The Biggest Unsung Tragedy of the 20th Century
History is a nightmare from which I’m trying to awake.
— James Joyce
When we think of the 20th century we think of a fair share of profound tragedies.
Some might think of famous disasters like the sinking of the Titanic or the Chernobyl disaster.
Above most tragedies tower the world wars. World War I became a devastating conflict where old-world military tactics collided with modern technology such as tanks, planes, artillery, and poison gas, leading to the loss of around 17 million lives, and profoundly shaking the order of the world.
Following this immense devastation, it was optimistically dubbed “the war to end all wars”. We all know that didn’t work out.
21 years later, Hitler plunged the world into what would become World War II. This conflict stands as the deadliest in human history, with death tolls estimated between 50 and 70 million. Such staggering numbers arose largely from the Nazis’ genocidal campaigns in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, among them the Holocaust, and the Japanese atrocities in China, both explicitly targeting the extermination of civilian populations.
Yet, as staggering as the combined toll of both World Wars is, there’s another figure from the 20th century that surpasses it.
