Conveniently just wrapping up World War II studies today, on this day of Remembrance. My heart was just wrung reading about the horrors of post world war demographics. One thing that hit me especially hard was this;
"The most immediate problem was what to do with the millions of people the war had uprooted. In Germany, there were five and a half million Soviet citizens who needed to be sent home. Among them were soldiers who had fought for the Nazis and faced certain execution at home. But, with a cruel logic, the Soviet authorities decided that many of the others, who had survived captivity as prisoners of war and slave workers, were traitors too. So they returned home to long prison sentences."
So sad. So sobering. So heart rending.
In closing, a trivia question. During World War II Russia suffered 25 million military and civilian deaths. What percentage of Soviet men, aged 19-23 survived the war? 3%. 6%. 9% or 12%?
3 comments:
how horrible - to have finally survived, only to be sent home as a prisoner.
I'm going to go with 3%.
I would guess the 12%...
I have studied this war a lot in the past and there are so many awful things that happened afterward as well... like when Canada welcomed nazi members but tried to keep the Jewish orphans out...
I think it is important to learn about war... not easy but important...
sorry about that girls, forgot to come back and settle it. It was 3%. How soberingly awful.
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