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Poland lost third of population in WWII: historian

02.09.2019 17:28
Poland lost a third of its population during World War II, which broke out when Nazi Germany invaded the country on September 1, 1939.  
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    Poland lost third of population in WWII: historian
High-level officials from around 40 countries gathered in Warsaw on Sunday to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II.
High-level officials from around 40 countries gathered in Warsaw on Sunday to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II.Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański

The war lasted six years and took the lives of more than 60 million people from 61 countries.

Paweł Rokicki, a historian from the Warsaw-based Institute of National Remembrance, says the war had “a catastrophic effect” on Polish society.

“The number of inhabitants of Poland dropped from around 35 million to 23 million, which shows the dramatic scale of depopulation,” he adds.