000 in the USSR). Overmans estimates the actual death toll of German POWs is about 1.1 million men (including 1.0 million in the USSR); he maintains that among those reported as missing were men who actually died as prisoners.[46] Data from the Soviet Archives published by G. I. Krivosheev put the deaths in the USSR of German POWs at 450,600 including 356,700 in NKVD camps and 93,900 in transit. After the collapse of communism, data from the Soviet Archives became available concerning the deaths of German POWs in the USSR. In recent years there has been a joint Russian-German project to investigate the fate of POWs in the war.[4]
According to the records of the western Allies 2.8 million German soldiers surrendered on the Western Front between D-day and the end of April 1945; 1.3 million between D-day and March 31, 1945,;[47] and 1.5 million of them in the month of April.[48] From early March these surrenders seriously weakened the Wehrmacht in the West, and made further surrenders more likely, thus having a snowballing effect. On March 27 Eisenhower declared at a press conference that the enemy were a whipped army .[49] In March the daily rate of POWs taken on the Western Front was 10,000;[50] in the first 14 days of April it rose to 39,000[51] and in the last 16 days the average peaked at 59,000 soldiers captured each day.[52] The number of prisoners taken in the west in March and April was over 1,800,000,[53] more than double the 800,000 German soldiers who surrendered to the Russians in the last three or four months of the war.[54] One reason for this huge difference, possibly the most important, was that German forces facing the Red Army tended to fight to the end for fear of Soviet captivity whereas German forces facing the Western Allies tended to surrender without putting up much if any resistance. Accordingly, the number of German killed and wounded was much higher in the East than in the West.[55]
. Christian Hartmann (historian) . 2013 . Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany's War in the East, 1941–1945 . Oxford University Press. Oxford . 978-0-19-966078-0 . "Since the end of the 1990s, we have known that the total German military losses were actually far higher that had long been believed: close to 5,318,000 men".
The Western Allies also took 134,000 German soldiers prisoner in North Africa[55], and at least 220,000 by the end of April 1945 in the Italian campaign. The total haul of German POWs held by the Western Allies by April 30, 1945, in all theatres of war was over 3,150,000, rising in NW Europe to 7,614,790 after the end of the war.[56]
It is worth noting that the allied armies which captured the 2.8 million German soldiers up to April 30, 1945, while Adolf Hitler was still alive and resisting as hard as he could, comprised at their peak 88 divisions,[57] with a peak strength in May 1945 of 2,639,377 in the US and 1,095,744 in the British and Canadian forces.[58] The casualties suffered by the Western Allies in making this contribution to the defeat of the Wehrmacht were relatively light, 164,590–195,576 killed/missing, 537,590 wounded, and 78,680 taken prisoner,[59] [60] a total loss of 780,860 to 811,846 to inflict a loss of 2.8 million prisoners on the German army. The number of dead and wounded on both sides was about equal.[61]
| German POW deaths- Overmans estimate 2000 | |||
| Nation holding Prisoners of War | Number captured | Deaths | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | ca. 3,600,000 | c. 2,000 | |
| USA | ca. 3,000,000 | 5–10,000 | |
| USSR | ca. 3,000,000 | max. 1,000,000 | |
| France | ca.1,000,000 | more than 22,000 | |
| Yugoslavia | ca.200,000 | ca. 80,000 | |
| Poland | ca.70,000 | ca. 10,000 | |
| Belgium | ca.60,000 | ca. 500 | |
| Czechoslovakia | ca.25,000 | ca. 2,000 | |
| Netherlands | ca. 7,000 | ca. 200 | |
| Luxemburg | ca. 5,000 | 15 | |
| Total | ca. 11,000,000 | ca. 1,100,000 | |
| Confirmed POW Deaths | ||
| Nation holding POW | Total Dead | |
|---|---|---|
| USSR | 363,000 | |
| France | 34,000 | |
| USA | 22,000 | |
| UK | 21,000 | |
| Yugoslavia | 11,000 | |
| Other nations | 8,000 | |
| Total | 459,000 | |
Source of figures Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg page 286
| German POW Held in Captivity (Per R. Overmans)[62] | ||||
| Average during Quarter | Held Western Allies | Held by Soviets & their Allies | Total Living POW | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4th Quarter 1941 | 6,600 | 26,000 | 32,600 | |
| 4th Quarter 1942 | 22,300 | 100,000 | 122,300 | |
| 4th Quarter 1943 | 200,000 | 155,000 | 355,000 | |
| 4th Quarter 1944 | 720,000 | 563,000 | 1,283,000 | |
| 1st Quarter 1945 | 920,000 | 1,103,000 | 2,023,000 | |
| 2nd Quarter 1945 | 5,440,000 | 2,130,000 | 7,570,000 | |
| 3rd Quarter 1945 | 6,672,000 | 2,163,000 | 8,835,000 | |
Source:Rüdiger Overmans Soldaten hinter Stacheldraht. Deutsche Kriegsgefangene des Zweiten Weltkriege. Ullstein Taschenbuch vlg., 2002 Pages 272-273
Overmans has made the following points in Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg
The Russian military historian G. I. Krivosheev has published figures for the casualties on all fronts compiled by the German High Command up until April 30 1945 based on captured German records in the Soviet Archives.
