Seeing the Soviet numbers going up and up....really send chills

I really appreciate you differentiating between Nazis and Germans several times

Mathematics can be astonishing. If we had a minute of silence for each one who died during WW2 and had them start right after the war ended... The world would still have been quiet with more than 50 years yet to come. Nothing's to be forgotten. No one's to be forgotten.

As an ethic Russian living in the US who has a Victory Banner hanging in my apartment that often draws ire from my friends, that visualization is why. I don’t have the banner to commemorate communism or any other political ideology, I have it to remember those who died defeating the Third Reich in the Great Patriotic War. Nothing more needs to be said.

Jesus, I knew the Soviets took many losses, but that visualization is staggering.

I'm Russian and I just want to say thank you for remembering how many people we lost at this war.

My Grandpa was a German soldier on the Eastern front, basically from day one until the last day. He was the only one of his friends to return. Initially, he was gunner on a sidecar of a motorcycle. While on the offensive, they’d ride into enemy towns on their own, drive around town square and spray some buildings with a few bursts from the machine gun. If nobody shot back, the town was deemed safe and the army would march through. If fire was returned, depending on how much fire the army would either storm the house from which the return fire came and kill everyone in there or the artillery would just level the entire place. He actually was shot in the head once, but survived, it only scraped him. He had street smarts. He once told me, that in every situation, he always looked for a way out in case of nasty surprises. For example, he was once instructed to man a listening post, basically a hole in the ground near Soviet lines. He didn’t like the look of it and hid in a bush near the hole. So when the Russians came and checked the holes, he was safely watching. While he survived, he was scarred for life. Every Christmas when we sang Christmas songs he cried, as it reminded him of a terrible Christmas he had in Russia. That day, every German soldier received a whole goose from the home front as a special treat. They were all starving so every one of them ate their entire goose. Of course they all fell sick. That night the Russians launched a major attack, and my Grandpa and his comrades were shitting their pants while mowing down the Russians. He said that it was terrible, the Russians had no chance, they were charging the German machine guns and were easily mowed down, yet they kept on coming. He wished that they‘d stop as they’d surely all die. But they kept coming. At some point that night, he said they started to hear strange screams from the Russian soldiers they were killing. When they examined the battlefield the next day, he saw that eventually the Russians sent women, they were the origins of those strange screams. He was devastated by how many good Russians died that night in a completely pointless encounter. He also said that the more ideologically driven the German soldiers were, the quicker they died. Whenever a proper Nazi joint their ranks, he gave him two weeks. That’s how long they’d last on average. They were too determined to play the brave hero, doing pointless stupid shit. At the end he was relatively high in rank for a regular soldier by virtue of surviving for so long. He was actually in Dresden during the famous fire bombing raid. There he was ordered to organise the “Volkssturm“, the last ditch defensive force comprised of kids and old people. When he saw them, he told them all to go home and then went underground, there he survived the bombing. He said the railroad tracks were glowing red hot from all the heat of the bombs, even underground. He then tried to make his way home through the Czech republic. There two partisans found him. First they told him to hand over his medals, which he did, then they told him to strip. He knew they’d kill him, but he had a gun hidden on himself all the time, so he killed them first and took off. That’s how he lost all his medals. He eventually made it to American lines and surrendered there. While on the way to a POW camp, the truck he was on went through his home town by chance. So he jumped off and ran home. The Americans apparently had bigger fish to fry and didn’t try to catch or shoot him. Unfortunately, I only know a fraction of his stories. His experience would have made for a great anti-war movie. I know that it was horrific for him and that he saw a lot of messed up shit. He really was a broken man for the rest of his life. He saw all his friends die and he himself had to kill many times. Still, he was one of the few lucky ones, particularly since he got into trouble several times, like when he refused to execute a Russian girl which apparently shot at them from her home, or when he was careless enough to doubt that Germany would win the war in front of the wrong people. He worked on his farm for the rest of his life, never spoke much, but every Christmas, he had to talk about his experiences.

That one is six Poles died in the Second World War, unbelievable. I'm so glad that these figures are shown like this, it makes the truth transparent.

