How much of them can be attributed by direct killings by the German Armed forces (bombing, open air shootings, etc.)? How much is attributed to starvation, etc.?
Several million Russian Jews (non-military) were killed by the Germans, along with over 18 million other civilians (I am not 100% sure of the figure; the sources say that around 29 million Russians died, but that's military and civilian, so 18-20 million is my estimate). Many of these killings can be attributed to the German army, surprisingly; one anti-partisan operation in 1941, for example, claimed 25,000 lives. However, only 30 rifles and a "handful of other weapons were ever recovered." The people killed, it seems, were mostly civilians. Starvation also claimed a great number of deaths; in Kharkov, thousands died in 1941-1942 alone from starvation; many of them children. This crime is also linked to the wehrmacht, not the SS (I am only accusing the guilty, here). Millions of deaths were caused by massed hangings and shootings, there are countless photos and archives to support this. Many civilians were also killed in crossfire, purely by accident; especially in urban combat.
I've seen this figure before. How many of these fake anti-partisan operations were initiated in Russia between 1941-1945? Is Leningrad the primary area? What are total deaths by starvation? Really? Were these committed by the Wehrmacht or the SS? What are the tolls? And for what reason? This should be the minority of the 17-18 million figure, am I correct? How many Russians died as slave labor?
It'll be really neat if someone knew the details of Soviet civilian deaths by all the various causes. I only have the overall figure.
1 million While the SS is the primary culprit the Wehrmacht committed too many crimes to count. Many soldiers simply considered helping the SS as an honor, for this reason the SS never found and shortages of volunteers. More then the Germans in Russian hands. For the record, all of the deaths can be contributed directly to the Germans. If there had been no invasion these deaths would not have occurred.
I think total Russian deaths to starvation should be considerably more than that. Leningrad alone had 1.2 million civilian deaths from starvation.
Since your question was pretty general to begin with, I only mentioned a few things. My bad. The reasons for the massed hangings and shootings mentioned are the resut of many causes, such as resistance, the massed killings of Jews (such as at Babi Yar and Zhitomir), sabotage, people suspected of helping the partisans, communists being killed under the Commisar order, simple anger, etc.
I'm actually trying to get a numerical estimate of deaths from the various specific causes (not events). So I have an idea what proportion of Russian civilians died from starvation, intentional open air mass murder, luftwaffe bombings, military collateral damage, etc.
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2stats.htm WWII: The Casualties World War 2 Casualties - Worldwar-2.net The History Place - Statistics of World War II World War 2 Casualties DEMOCIDE (GENOCIDE & MASS MURDER) SINCE 1945 http://warchronicle.com/numbers/WWII/deaths.htm
Thanks, but those links state a lot of older, lower stats- for instance, it is now known that the German armed forces did not lose only 3.5 M men and the Soviets did not lose only 8 M men.
I took a WW2 course at the Uni and my professor claimed that the Germans fought the war in the East "Atilla the hun" style- razing villages, living off the land (and thus depriving Soviet citizens of food), and mass murdering civilians. But I do not know the details and I do not get the impression that crimes of the Heer against the Russian people are well documented.
All show that there are quite a bit of differences acccording to what sources are used. The best example of that is "National Death Tolls for the Second World War" site. http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/ww2stats.htm Nothing is firm. And even now the Russians are updating the totals. http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-today/29280-soviet-losses-wwii-adjusted-defense-ministry.html
Glantz's tables (from Russian Archives) gives the total of 29 million casualties (~11.5 M dead) in the Soviet Armed forces.
Yes, I was referring only to Leningrad. Dont have the exact figures but one can only imagine that they are far greater.
I have three of Glantz's books on the Red Army: Colossus Reborn 1941-1943, Battle of Kursk, When Titans Clashed. Does his other books (or the newer ones) show any new insight to this topic?
If you want to read the latest German research on dispelling the myth of a 'clean' Wehrmacht, see: Amazon.com: The Wehrmacht: History, Myth, Reality: Wolfram Wette, Deborah Lucas Schneider: Books