| Period | Killed or Died of Wounds | MIA and Prisoners of War | Total | Wounded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sept 1, 1939- Dec 31,1944 | 1,965,300 | 1,858,500 | 3,823,800 | 5,240,000 | |
| Jan 1, 1945 - April 30, 1945 | 265,000 | 1,012,000 | 1,277,000 | 795,000 | |
| Total | 2,230,300 | 2,870,500 | 5,100,800 | 6,035,000 |
Krivosheev gave a separate set of statistics that put losses at 2,230,000 Killed; 2,400,000 missing and 5,240,000 wounded.According to Krivosheev "The figures in the Wehrmacht documents relating to Germany's war losses are therefore contradictory and unreliable."[65]
Based on Soviet sources Krivosheev put German losses on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945 at 6,923,700 men: includingkilled 4,137,100, taken prisoner 2,571,600 and 215,000 dead among Soviet volunteers in the Wehrmacht. Deaths of POW were 450,600 including 356,700 in NKVD camps and 93,900 in transit.[66] Soviet sources claimed that "In 1945 the German Army lost more than 1,000,000 men killed on the Soviet-German front alone."[67]
Estimated figures for German World War II casualties are divergent and contradictory. The authors of the Oxford Companion to World War II maintain that casualty statistics are notoriously unreliable[68] The following is a list of published statistics for German casualties in World War II.
A. German war dead- 5,200,000 (3,200,000 military and 2,000,000 civilians)[80]
B. Nazi Democide 895,000 (762,000 in Germany and 133,000 in Austria)
C. Soviet Democide- 1,576,000, (469,000 civilians and 1,107,000 German POW)[81]
C. British Democide- 378,000 civilians killed in area bombing of Germany[82]
D. United States Democide- 37,000 (32,000 civilians killed in area bombing of Germany and 5,000 German POW.)[83]
E. French Democide-23,000 German POW.[84]
F. Yugoslav Democide- 145,000 (75,000 ethnic Germans and 70,000 POW)[85]
g. Hungarian Democide-12,000 ethnic Germans
H. Expulsion of the Germans after World War II- 1,863,000 (Poland 1,583,000, Czechoslovakia 197,000 and Yugoslavia 82,000)[86]
According to the report of General George Marshall issued in 1945 the "breakdown of German and Italian losses against American, British, and French forces" in the war in Europe was as follows:
| Campaign | Battle Dead | Permanently Disabled | Captured | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tunisia | 19,600 | 19,000 | 130,000(A) | 168,000 | |
| Sicily | 5,000 | 2,000 | 7,100 | 14,100 | |
| Italy | 86,000 | 15,000 | 357,089 | 458,089 | |
| Western Front | 263,000 | 49,000 | 7,614,794 (B) | 7,926,794 | |
| Total | 373,600 | 85,000 | 8,108,983 | 8,567,583 |
Source of figures: Biennial report of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army to the Secretary of War : July 1, 1943, to June 30, 1945[100]
(A) 252,415 Germans and Italians were captured in Tunisia[101] According to the Imperial War Museum Following the Italian surrender in 1943, 100,000 Italians volunteered to work as 'co-operators'. They were given considerable freedom and mixed with local people.[102] Italian fascist forces fought in the Italian campaign until the end of the war with the Italian Social Republic
(B) Includes 3,404,949 disarmed enemy forces.