And here I am, sitting in my dark room, looking at a rolling screen of hundreds of red dots, feeling so very, very small.

The creator corrected himself in the comments about the nazi/german algamation

9:22 Very important comment! My grandfather was a hardcore christian and forced to go to Stalingrad as a scout. He told me a story, where he was hiding at night in a bush to spy on the enemy when a russian soldier came straight to him and took a piss just 2m away. He laid there, his gun aimed at the russian soldier and he prayed to god to not have to shoot him. It was against his beliefs and he did not want to harm anybody. Luckily the soldier didn't noticed him and went away soon. My grandfather got to leave the eastern front soon later, right before the 6th took Stalingrad. He went on to smuggle his wife and daugher out of Germany to Ghana and became a missionary doctor there.

As a Pole, the civilians death count always gets to me. So much Polish blood was spilled during WW2. Including my Great-Granfather who died in the camps when he got captured by the Germans. My Grandfather grew up without a father. He still holds his death certificate.

In Russia, the effects of WWII can still be seen in the population growth today. There are two big gaps in the graphics that depict the amount of people in every generation when you look at them. These gaps are the generations of the children and grandchildren of those killed in WWII would have been born at that time, had their (grand)parents lived.

German history/philosophy teacher here, I appreciate ur insights and the way you comment. My great-grandfather was one of the very few german soldiers who died in the early western campain in Belgium. He wrote many letters to the my great-grandmother in a style of handwriting that was common back then but almost nobody can read anymore. We got those letters translated a couple years ago by an expert from swizzerland. Those documents give a really interesting insight starting with "the belief in Hitler and being part of something special" to war experiences. The last letter to my great-grandmother is not from her husband but his closest comrade after he had fallen. Sometimes I use them in my history lessons.

I'm really glad you made a point to talk about the picture of the execution. It humanizes the whole thing. Like with the Stalin quote about a million deaths being a statistic, when people hear 6 million dead they don't comprehend the amount of death and bloodshed behind the number. The sadness and suffering. The families torn apart. Everyone should see that photo, and understand that something like this should never happen again.

The ending hits so much harder now than the first time I watched your reaction. I am crying over that the long/new peace are no longer

"I don't know what weapon would be used in WWIII. But in world war 4 we will use stones"- A. Einstein

I feel like the war crimes of the Japanese Empire were mostly forgotten because it was somewhat overshadowed by the nuclear bombings, almost like they were given a free pass for their atrocities.

Stalin: "The British gave time, the Americans gave money, the Soviets gave blood."

My great uncle was held prisoner in Poland. Growing up in North Dakota, he spoke fluent German and English, so he ended up working as a translator. He saw that the Russian POWs were treated worse than any others, and the Russians couldn't escape. If they returned home, they were shot as cowards.

I am from the former Yugoslavia and very happy that someone is finally talking about our losses. Half a million still seems too little to me - the partisan struggle may have resulted in up to a million deaths. But we tied up an enormous number of German soldiers who were urgently needed in Russia. The Second World War was not only won in Normandy. Thank you for this good video. PS: subscribed

I studied history at a level here in the uk and we were NEVER told about what happened in Yugoslavia so that’s came as a big shock to me

Looks like the long peace is coming to an end. I wish it could've lasted longer.

I've watched the reaction videos to this a few times and having you be able to drop actual facts to help people understand the content and the numbers is amazing. Instead of the poeple that just add a tear to their thumbnail. Thank you for your channel and the amazing content you put out.

The pic of the mother holding the child. As a kid and adult i said wow that sad. As a dad it was a weeping experance.

An interesting fact I heard. There was a building in Stalingrad which was of significant strategic importance that the Germans and Soviets were fighting over. The Germans lost more soldiers fighting for that single building than they lost in their entire conquest of France.

Such an underrated channel! I’ve learnt more about the war in 3 of this guys videos than 5 years at school!

I appreciate your providing context to the reaction as well as including the link to the original video.

The last bit, I think, is the most important part. There's good reason to think that WWII kind of shocked the developed world into realizing we can't keep doing this to ourselves. However, as WWII fades from living memory we run the risk of forgetting that lesson that has led to the era of unprecedented "peace" that we currently live in. EDIT: God, I hate being right.

