Five Brothers and a War

Cost in Human Life

The Dutch paid a steep price in terms of human suffering. It has been estimated that 20,000 starved to death during the war—mostly of course in the last few months. Three times the number of babies died from January until May 1945 than did during the first five months the year before. Twice as many children aged between one and five years old died during those periods. As has been mentioned, of the 120,000 Jews that were captured, 104,000 were killed. Another 5,000 citizens died in one form or another of prisons. 30,000 slaves/forced laborers, out of the 550,000 captured, died. About 23,000 died from direct warfare, mostly air-raids. Finally, 2,800 people were executed by the Germans. That means that the Dutch lost close to one-quarter of a million lives, out of a population of about 8.8 million. That says nothing of the people whose lives were shortened by either injury, illness or emotional distress.. It says nothing of the people who carried burdens that made their lives far from fulfilling. Or of the countless children who were never born because of the deaths of potential parents. The impact and the suffering are incalculable. The rest of the world also paid dearly. The Soviet Union paid with more than 24,000,000 lives. The total number of deaths is generally estimated to be about 60,000,000.

the war

Five Brothers and a War

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