The Biennial report of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army issued in 1945 also estimated Japanese "battle dead" at 1.219 million. Marshall's figures of enemy battle deaths are juxtaposed with deaths in the US Army only, suggesting that the losses of Japanese naval forces are not included, nor Japanese casualties in theaters where the Americans were not the main opposing force. Japanese government figures from 2003 put their military war dead at 2.3 million.[103] According to the Japanese Relief Bureau of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in March 1964, a total of 2,121,000 Japanese servicemen perished in WWII.[104] Of these 1,647,200 were in the army and 473,800 were in the naval forces. Of the army dead a total of 1,456,500 occurred on the battlefronts that Marshall's figures refer to (Southern Pacific,[105] Central Pacific,[106] India-Burma,[107] China[108] and Aleutians.[109]) Marshall's figure for China is much lower than that of the Relief Bureau (126,000 vs. 435,600), but for the theaters where Japanese forces confronted American and British Empire forces the sum of Marshall's figures (1,093,000) is slightly higher than the sum of the Relief Bureau's figures for these theaters (1,020,900).
Based on information available in January 1946, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. put German military dead at 3,250,000. According to Gregory Frumkin this presumably referred to aggregate German forces including those conscripted outside the 1937 German borders.[110] [111]
In 1951, Gregory Frumkin, who was throughout its existence the editor of the Statistical Year Book of the League of Nations, provided an assessment of German military losses based on a demographic analysis of the European population from 1939 to 1947. Frumkin put total German military dead and missing at 3,975,000: Germany (1937 borders) 3,500,000; Austria 230,000; 200,000 Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia; 40,000 from France, 3,700 from the Netherlands; 700 from Norway and 398 from Denmark.[112]
The West German government in November 1949, based on an analysis of the population balance for Germany within its 1937 borders, put German military losses at 3,250,000: 1,650,000 killed and 1,600,000 missing. Figures exclude Austria and conscripted ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe[113]
A demographic analysis of the population balance by the West German government in 1960 put the total military losses of the Wehrmacht at 4,440,000; 3,760,000 for Germany (1937 borders); 430,000 conscripted ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and 250,000 from Austria.[114]
Official statistics published by the West German government 1956 put the death toll due to air raids at 635,000.[115] However, estimates from other sources tend to be lower, ranging from 305,000 to 500,000 persons killed by Allied bombing of German cities.
The schedule below details the statistics published by the West German government 1956. They estimated 635,000 total deaths, 500,000 due to the strategic bombing of Germany and an additional 135,000 killed in air raids during the 1945 flight and evacuations on the eastern front.[116] The civilian deaths in the air raids on eastern Front after 1/31/1945 are also included with the figures of the losses during the Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50)[117]
| Air War Dead 1956 West German government estimate | |||
| Description | Not including refugees on Eastern Front | Refugees on Eastern Front | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany 1942 Borders | |||
| Civilians | 436,000 | 134,000 | 570,000 |
| Foreigners and POW | 39,000 | - | 39,000 |
| Military and Police | 25,000 | 1,000 | 26,000 |
| Total | 500,000 | 135,000 | 635,000 |
Sources for figures in schedule:
(1) Hans Sperling, Die Luftkriegsverluste während des zweiten Weltkriegs in Deutschland, Wirtschaft und Statistik October 1956, journal published by Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland. (German government Statistical Office)
(2) Statistisches Jahrbuch für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1960, Page 78.
(3) Erich Hampe "Der Zivile Luftschutz im Zweiten Weltkrieg" pp.138-142.