I admit, i cried a little bit when I saw that photo of the mother holding child who is about to be executed. Many people forget how devastating World War 2 was.

The Soviet Union suffered more casualties during the siege of Leningrad than the US suffered throughout the entire war.

God.. seeing the number of the Soviets stacking up more and more is just heart wrenching and when you realize the Russian population truly staggered after WWII makes that heart break even worse.. Russia is still suffering from the war in terms of population.. an entire generation worth of men died fighting in that war.. and knowing that makes watching the numbers get visualized feel so much more bone chilling and depressing..

Imagine clearing up 1.5 million dead bodies up in Stalingrad

My Great Granpa was captured at stalingrad. Crazy he was one of the 6000 that returned.

Thank you for discussing this video on your channel! It’s a great tool for students (I do literature but my historian friends have used this video as the visual impact of it **really** impresses on the students the incredible brutality of the Eastern Front, and how much it took for the Red Army to push the remaining Wehrmacht forces back all the way to Berlin)

As an American, whenever I think about WW2, I automatically think about Europe and the absolute horror that occurred throughout Europe during the war. I don't know why I don't think about Japan's involvement in the war because upon learning about some of the terrifying atrocities that tool place in the rape of Nanking, I shudder at my own ignorance.

Video: *mentions Czechoslovakia* Me: Don't do it. Don't you do it man. Me: PILOTS OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA JOIN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN Dammit Sabaton.

My grandpa was German Werhmacht and the first chance he has during the war he deserted and took a boat to the US and lived happily till he passed away in 2004 due to cancer. He never wanted to fight but didn’t have a choice

I remember watching this in my college history class. We were all so shocked and dumbfounded that once the video was over, it was SO quiet you could hear a pin drop

That photo of the mom and the girl getting executed is really heartbreaking. I could only imagine what the mom was thinking. She was probably just trying to calm her kid and letting her know it would be quick. Just saying that is horrifying. And the little girl… she most likely didn’t understand why she was there and horrified. It makes me cry just thinking about the last thing they would’ve said to each other.

When the sowjet level rises and you hear only the noise of the wind und know every line are 20.000 killed soldiers.....OMG

Although I am not German, I would like to thank you for clarifying the difference between Nazis and the soldiers, it is always bothering me when someone is just using Nazi for everyone from Germany at that time, and also demonizing Axis soldiers whom, (especially those who died on the fronts, although under a faulty system ) fought mainly for their homes and families, not necessarily the system and ideology itself.

I really like this stuff. I'm impressed with the high quality video, and audio. I just subscribed.

Leonard Cohen once said, "There's no decent place to stand in a massacre." All the nations involved did terrible things during these years and the years that followed. I hope each of us remembers the PEOPLE that died, on both sides, and how tragic the loss of such life is for all of humanity. How many of those millions of people, could have changed our futures with incredible discoveries, innovations, and ideas. Let's keep peace the primary goal of our countries!

As a German this is hitting something pretty hard I don't even know how to say it

I have seen some of these videos many times from watching other reaction channels but yours is one I find most enjoyable. Seeing the video and then getting your added knowledge on the subjects just adds a whole new level to them. Thank you for making these videos as entertaining and educational as you do. I am 48 years old and I am still learning something new about the subjects I did not know with each of these videos.

I felt so uneasy watching the soviet numbers going up. It hit me hard when i realized most of those soldiers had a mother to come home to, a daughter or a son to come home to. A spouse to come home to.

15:00 I feel you it’s horrifying to think about and the picture… I have no words

thank God when at least someone mentioned Yugoslavia

Was hoping you'd react to this at some point and I'm glad you did!

I’ve seen people react to this so many times, but you’re actually the first person to pause on the picture of the woman holding her child and explains how horrific things were. It’s a very haunting but important photo. Thank you for your reaction and that you mentioned that not all Germans were nazis.

