Statistics for German World War II military casualties are divergent. The wartime military casualty figures compiled by the (the German High Command, abbreviated as OKW) through 31 January 1945 are often cited by military historians in accounts of individual campaigns in the war. A study by German historian Rüdiger Overmans concluded that total German military deaths were much higher than those originally reported by the German High Command, amounting to 5.3million, including 900,000 men conscripted from outside Germany's 1937 borders, in Austria and in east-central Europe. The German government reported that its records list 4.3million dead and missing military personnel.

Air raids were a major cause of civilian deaths. Estimates of German civilians killed just by Allied strategic bombing alone have ranged from around 350,000 to 500,000. Estimates of civilian deaths due to the flight and expulsion of Germans, Soviet war crimes and the forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union are disputed and range from 500,000 to over 2.0 million. According to the German government () there were 300,000 German victims (including Jews) of Nazi racial, political and religious persecution. This statistic does not include 200,000 German people with disabilities who were murdered in the Action T4 and Action 14f13 euthanasia programs.

German sources for military casualties

Records of German military search service In the post-war era the military search service Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) was responsible for providing information to the families of those military personnel who were killed or went missing in the war. They maintained the files of over 18 million men who served in the war. By the end of 1954, they had identified approximately 4 million military dead and missing (2,730,000 dead and 1,240,629 missing). After German reunification, the records kept in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) became available to the WASt. The German Red Cross reported in 2005 that the records of the WASt showed total Wehrmacht losses to have been 4.3 million men (3.1 million dead and 1.2 million missing) in World War II. Their figures include men conscripted from Austria and conscripted ethnic Germans from lands in Eastern Europe. The German historian Rüdiger Overmans used the files of the WASt to conduct his research on German military casualties.

Wartime statistics compiled by German High Command (OKW)

The German military system for reporting casualties was based on a numerical reporting of casualties by individual units and a separate listing of the names of individual casualties. The system was not uniform because the various military branches (Army, Air Force, Navy, and Waffen SS) and the military hospitals used different reporting systems. In early 1945 the High Command (OKW) prepared a summary of total losses through January 31, 1945. The German historian Rüdiger Overmans believes, based on his research, that these figures are far from complete. According to Overmans, the casualty reporting system broke down in the chaos at the end of the war; many men who went missing or were taken prisoner were not included in the OKW figures, and many individual reports of casualties were not processed by the end of the war and were not reflected in the OKW statistics. The following schedules summarize the OKW figures published in the post-war era.

Reported in the press in 1945

According to a report published by the Reuters News Agency, on July 29 1945 highly confidential archives found at Flensburg, in the house of General Hermann Reinecke showed German losses up to November 30, 1944, as 3.6 million, detailed in the following schedule.

Army Navy Air Force Total Killed 1,710,000 52,000 150,000 1,912,000 Missing 1,541,000 32,000 141,000 1,714,000 Total 3,251,000 84,000 291,000 3,626,000 Source of figures:

OKW war diary

Percy Ernst Schramm was responsible for maintaining the official OKW diary during the war. In 1949 he published an article in the newspaper Die Zeit, in which he listed OKW Casualty Figures these figures also appeared in a multi-volume edition of the OKW diaries.

OKW casualty figures (September 1, 1939 – January 31, 1945)

Description Dead Missing & POW Total Wounded & Sick Army Eastern Front 1,105,987 1,018,365 2,124,352 3,498,059 North: Norway/Finland 16,639 5,157 21,796 60,451 Southwest: N Africa/Italy 50,481 194,250 244,731 163,602 Southeast: Balkans 19,235 14,805 34,040 55,069 West: France/Low Countries 107,042 409,715 516,757 399,856 Training Forces 10,467 1,337 11,804 42,174 Died of Wounds-All Fronts 295,659 - 295,659 - Location not Given 17,051 2,687 19,738 - Subtotal (Army) 1,622,561 1,646,316 3,268,877 4,188,037 Navy 48,904 100,256 149,160 25,259 Air Force 138,596 156,132 294,728 216,579 Total Combat: All Branches 1,810,061 1,902,704 3,712,765 4,429,875 Other deaths (Disease, accidents, etc.) 191,338 - 191,338 - Overall total 2,001,399 1,902,704 3,904,103 4,429,875

Source of Figures: Percy Schramm Kriegstagebuch des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht: 1940—1945: 8 Bde. 1961 () Pages 1508–1511

Notes:

1-These statistics include losses of the Waffen SS as well as Volkssturm and paramilitary serving with the regular forces.

2-These statistics include casualties of the volunteer forces from the Soviet Union. 83,307 dead; 57,258 missing and 118,127 wounded.

3-Included in these statistics are 322,807 POWs held by the US and UK.

4-The figures for Army wounded add up to 4,219,211. Schramm put the total at 4,188,057.

5-Figures of missing include POWs held by Allies.

