Perspective...

[LogGrad98]

Well worth a few minutes of your time. Or like our family, an hour. Makes you think about attitudes and progress and even right and wrong. One of the more thought provoking items I have come across on the internet in a long time, and may even change the way you view your world. I know it did that somewhat for us, especially considering we are living in Germany right now. My kids have wondered why the locals are so put off by any mention of Nazis and even shy away from discussing it at all. It is something they cannot comprehend. I think they get it a little better after we watched this video and interacted with the charts.

https://www.fallen.io/ww2/

In short, it is a very well done graphical representation of all deaths in WWII, but it is also interactive and has a wealth of information.

So I thought this was thread worthy.

 

[Dr. Jones]

It is well done. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Stoked]

Wow those WW2 numbers.

I think that the changing nature of war also leads to less deaths.

 

[moevillini]

Wow those WW2 numbers.

absolutely staggering

I think that the changing nature of war also leads to less deaths.

agreed - all the pre-attack surveillance narrows the scope of the "collateral" damage, as does the use of drones

 

[VINYLONE]

Well worth a few minutes of your time. Or like our family, an hour. Makes you think about attitudes and progress and even right and wrong. One of the more thought provoking items I have come across on the internet in a long time, and may even change the way you view your world. I know it did that somewhat for us, especially considering we are living in Germany right now. My kids have wondered why the locals are so put off by any mention of Nazis and even shy away from discussing it at all. It is something they cannot comprehend. I think they get it a little better after we watched this video and interacted with the charts.

https://www.fallen.io/ww2/

In short, it is a very well done graphical representation of all deaths in WWII, but it is also interactive and has a wealth of information.

So I thought this was thread worthy.

Fantastic submission, sir.

Can I ask how old your kids are? The only reason I ask is because as an adult I understand how sensitive that subject is to German citizens and would probably not bring it up in casual conversation especially after only living in the host country for such a short time. Anyway, do you think this website did anything to make the kin understand the severity of the war, it's ramifications and the attitude of the German people regarding the war.

If you think your kids have the attention span, I would definitely have them watch Ken Burns' The War which I mentioned a few months back. It'll add faces and places to the graphical representation this website shows. It's currently on Netflix.

In regards to the end of the video, it made me think about the gun conundrum in this country and how both sides of the argument, meaning the pro-gun and the anti-gun, put forth the idea that the world is violent and getting worse every day. The world has a whole and most of it's countries and cities have never been more peaceful.

 

[LogGrad98]

Hi viny, you need to post more, you stay away too much.

Anyway to answer your questions my son is 18 and my daughter 13. We got into the discussion with a friend from church because my son posted a mural/collage he found online on his facebook page that happened to have a swastika on it. He thought it was just German symbolism and historical, which for the most part the picture was, but that part set off a bunch of people he has friended since he has been here. So the next Saturday we were grilling with this friend of ours and he talked to my son about it (he speaks some english obviously, the friend that is). So for us it was a very good segue to a conversation like this. We found the video fascinating and shocking and humbling all at once. And we also brought up the fact that it flies in the face of the end-of-the-world'ers and other panic/fear mongers who try to tell us how violent the world is today, when really we are in one of the most peaceful epochs our species has ever seen.

By the way it is interesting, at least it was for us, to stop the video at the point where they merge all the military deaths together on the timeline and look at the American soldier numbers compared to all the others. It was powerful because they started with the American losses and that part alone was staggering and sobering, but then to compare it right at that moment to the rest was really just beyond words.

For anyone who didn't watch the video that is exactly the part the GIF covers. As it brings the red and yellow into the graph the white along the bottom are the American deaths, and they number near a half a million total.

 

[VINYLONE]

Thanks for the well wishes and the response.

I am very curious to know what the actual mural was of. Do 18 year olds not understand the cultural if not worldly significance of the swastika?

 

[LogGrad98]

Thanks for the well wishes and the response.

I am very curious to know what the actual mural was of. Do 18 year olds not understand the cultural if not worldly significance of the swastika?

No most do not. They see it as something they can put on a notebook to piss off a teacher or something along those lines. Some do get it, but not most. I think it has faded too much and has been used too much by counter-cultural groups to get attention. In his defense, the swastika was very small and in the corner and I had to look for it in the pic, but our German friends are understandably far more sensitive to it. I will see if I can find the same one and post it here. He has, of course, removed it since.