One of my grand grandfather was executed from the Czech soldier’s, he was an chlose combat instructor for the Wehrmacht, he never see a battle and still died. On the other hand one of my other grand grandfather was an tank driver in the SS division, he got shoot 8 times and survived every single one, he has lucky to drive the Tiger II and panther. He survived the war and he was still really respect to the allies. Later on his year he was allowed to drives some new US tanks, he was so well respected even he was an SS soldier.

I've been waiting for this! loved your reaction and analysis. I think people either don't realize, or tend to forget the sheer scale of these numbers

I have watched this video multiple times, as well as multiple reactions. The reality of the deaths still hits incredibly hard.

thank you for your take and breakdown.

I didn’t know I would appreciate the differentiation between nazis and germans so much. what’s often forgotten is that Germany annexed austria and Austrian soldiers were forced into the war. my great grandfather was 19 when Germany annexed Austria and he had to fight on both the western front and eastern front and never once adopted the nazi ideology - he was a communist before the war and after.

As a German who lost grandfathers and great grandfathers in that war, I can really appreciate that you took the time to distinguish between ordinary Germans and real Nazis. We know most about just half of the family, the other half is kind of shrouded in mystery due to chaos, family splits etc. but of the ancestors I know about who fell/fought in WW2, none of them were real Nazis. The real Nazis are those engaging with the Nazis/Nazi party from its inception until 1939. One even was a communist, resisting the Nazis as much as possible, but he eventually had to back down and serve to protect his family and children. He spent years in soviet work camps and would never speak a word of the war, but the trauma was always visible for everyone. I take it as a personal insult when people gernalise all Germans who lived through the war as "Nazis", in fact, most of the actual army personnel were no nazis but were forced or coerced into serving for the Nazi regime. Fighting back is not as easy as some people make it out to be, you not only run the risk of being killed yourself but also your entire family being executed or sent off to the camps. If you have the choice of going to war with a slim chance of survival, most people would take that over certain death for you and your peers.

Germany here: When this video came out I mentioned the issue as well. I am really happy that there's a response about that problematic term. Now, there's no need for rationalizing anything about what my fellow ancestors did.... it is clear as glass. The main personal part for me had been that almost my entire German family was erased during this war, too. And yes... I do know about the USSR... and people of jewish faith. That many families had actually been completely eradicated. My ancestors who lived in Latter Pomerania fought and MANY died in it, too. Either as soldiers due to warfare or as collateral damage by bombing or expulsion and rape. My grandmother told me my family was rather national conservative but did not actively support the nazi party. In fact she told me they made jokes about nazis that were completely dangerous of course. The origins of my grandfather are unclear as he was adopted... he must have been a sunday baby. At least that's the rumor she told me. During the 80s my grandparents went to Poland and found my grandfather's foster mother but she refused to say anything lieing on her deathbed. All documents had been destroyed during the war. He had been a wehrmacht soldier (first lieutenant at the end) and when the war began he was 19. Born in 1920 he entered the war in 1942 or 43 after extensive officer training. According to my mother's mom (maternal grandmother) our family had been quite big. Today... I belong to the tiny little bit of what once had been quite a big 'dynasty'. War sucks! Maybe some other contemporary nations will learn this, too.

I first watched the original video roughly 5 years ago and was completely blown away to see everything laid out so clearly. it had such an impact on me (my eyes watered up the first time i saw the Russian numbers and i still have a hard tme getting thru it), that i have repeatedly shared the link to it and have it bookmarked. Every one should see this. It's a fantastic piece of work by Neil Halloran. Thanks for "bumping" it.

Every time I’ve watched this video I leave in tears.

I love your content. You don't just react, but complement. The videos get better with your reaction

This video should be shown in history classes! It is in my opinion one of the most differentiated and informative video.

My Granddad was on the eastern front in the soviet union. he got captured and one day a few drunk soldiers wanted to beat him dead. he survived because some officer came into the room and stopped the madness. he was 18 when he went into war and was 32 when he got of captivity. he wrote down all his wartime storys before he passed away.

My grandfather was a runner for General Buckner, apparently this guy got grabbed by his men because he never took proper cover. He wore the shiny type of rank insignia as well that some Marines said they could recognize him from hundreds of yards away. So it was no surprise that he was eventually killed by a Japanese rocket.

