Another Kind of “War Victim”

● In this century, wars have taken a horrible toll of human lives. In World War II especially, not only were millions of men in uniform killed, but masses of civilians were also killed in the war zones, particularly by the “saturation bombing” of cities employed by both sides. There are, of course, the victims that all wars produce: the widows and orphans who are left behind when husbands and fathers are killed.

However, there is still another kind of war victim, one that hardly ever receives attention. These are the many women who were engaged to be married, but whose fiancés were killed before the wedding took place. No state gives them any consideration, such as the pensions that widows receive. But they, in many cases, have to live their entire lives without the husband they would have had. And usually, as single persons, they have to pay proportionately higher income taxes.

Also, because of the many men killed in war, other millions of women never can get married. There are too few men to provide husbands for all the marriageable women. For instance, in the second world war about three million German soldiers were killed. In the Soviet Union, about seven and a half million men were killed. Thus, after the war it was impossible for many millions of women in these countries to find marriage mates because of the shortage of men. The heartache of these women cannot be covered over with phrases that are often used to describe them, such as “surplus women,” as though this was something natural. That “surplus” was very unnatural, created by the mass slaughter of eligible men.

This huge problem cannot be solved by man. It is one more of the many, many problems that God alone can and will solve in his new order.