The Hidden VictimsA staggering new account of the civilian death toll of the world wars and what it reveals about the true nature and cost of modern war. Soldiers have never been the only casualties of wars. But the armies that fought World Wars I and II killed far more civilians than soldiers as they countenanced or deliberately inflicted civilian deaths on a mass scale. By one reputable estimate, 9. 7 million civilians and 9 million combatants died in World War I,