That was a good viewing of horrendous video. Your reactions and comments were very sincere, just and humane. Kudos for that.

About french losses : he counted inland (metropolitan france) and colonies separatly, the total military french death count is kind of foggy, i have seen 500 000 to 900 000. North and center afrikan bataillons (french and natives soldiers) fought until 1944

Very very good knowledge by the man reacting

For me to put it in context I always think of it in terms of cities and countries. I grew up in a city of 3-4 million people and that is big. My country has approximately 60 million people now, it's in the top 30 populations or so. When you think of it like that, it's really shocking how many people died.

Its nice that you made it clear that no every german was a nazi.

Gotta say. Just hearing all this again, being a lover of all things history, it really inspires me to learn even more and more. Because I'm trying to figure out what to do with my life and seeing how everything goes back to just learning about history, I am now planning on becoming a historian on Mesopotamian, Roman/Greek, WW1 and WW2 history. So thank you for inspiring me to do so. Keep up the good work mate.

Also part of the reason why they moved to camps rather than mobile killing groups is because it mentally buffered the soldier from what they were doing. The suicide rate among MKGs was massive because just constantly individually executing non-combatants destroyed their will to live.

Great video!

This video brought me to tears every time I watched it.

there is a series called 'war against humanity' which follows the war crimes committed against civilians during the war month by month, and it hits different to see it in real-time. it's only in 1942 and yet every episode hurts. the most important thing I've ever told myself to watch.

Hello, i just found your chanel. I was curious about your reaction and Im impressed how much you know about the WW2. The wayyou corrected him with saying not all german soldiers were Nazis is a very important awnser. And even if this sounds stupid, Thank you for that.

Thank you for your perspective on his video. I did enjoy your reaction and inserts of knowlage on the topic. That being said, I'm going to go on a little rant here. I have come to enjoy the reaction of a different KZfaqr mainly because he takes a little time at the end to read some of the comments on the video. In doing so, he learned that many creators have pinned messages that are responces to large scale criticisim or questions. Neil's pinned comment is his appology for his mistake on the using the term "Nazi soldiers" instead of "German soldiers". He explains how his mistake happened and explained that he was planning on going back to the recording studio to change the English version to be correct. This project has been recorded in multiple languages with the correct terminoligy. I am unsure if he posted the new video with the correct terminoligy to KZfaq, but I do believe that he has edited his website to be correct.

I don’t care how many times I’ve seen this video, that photo of the woman holding her child chokes me up every time. Words cannot describe the cruelty and inhumanity that is conveyed in that photo.

6:00 You mentioned Gen. Buckner. Glad to see that someone knows him, he's part of my family tree... yes, I'm a Buckner.

one of the main reasons why British losses are so high is actually Canada, its role is always underplayed and underrated but i believe Canada alone contributed nearly 50,000 dead and probably double that in wounded casualties keep in mind that out of over 1,000,000 people who served in the Canadian army thats a relatively very small number of death especially considering every theater and battles Canada is involved in but its still around 10%-15% casualty rates of the entire force and i think the role Canada played in the war deserves more recognition

Thank you for making the distinctions that you made in this video. As a European, trying to put the impact of World War 2 into words is overwhelming and frustrating, because words tend to fail at the pure breakdown of humanity, meaning, and order. The Hebrew word for the Holocaust is "shoah" which translates as 'catastrophe', and the word "Holocaust" itself means "complete devastation or destruction, especially by fire". That's what World War 2 was; a large void of humanity that consumed the whole world. My grand father died on the Eastern Front where he was sent to fight for the Germans because he needed to go on social security. The Danish government at the time ordered people on social security to go fight there. He died at the front, and the men who returned after the war would usually be sent straight to prison for collaborating with the occupying Germans. Stanley Kubrick didn't like Schindler's List because he hated that it was a story about success in the midst of the war. “The Holocaust is about six million people who get killed. ‘Schindler’s List’ is about 600 who don’t,”.

