Children huddled outside the wreckage of their London home in September 1940.
World War II resulted in the deaths of about 50 million people, including 30 million civilians. Another 35 million people were wounded and 3 million were missing. Bombing raids accounted for many civilian deaths. About 3 million people, most of them children, were evacuated from Britain’s major cities to smaller towns and the countryside to keep them safe from bombing raids. A bombing victim from Liverpool recalled: “When morning came we left the shelter and made our way home. There was no home. All that was left was a pile of bricks. We had nowhere to live except the shelter, and that was to be our home for six months.”9
LIFE UNDER OCCUPATION
Conditions for civilians in occupied countries were often harsh. Attempts to attack German soldiers or sabotage their authority were severely punished. But organized resistance groups sprang up in France, the Soviet Union, and other countries. French resistance groups attacked the German occupation forces whenever they could. They protected British pilots who had been shot down over France and helped them get back to Britain. They also gathered intelligence on the German army. In the Soviet Union fighters known as partisans operated behind German lines. They killed German soldiers, blew up trains and vehicles, and destroyed supplies that might be useful to the German occupiers.
British cities were shrouded in darkness during the height of the German bombing campaign. Even the smallest flicker of light would serve as a signal to the bombers. Each night everyone had to cover their doors and windows with heavy blackout curtains, cardboard, or even paint. Street lighting was either turned off or dimmed and the light deflected downward. Vehicle headlights and traffic lights were also fitted with slotted covers to deflect light down to the ground.
Germany’s political persecution of those they considered enemies, including Jews, had been well known before the war. But the full horror of the Nazi concentration camps was unknown or not believed by people in the West. Approximately 6 million Jews died during what was known as the Holocaust, along with several million people from other persecuted groups. They included political prisoners, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled people, homosexuals, and people who were called gypsies.
In Asia huge numbers of civilians died during the ongoing war in China. Civilians also were killed during the first Japanese attacks and in the later Allied offensives. Life under Japanese occupation was often harsh. In both Europe and Asia, many civilians were killed or injured when Allied bombing raids targeted ports or factories used by Axis military in occupied countries.