It's all too easy to think of anything counted in the millions as an abstraction -- even if it's World War II, and the topic at hand is the millions of lives lost.
That's what makes "The Fallen of World War II," a short visualization by filmmaker Neil Halloran, so impactful. The 18-minute long video, released on Memorial Day, breaks down the war's tragedies with a deeply engaging look at the shocking number of people who died, where they came from and how they lost their lives.
Watch the video in full, above. Half a million German Army soldiers died in the (failed) battle of Stalingrad alone, with another 100,000 taken prisoner. But for the USSR, victory came at an even steeper price, as the Soviets lost nearly twice as many soldiers as the Nazis in that battle alone.
In all, at least 8.7 million Soviet soldiers died in World War II (Halloran notes that some estimates place the tally as high as 14 million). That number becomes all the more eye-popping when compared to the losses incurred by other countries. In the screengrab below, Soviet losses, in red on the far right, are compared with deaths suffered by the Nazis in yellow, the U.S. in white, the U.K. in blue and Yugoslavia in purple:
The video accounts for deaths of both soldiers and civilians, and then puts those figures into context relative to wars that came before and after. "More people died in World War II than in any other war in history," Halloran reminds viewers.
He then drives home that point with comparisons to the numbers killed in World War I, by Mao and Stalin, and in other major conflicts. The chart below compares the deaths suffered during World War II to those of subsequent wars:
A reference to German Army soldiers has been updated to reflect that not all were Nazi party members.
Persons walk through the holocaust memorial in Berlin, on a sunny but cold Monday March 25, 2013. (AP Photo/dpa, Markus Heine)
Relatives of Holocaust victims lay flowers next to the names of concentration camps during a ceremony marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Monday, April 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Photo shows the house where Anne Frank lived in Amsterdam and where she hid with her parents to escape from Nazis between June 1942 and August 4, 1944. (DESK/AFP/Getty Images)
A woman crouches next to candles lit to commemorate victims among cast iron shoes, a memorial of Holocaust victims on the bank of River Danube, in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, April 16, 2013. (AP Photo/MTI, Noemi Bruzak)
Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, visits the Hall of Names at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Thursday, June 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili lays a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Monday, June, 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)
In this picture amde available Wednesday April 17, 2013 a man touches his forehead in front of the Victims' Memorial Wall during a ceremony in the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, April 16 2013. (AP Photo/MTI, Tamas Kovacs)
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., center, and Holocaust survivors Inge Berg Katzenstein, right, and her husband, Werner Katzenstein, left, light a memorial candle during a Days of Remembrance ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, April 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
U.S. first lady Michelle Obama visits the Holocaust Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin on June 19, 2013. (JOERG CARSTENSEN/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reflects for a moment after placing a wreath from the United States at the Yad Vashem memorial during Holocaust Remembrance Day in Jerusalem, Israel Monday, April 8, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Richards, Pool)
A person climbs on a Holocaust memorial statue in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, March 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
In this picture made available Wednesday April 17, 2013, a woman lights a candle to commemorate victims among cast iron shoes, a memorial of Holocaust victims on the bank of River Danube, in Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday, April 16, 2013. (AP Photo/MTI, Noemi Bruzak)
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel lights a candle as he toured the Hall of Remembrance at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, with President Barack Obama, Monday, April 23, 2012, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
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