Historians collude to pretend they do not know the truth, working together to conceal the “totem secret” (no longer a secret, since revealed by Carolyn Marvin): That nations exist and survive by killing (sacrificing the lives of human beings).
In a brilliant lecture—Professor Robert Weiner, one of our finest historians and author of The Great Course on The Long 19th Century—analyzes the bizarre forms of self-destructiveness that characterized the First World War (“running into machine gun fire with red hats”).
Like most historians, Weiner speaks solemnly, seeking to endow the war with meaning.
However, overcome by a sense of horror and absurdity, he lets his guard down. In a moment of frustration, disgust and sadness:
THE GENOCIDE OF PEOPLE ON THEIR OWN CITIZENS: an auto-genocide. The First Holocaust—that provided the model and template for the Second.
First World War Casualties
| Country |
Men mobilized |
Killed |
Wounded |
POW’s + missing |
Total casualties |
casualties in % of men mobilized |
| Russia |
12 mill |
1.7 mill |
4.9 mill |
2.5 mill |
9.15 mill |
76.3 |
|
France |
8.4 mill |
1.3 mill |
4.2 mill |
537,000 |
6.1 mill |
73.3 |
|
GB + Empire |
8.9 mill |
908,000 |
2 mill |
191,000 |
3.1 mill |
35.8 |
|
Italy |
5.5 mill |
650,000 |
947,000 |
600,000 |
2.1 mill |
39 |
|
USA |
4.3 mill |
126,000 |
234,000 |
4,500 |
350,000 |
8 |
|
Japan |
800,000 |
300 |
900 |
3 |
1210 |
0.2 |
|
Romania |
750,000 |
335,000 |
120,000 |
80,000 |
535,000 |
71 |
|
Serbia |
700,000 |
45,000 |
133,000 |
153,000 |
331,000 |
47 |
|
Belgium |
267,000 |
13,800 |
45,000 |
34,500 |
93,000 |
35 |
|
Greece |
230,000 |
5000 |
21,000 |
1000 |
27,000 |
12 |
|
Portugal |
100,000 |
7222 |
13,700 |
12,000 |
33,000 |
33 |
|
Total Allies |
42 mill |
5 mill |
13 mill |
4 mill |
22 mill |
52% |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Germany |
11 mill |
1.7 mill |
4.2 mill |
1.1 mill |
7.1 mill |
65 |
|
Austria |
7.8 mill |
1.2 mill |
3.6 mill |
2.2 mill |
7 mill |
90 |
|
Turkey |
2.8 mill |
325,000 |
400,000 |
250,000 |
975,000 |
34 |
|
Bulgaria |
1.2 mill |
87,000 |
152,000 |
27,000 |
266,000 |
22 |
| Total
Central Powers |
22.8 mill |
3.3 mill |
8.3 mill |
3.6 mill |
15 mill |
67 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grand Total |
65 mill |
8.5 mill |
21 mill |
7.7 mill |
37 mill |
57% |
|
