ABSTRACT
The Second World War ended in Europe on the 7 May, in the Far East on 14 August, 1945. The cost of the war was almost incalculable in terms of loss and injury to life and the destruction of large parts of the infrastructure of so many countries. The depths of inhumanity inflicted by advanced technological societies, in particular Nazi Germany and Japan upon prisoners of war and civilians in the countries they occupied almost defies description or understanding.
As many as 15 million soldiers, sailors and airmen had been killed in action. At least 10 million civilians had been murdered in deliberate killings – 6 million of them Jews. Between 4 and 5 million civilians had been killed in air raids. Four million prisoners of war had been killed or allowed to die in situations of extreme cruelty after capture – 3.5 million of them Soviet soldiers in German captivity. Millions more soldiers and civilians alike had been physically maimed and mentally scarred. 1
