1: Poland
Poland suffered mightily in WW2. They were the first nation to fall to Nazi Germany and thus for literally the entire war, they were under occupation.
Poland suffered the brunt of the Holocaust. The majority of Holocaust victims were Polish Jews and many Polish Civilians found themselves sent to concentration camps all the same.
In terms of percentage killed, Polish Jews rank the highest by a mile with over 90% being killed. There were 3.4 million Polish Jews prior to WW2, after the war there were maybe 300,000 left alive. Only around 50k-100k survived in Poland with the remaining fleeing the country to survive.
Polish Civilians were brutalized as well. In addition to the 3 million Polish Jews killed, about 3 million Polish civilians were killed. All of these people were killed in various mass murders.
In all, about 17% of the Polish population died in WW2. Additionally Warsaw, the historical and industrial center of Poland, was completely and totally leveled after a failed revolt.
- Economy and infrastructure destroyed? YES
- Large portion of the population killed? YES
- Horrid atrocities committed against them? YES
2: USSR
The USSR was another nation that faced excess brutality in WW2. Their largest and most valuable cities like Stalingrad, Leningrad, Kiev, and Smolensk fell to the Germans and were reduced largely to rubble over the course of the war.
While the USSR saw its cities fall it was able to literally pick up and move its economy out East to continue wartime production. The real damage came in the way of casualties.
27 million Soviets died in WW2, the most in the conflict by a margin of about 7–8 million. Not only did the USSR suffer the most civilian losses, they also suffered the most military losses.
- Economy and infrastructure destroyed? MOSTLY
- Large portion of the population killed? YES
- Horrid atrocities committed against them? YES
3: Japan
Japan was very much a “bad guy” in WW2. While they never engaged in a large-scale genocide, they most certainly killed civilians in frankly insane numbers. Overall, around 20 million civilians were killed in various war crimes.
The Japanese finally found a worthy adversary in the US. The US went island to island striping Japan of it’s Pacific Empire. However, the US did not want to invade mainland Japan and take high losses- so a campaign of “bomb them into submission” took place.
Japan was bombed into the dark ages. Major cities were carpet-bombed with firebombs and high explosives. When that was not enough 2 atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. Of all the bombing raids in history, Japan holds the top 3 deadliest spots.
When the war was over 3 million Japanese people had been killed and Japan's economy was literally turned back to the stone age.
- Economy and infrastructure destroyed? YES
- Large portion of the population killed? YES
- Horrid atrocities committed against them? KINDA
4: China
China is often forgotten in WW2 and that’s a sad thing because they had a pretty bad time. The conflict between China and Japan plays out much like the conflict between Germany and the USSR, though China was never able to push the Japanese out.
The Japanese were as brutal if not more brutal to Chinese civilians than the Nazis were to Soviet civilians. Around 8 million Chinese civilians were killed in various war crimes with another 10 million dying from famines created by the Japanese. Tak on an additional 3 million military deaths and you find that around 20 million Chinese people died in WW2.
The Japanese were never able to penetrate inland to the West of China but took firm control over much of the urban Chinese coast. The only reason Chinna isn’t higher on the list is that most of their infrastructure survived the war.
- Economy and infrastructure destroyed? NO
- Large portion of the population killed? YES
- Horrid atrocities committed against them? YES
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