As of 2026-10-12, atomic bombing of Hiroshima tops the list with 286,818 deaths.
- #1 atomic bombing of Hiroshima — 286,818 deaths
bombardment of Hiroshima in Japan carried out by the United States using an atomic bomb at the end of the Second World War on 6 August 1945
On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during the final days of World War II. The aerial bombings killed 150,000 to 246,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the first and only uses of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #2 Bodo League massacre — 200,000 deaths
massacre during the Korean War
The Bodo League massacre was the mass killing of alleged communists and communist sympathizers by South Korean forces in the summer of 1950, during the Korean War. Many victims were civilians who had no connection to communism or communists. Estimates of the death toll vary, with historians estimating that between 60,000 and 200,000 people were killed. Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #3 atomic bombing of Nagasaki — 162,083 deaths
bombardment of Nagasaki in Japan carried out by the United States using an atomic bomb at the end of the Second World War on 9 August 1945
On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during the final days of World War II. The aerial bombings killed 150,000 to 246,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the first and only uses of nuclear weapons in an armed conflict. Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #4 Einsatzkommando 3 Killings — 137,346 deaths
mass killing of Lithuanian Jews from July to November 1941
source Wikidata - #5 communist purges in Serbia in 1944–1945 — 80,000 deaths
War crimes by the Yugoslav Partisan Movement
The communist purges in Serbia in 1944–1945 are war crimes that were committed by members of the Yugoslav Partisan Movement and the post-war communist authorities after they gained control over Serbia, against people perceived as war criminals, quislings and ideological opponents. Most of these purges were committed between October 1944 and May 1945. During this time, at least 55,973 people died of various causes, including death by execution or by illness in retention camps. The victims –... Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #6 Sook Ching — 40,000 deaths
systematic purge
Sook Ching was a mass killing that occurred from 18 February to 4 March 1942 in Singapore after it fell to the Japanese. It was a systematic purge and massacre of 'anti-Japanese' elements in Singapore, with the Singaporean Chinese particularly targeted by the Japanese army during the occupation. However, Japanese soldiers engaged in indiscriminate killing and did not try to identify who was 'anti-Japanese.' Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #7 Sinchon Massacre — 35,000 deaths
anti-communist mass killings in Korea
The Sinchon Massacre was a massacre of civilians between 17 October and 7 December 1950, in or near the town of Sinchon. North Korean sources state the massacre was committed by the U.S. military and the South Korean army and that 30,000–35,383 people were killed in Sinchon. South Korean sources dispute who the perpetrators were and accuse both communists and a small group of right-wing vigilantes of the killings. Most of the victims were anti-communist residents of Sinchon, along with a... Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #8 Babi Yar massacre — 33,771 deaths
mass killing of Jews near Kyiv, Ukraine, in September 1941
Babi Yar or Babyn Yar is a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and a site of massacres carried out by Nazi Germany's forces during its campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II. The first and best documented of the massacres took place on 29–30 September 1941, in which some 33,771 Jews were murdered. Other victims of massacres at the site included Soviet prisoners of war, communists and Romanies. It is estimated that a total of between 100,000 and 150,000 people were murdered at Babi... Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #9 Rape of Belgium — 23,700 deaths
systematic war crimes against Belgian civilians during World War I
The Rape of Belgium was a series of systematic war crimes, especially mass killing and deportation, by troops of the German Empire against Belgian civilians, many or most of them real or suspected francs-tireurs and other guerilla fighters, during the invasion and occupation of Belgium during World War I in violation of Belgian neutrality. The neutrality of Belgium had been guaranteed by the Treaty of London of 1839, which had been signed by the German Confederation. However, the German... Read more on Wikipedia.
Wikidata - #10 Katyn massacre — 21,857 deaths
Soviet massacre of Polish military officers and intelligentsia in 1940
The Katyn massacre was a series of mass executions of Poles carried out by the Soviet Union between April and May 1940. Though the killings also occurred in the NKVD prisons in Kalinin, Kharkiv and elsewhere, the massacre is named after the Katyn forest, where some of the mass graves were first discovered by Nazi German forces in 1943. Nearly 22,000 Polish military and police officers, border guards, and intelligentsia were executed by the NKVD, on Joseph Stalin's orders. Read more on Wikipedia.
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