The Drama and Data of Death in World War II.
The number of people killed during World War II is so easy to gloss over. It’s so massive, it can only really be fathomed in comparison to other human catastrophes. And it’s too painful to comprehend outside the safety of a table or chart.
Seventy million soldier and civilian deaths. Sixteen percent of Poland’s people — wiped out. More American soldiers dead on the beaches of Normandy in one day than during the decade-plus war in Afghanistan.
“Math is both a blunt instrument and surgical tool with heartbreaking effect.”
Data Visualization Artist & Documentary Filmmaker Neil Halloran’s “The Fallen of World War II” steps, treads, and stomps through the numbers, creating a beautiful and horrific interactive data visualization of casualties. It’s overwhelming in scale and brutality.
He’s created a style and method of storytelling nestled somewhere between Ken Burns, Steven Pinker and Ben Fry. The result is a short film that features math as both a blunt instrument and surgical tool to heartbreaking effect.
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