Memorial

From Wikipedia   German Occupied Europe 1942

On Memorial Day, I thought about the losses of life world-wide from war and I’ll focus on the losses during World War II.

It took the effort of several nations to win.  Some weren’t our allies, but their efforts as they struggled for survival aided the cause.   The United States helped, but just look at the numbers lost from other countries compared to the US and United Kindom.

<_>

Russia                         26 – 27 million  (The numbers vary according to the websites I’ve visited)

Dutch East Indies     3 – 4 million

India                            1 – 3 million

United Kingdom       450,900

United States            419,000

This is the percentages of loss by country

from business insider 

I respect the losses from every country, for many of these were civilians who would rather have lived in peace.

As I write the next few paragraphs, please understand that ideology takes a back seat when people are fighting for survival.  It is the herculean effort to save their country — no matter what their personal ideology — that I’m talking about.

I am more interested in the TRUTH than in history which, at the end of the day is, just as it states, “his story.”

Russia had signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany in 1939, and Germany broke the treaty in 1941. Without the indomitable will of civilians and soldiers to resist the Nazi’s in conditions that would kill most of us, Germany may have had a chance to perfect the atomic bomb before the USA, as well as a means to deliver it further than the missiles that hit Britain.

I first heard about this from a documentary about WWII and…

Just as every other American seeped in the belief that the USA jumped into the war and saved the day, I laughed it off.

…but I continued watching.  Then I looked on the internet just to prove to myself that it was wrong.  After all, they were a “bunch of communists.”

I’ll cite the Encylopedia Britannica   on this one:

“Battle of Stalingrad:

(July 17, 1942–February 2, 1943), successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Russia, U.S.S.R., during World War II. Russians consider it to be one of the greatest battles of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favour of the Allies.

We have not adequately recognized the contribution that USSR/Russia made toward winning WWII.   Instead, we vilified their efforts to ensure that such a horrific war would never happen again.  

I’m not saying that I agree or disagree with their post-war decisions, just that I can understand their anger…

…and isn’t understanding the first step toward peace?