The United States Strategic Bombing Survey gave three different figures for German air raid deaths
1-The summary report of September 30, 1945, put total casualties for the entire period of the war at 305,000 killed and 780,000 wounded.[118]
2- The section Effects of Strategic Bombing on the German War Economy of October 31, 1945, put the losses at 375,000 killed and 625,000 wounded[119] [120]
3-The section The Effect of Bombing on Health and Medical Care in Germany of January 1947 made a preliminary calculated estimate of air raid dead at 422,000[121] According to the report "no complete and accurate figures on German civilian air raid casualties, covering the entire period of the war, are available". The authors maintain that the German figures for 1940 through 1943 of 111,000 killed was generally correct and that their estimate of 311,000 dead for the years 1944 and 1945 was based on the tons of bombs dropped and the population size of the cities bombed. Regarding overall losses they concluded that "It was further estimated that an additional number, approximately 25% of known deaths in 1944 and 1945, were still unrecovered and unrecorded. With an addition of this estimate of 1944 and 1945 unrecorded deaths, the final estimation gave in round numbers a half a million German civilians killed by Allied aerial attacks"[122]
Historian Richard Overy in 2014 published a study of the air war The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe 1940-1945 in which he disputed the official German figures of air war dead. He estimated total air raid deaths at 353,000. The main points of Overy's analysis are as follows.[123]
The West German government made a rough estimate in 1956 of 20,000 civilians killed during the 1945 military campaign in current post war German borders, not including the former German territories in Poland. However, there is a more recent estimate of 22,000 civilians killed during the fighting in Berlin only.[127] Not included in these figures are civilians who died in the fighting and atrocities in East-Prussia (Konigsberg, Pillau), Pommerania (Danzig, Kolberg) and Silesia (Breslau). The losses of civilians from East-Central Europe in the 1945 are included with the expulsion dead, the German Archives report of 1974 estimated 150,000 violent deaths of civilians in East-Central Europe during the 1945 military campaign.[128]
The West German government put the number of Germans killed by the Nazi political, racial and religious persecution at 300,000 (including 160,000 German Jews)[129]
A 2003 report by the German Federal Archive put the total murdered during the Action T4 Euthanasia program at over 200,000 persons. Previously it was reported that 70,000 persons were murdered in the euthanasia program, recent research in the archives of the former East Germany indicate that the number of victims in Germany and Austria was about 200,000.[130]
The Soviets set up NKVD special camps in the Soviet-occupied parts of Germany and areas east of the Oder-Neisse line to intern Germans accused of alleged ties to the Nazis, or because they were hindering the establishment of Stalinism in East Germany. Between 122,000 and 150,000 were detained and at least 43,000 did not survive.[131]
See Also: Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–50) and Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union
Civilian deaths, due to the flight and expulsion of Germans and the forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union, are sometimes included with World War II casualties. During the Cold War, the West German government estimated the death toll at 2.225 million in the wartime evacuations, forced labor in the Soviet Union as well as the post war expulsions. This figure was to remain unchallenged until the 1990s when some German historians put the actual death toll in the expulsions at 500,000 confirmed deaths listed in a 1965 German Red Cross study. The German Historical Museum puts the figure at 600,000 dead; they maintain the figure of 2 million expulsion deaths cannot be supported. However, the position of the German government, the German Federal Agency for Civic Education and the German Red Cross is that the death toll in the expulsions is between 2.0 and 2.5 million civilians. The German historian Rüdiger Overmans maintains that there are more arguments for a lower figure of 500,000 rather than the higher figures of over 2.0 million. He believes that the previous studies by the German government should be subject to critical revision and new research is needed to establish the actual number of expulsion deaths.[132]
The following studies were published by the West German government estimating expulsion deaths.
Recent research on German expulsion losses:
Estimated total German population losses (in 1937 German borders) directly related to the war range between 5.5[143] to 6.9 million persons.[144] These figures do not include ethnic Germans from other nations in the German military and ethnic German civilians who were killed in expulsions. In 1956 the West German government figures in the table below list an estimated about 5.5 million deaths (military and civilian) directly caused by the war within the borders of 1937.[145] A study by the German demographer Peter Marschalck put the total deaths directly related to the war both military and civilians at 5.2 million, plus an estimated decline in births of 1.7 million, bringing total population losses related to the war at 6.9 million persons within the borders of 1937. There were additional deaths of the ethnic Germans outside of Germany in Eastern Europe, men conscripted during the war and ethnic German civilian deaths during post war expulsions.
In 2005 the German government Suchdienste (Search Service) put the total combined German military and civilian war dead at 7,375,800, including ethnic Germans outside of Germany and Austrians. This figure includes 4.3 million military dead and missing, 500,000 killed by strategic bombing, 300,000 victims of Nazi political, racial and religious persecution, 2,251,500 civilian dead in expulsions and 24,300 Austrian civilians.[146]
| Germany in 1937 borders | Population balance | |
|---|---|---|
| Population May 1939 Census | 69,310,000 | |
| Live births | 8,670,000 | |
| Net immigration-German refugees | 4,080,000 | |
| Subtotal additions | 12,750,000 | |
| Civilians-Death by natural causes | (7,130,000) | |
| Civilians killed in air war | (410,000) | |
| Civilians killed in 1945 land battles | (20,000) | |
| Military dead | (3,760,000) | |
| POW held by Allies | (1,750,000) | |
| Germans remaining in Poland | (1,750,000) | |
| Germans remaining abroad | (130,000) | |
| Expulsion and deportation civilian dead/missing | (1,260,000) | |
| Emigrated & murdered Jews | (200,000) | |
| Net emigration of foreign population | (200,000) | |
| Other, misc. | (140,000) | |
| Subtotal reductions | (16,750,000) | |
| Population October 1946 Census | 65,310,000 | |
| Sources for figures: Wirtschaft und Statistik October 1956, journal published by Statistisches Bundesamt Deutschland (German government Statistical Office). | ||
Notes:
The Austrian government provides the following information on human losses during the rule of the Nazis.