I don't think Stalin would invade Germany as he was taking a defensive position and trying to keep the germans calm as much as he could, while in fact building fortifications and setting up landmines along the border. In fact, since the fall of France, the Soviet High Command already knew the germans would attack due to the huge amount of divisions and planes moving to the german side of Poland, it was Stalin that made the war preparations slow and thought he could solve the problems with Germany in a diplomatic way. In june 22nd he even gave the order to the soldiers not to attack any german territory until they were sure that diplomacy wasn't going to work. The Allies also would send to Stalin details about the german divisions preparing to attack and Churchill even offered Stalin to send a British Expeditionary Force to Russia when Germany attacked, to which Stalin said no thinking it was a provocation to escalate tensions between Germany and the USSR. Another fun fact is that, a german scout plane was flying over the occupied Baltic countries pre invasion in 1941, when the soviets shot the plane down, Stalin directly intervened and told the soldiers to treat the pilot, they later gave him dinner, medical treatment and allowed him to go back to Germany. War between the two powers was the last thing Stalin wanted.

When you mentioned the Rapes in Germany, you understood what the Soviet reasoning was and I was Waiting for someone to point that out. It doesn’t make it any worse than what the Germans did but it gives you a better point of view on why.

Idk smthing about this channel is so wholesome

right now there is not much long peace

Until I watched this video a couple years ago I had always thought that more of the United States soldiers died fighting in the Pacific Theater than the European Theater because of how difficult Japan was making it for the United States to take most of those islands

"Этот праздник со слезами на глазах..."

One random thought. In terms of military deaths how big a factor is antibiotics. The allies had the advantage of penicillin which may be one of the things stopping casualties becoming deaths. The axis did not, while soviet medical care might have, but was rumoured to be basic at best.

Great video of history so important to remember the toll of human tragedy. Hopefully history will not be forgotten and may this be taught in schools.

I think the video is althought truly heartbreaking a truly amazing video

One of my favorite videos on the internet

Asoan Deaths during World War II ranges between 25256100-37526100 The total military deaths ranges between 5265100 and 6214100 As for the Civilians the range os between 20092000 and 31312000

"Official Tally." Yeah, just like when the Soviets told the UN that the leak at Chernobyl only read at a few thousand roentgens when it was estimated to be 15k-20k per hour.

You're a good man with a good heart, Pastor. I appreciate your videos.

Thought I’d drop a comment saying I just found your channel and I’m amazed and excited. Not only are you (or should I be safe and say you appear to be) a great historian, but you can appreciate some of the comedy, add to the conversation rather than just saying “I agree” or “funny,” you look and seem somewhat like a teacher I’m still acquaintances with (a history teacher and Christian just like you), and, arguably most importantly, you’re from Ohio. I’m from Ohio! I never expected to see the stars align (so to speak) like this. I’ve already left some comments on your Oversimplified (USA) Civil War video (reaction), and I can’t wait to see and hear and discuss more. Amazing work, and frequent uploads too it seems! Keep up the great work!

"Never go to war with Russia... - - Bismarck.

*27 Million Soviets* *20 Million Chinese* *7.4 Million Nazis* *6 Million Jews* *4 Million Dutch east Indies* *3.1 Million Japanese* *2.5 Million Indian Soldiers(under British Army)* *3 Million all others combined*

the USA actually landed on the wrong beach in the Utah landing, wich was fortunate couse it turned out to be a easier landing than the original. also their comanding general was the only high ranking officer to fight with his troops on the battlefield.

You could take a look on the stories of collaborators in Belgium, that's something that's a part of our history that makes me sick just thinking about what people did after the war

One thing that is not addressed here is the Bengal Famine in British India. Winston Churchill had deliberately diverted supplies from Bengal, one of the most populous states in India at that time, and shipped them off to the western front to act as buffer stock. This led to one of the largest famines in history, killing around 3 million in Bengal alone, alongside other states.

This picture of the mother and her child… Dude I don’t know how to describe my feelings. But mainly I feel sadness and an impulse to hug my child. But the saddest thing is to know, that some people try to awake those old ghosts. It doesn’t began with those executions and the gas chamber. All began with some „alternative facts“ and an easy way to blame a small group for all misery. The rest is history.