West German government Statistisches Jahrbuch (Statistical Yearbook). A. OKW figures from 9/1/1939 to 12/31/1944

Description Dead Missing and prisoners of war Total Wounded Army and Waffen SS 1,750,000 1,610,000 3,360,0005,026,000 Navy 60,000 100,000 160,000 21,000 Air Force 155,000 148,000 303,000193,000 Total Wehrmacht 1,965,000 1,858,000 3,823,000 5,240,000 Source:

B. Monthly Field Army (Feldheer) casualties September 1939 to November 1944

Year Casualties January February March April May June July August September October November December 1939 Dead - -- - - - - - 16,400 1,800 1,000 900 Missing - - - - - - - - 400 - - - 1940 Dead 800 700 1,100 2,600 21,600 26,600 2,200 1,800 1,600 1,300 1,200 1,200 Missing - 100 - 400 900 100 - - 100 100 100 - 1941 Dead 1,400 1,300 1,600 3,600 2,800 22,000 51,000 52,800 45,30042,400 28,200 39,000 Missing 100 100 100 600 500 900 3,200 3,500 2,100 1,900 4,300 10,500 1942 Dead 44,400 44,500 44,900 25,600 29,60031,500 36,000 54,100 44,300 25,500 24,900 38,000 Missing 10,100 4,100 3,600 1,5003,600 2,100 3,700 7,300 3,400 2,600 12,100 40,500 1943 Dead 37,000 42,000 38,100 15,300 16,200 13,400 57,800 58,000 48,800 47,000 40,200 35,300 Missing 127,600 15,500 5,200 3,500 74,500 1,300 18,300 26,400 21,900 16,800 17,90014,700 1944 Dead 44,500 41,200 44,600 34,000 24,400 26,000 59,000 64,000 42,400 46,000 31,900- Missing 22,000 19,500 27,600 13,000 22,000 32,000 310,000 407,600 67,200 79,200 69,500 -

Notes: Figures include Waffen SS, Austrians and conscripted ethnic Germans. Figures for missing include POW held by Allies. Source:

Das Heer 1933–1945 by Burkhart Müller-Hillebrand In 1969, the West German military historian Burkhart Müller-Hillebrand (de) published the third volume of his study of the German Army in World War II Das Heer 1933–1945 that listed OKW casualty figures and his estimate of total German casualties. Müller-Hillebrand maintained that the OKW figures did not present an accurate accounting of German casualties because they understated losses in the final months of the war on the eastern front and post war deaths of POW in Soviet captivity. According to Müller-Hillebrand actual irrecoverable losses in the war were between 3.3 and 4.5 million men. Overall Müller-Hillebrand estimated the total dead and missing at 4.0 million men.

A. Losses Reported by OKW September 1 1939April 30 1945 (For all branches of service)

Period Dead from all causes MIA and Prisoners of War Total Actual:Sept 1, 1939- Dec 31,1944 1,965,324 1,858,404 3,823,728 Estimated: Jan 1, 1945 - April 30, 1945 265,000 1,012,000 1,277,000 Total 2,230,324 2,870,404 5,100,728

Source:

The figure of 1,277,000 killed and missing from January 1 1945 - April 30 1945 was estimated by the U.S. Army in the 1947 report German Manpower

B. Field Army (Feldheer) casualties September 1939 to November 1944

Year Dead Missing 1939/40 76,848 2,038 1940/41 140,378 8,769 1941/42 455,635 58,049 1942/43 413,009 330,904 1943/44 502,534 925,088 1944 until Nov 30. 121,335215,981 Total 1,709,739 1,540,829

Source:

C. Field Army (Feldheer) casualties September 1939 to November 1944

Campaign Dead Missing Poland 1939 16,343 320 Norway 1940 4,975 691 West until May 31, 1944 66,266 3,218 West June 1944-November 30, 1944 54,754 338,933Africa 1940 - May 1943 12,808 90,052 Balkans 1941 - November 30, 1944 24,267 12,060 Italy May 1943 - November 30, 1944 47,873 97,154 Russia June 1941-November 30, 1944 1,419,728 997,056 Home front 1939-November 30, 1944 64,055 1,315

Source:

Strength by service branch + Strength by Service BranchBranchMay 1941Middle 1944Army(Heer)3,800,0004,400,000 Home Army(Ersatzheer)1,200,0002,500,000Air Force (including infantry units)1,680,0002,100,000Navy404,000800,000Waffen SS150,000550,000Total7,234,00010,300,000 Source:

Statistical study by Rüdiger Overmans The German historian Rüdiger Overmans in 2000 published the study Deutsche militärische Verluste im Zweiten Weltkrieg (German Military Casualties in the Second World War), which has provided a reassessment of German military war dead based on a statistical survey of German military personnel records. The financial support for the study came from a private foundation. When Overmans conducted his research project during 1992 to 1994 he was an officer in the German Armed Forces. Overmans was an associate of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office from 1987 until 2004 and was on the faculty of the University of Freiburg from 1996 to 2001. In 1992 when Overmans began the project, German military dead in the war listed at the military search service Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt) were 4.3 million men (3.1 million confirmed dead and 1.2 missing and presumed dead). Since the collapse of communism previously classified documentation regarding German military casualties became available to German researchers.

The research project involved taking a statistical sample of the confidential German military personnel records located at the (WASt). The project sought to determine total deaths and their cause, when and in which theatre of war the losses occurred as well as a demographic profile of the men who served in the war. Nineteen employees at Deutsche Dienststelle assisted in the survey. The personnel records included 3,070,000 men who were confirmed dead in the Death Files and another 15,200,000 men in the General Files who had served in the war including those listed as missing and presumed dead. The total sample pulled for the research consisted of the files of 4,844 personnel dead or missing in military service during the war: The first group 4,137 from Army, Air Force and 172 from Waffen SS and paramilitary organizations including (3,051 confirmed dead from the Death Files and another 1,258 found to be dead or missing in the General Files) The Second Group of 535 men found to be dead or missing was selected from the separate Navy files. Overmans maintains that based on the size of the sample selected that there was a 99% confidence level that the results were accurate. The research by Overmans concluded in 2000 that the total German military dead and missing were 5,318,000. The results of the Overmans research project were published with the endorsement of the German Armed Forces Military History Research Office of the Federal Ministry of Defense (Germany).