In 1958, the West German government statistical office put the losses of the ethnic Germans at 1,318,000 (886,000 civilians in the expulsions and 411,000 in the German military and 22,000 in the Hungarian and Romanian military).[153] The research of Rüdiger Overmans puts military losses of ethnic Germans at 534,000.[154] Ingo Haar points out that of the 886,000 estimated civilian dead from east Europe only about 170,000 deaths have been confirmed; the balance are considered unsolved cases.
In post-war Germany the fate of civilians and prisoners of war has been a contentious topic. The current view of the German government is that these losses were due to an aggressive war started by the German nation.[155] However, there are fringe groups who attempt to trivialize the crimes of the Hitler period by comparing German losses to the Holocaust.
The bombing of Dresden and the bombing campaign in general has been a topic of discussion in post-war Germany. Amongst others, the German historian Wolfgang Benz believes that the use of the term "Bombing Holocaust" runs contrary to historical fact.[156] The German government currently places the ultimate blame for the mass flight and expulsion on the wartime policy of the Nazis in Eastern Europe. There are those like Heinz Nawratil who try to equate the expulsions from Eastern Europe with the Holocaust. The German historian Martin Broszat (former head of Institute of Contemporary History in Munich) described Nawratil's writings as "polemics with a nationalist-rightist point of view", and that Nawratil "exaggerates in an absurd manner the scale of 'expulsion crimes'".[157] The Federation of Expellees has represented the interests of Germans from Eastern Europe. Erika Steinbach, the current President of the Federation, provoked outrage when she supported the statements of other members of the expellee organization claiming that Hitler's attack on Poland was a response to Poland's policy.[158] The Federation of Expellees initiated the formation of the Center Against Expulsions.[159] The former President of Germany Joachim Gauck and the former German chancellor Angela Merkel have voiced support for the Center Against Expulsions. However, in Poland it is viewed by some as an attempt to reopen the wounds of the war and to revert to pre-war borders.
The fate of over one million missing German soldiers in the USSR was an issue in post-war West Germany, with some claiming that they were held in secret labor camps by the Soviets. It is now known that they did not survive the war; Rüdiger Overmans believes that more than likely they died in Soviet custody.[160]
James Bacque, a Canadian author with no previous historical research experience, has written a book Other Losses in which he claims that the United States are responsible for the deaths of 800,000 to 1,000,000 German POW. Based on his own research Bacque claims that documents from the US Archives show that there were 800,000 German POW who did not survive US captivity. Bacque alleges that General Eisenhower and the US military deliberately withheld support for the German POW, causing their deaths. Bacque presents his arguments with a description of the horrific conditions at the Rheinwiesenlager POW camps and eyewitness accounts of retired US military officers. Bacque maintains that there has been a conspiracy by the United States to cover up these losses. Bacque's book received wide attention when it was first published in 1989, since then his claims have been challenged by historians who have found his thesis to be unsubstantiated. The US military historian Stephen Ambrose was co-editor of the book Eisenhower and the German POWs in which he refutes Bacque's claims. Ambrose maintains that the figure of 800,000 POW missing from the US records was a bookkeeping error, that many POW were released and no records were maintained. Ambrose points out that the US and the UK had to cope with a major logistical problem in order to maintain the huge number of surrendered German personnel and finds the claim that Eisenhower and the US military deliberately withheld support for the German POW to be without merit.[161] Rüdiger Overmans believes that "on the basis of factual individual data, shown before, the thesis of the Canadian James Bacque cannot be supported".
A humanitarian organisation, known as (German: Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge|lit=German War Graves Commission), is directed by the Federal Republic of Germany to record all the German fallen soldiers and maintain their graveyards abroad in 46 countries. The organisation was founded on 16 December 1919 to look after the World War I soldiers' graves. Later on, it commenced to track German casualties again starting from 1946 after the World War II. Currently, the commission runs an online database in which soldiers' family can search for the missing relatives.[162]
Estimates indicate that at least 40,000 war casualties are found a year. The commission has already built more than 300 cemeteries from World War II and 190 from World War I all over Europe.[163]