Lukas was born on August 29, 1937, in
Lynn, Massachusetts, to Pelagia Lukaszewski (née Kapuscinski) and her husband, Franciszek Lukaszewski. After receiving a BA in 1957,[1] he worked as a research consultant, from 1957 to 1958, at the United States Air Force Historical Archives.[2][3] He was awarded an MA in 1960[1] and a PhD from
Florida State University in 1963, for a thesis entitled "Air Force Aspects of American Aid to the Soviet Union: The Crucial Years 1941–1942".[4][5]
R. S. Hughes writing for the Military Affairs commended the book for its "extensive and detailed coverage of Allied-Soviet relations during World War II", and noted that it is particularly helpful for its discussion of the
Lend-Lease program.[8]Raymond L. Garthoff reviewing the book for the Slavic Review wrote that it is a "useful study" and "recommended reading" for those interested in the political-military history of USA-USSR relations during World War II with regard to interactions between the U.S. Army Air Forces and the USSR.[9]
James J. Hudson in The American Historical Review called the book "an excellent example of military-diplomatic history".[10] Sam Frank, in his review for The Journal of American History, wrote that the book "reflects extensive research and effective writing. An excellent balance has been achieved between factual presentation and interpretation."[11]
The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944 (1986) is Lukas' most famous work and has been re-published in two subsequent editions (1997 and 2012, with a foreword by historian
Norman Davies).[15][16][17] It focuses on the sufferings of ethnic Poles in German- and Soviet-occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945.[18]
Reviewers had differing views of the book.[19][20][21][18][22][23][15][24][25]Donald E. Pienkos published a review in the Slavic Review (1986) that he later described as "generally praising the book";[26] it was followed by a critical review by
David Engel in the same venue describing Lukas' book as a one-sided rebuke of "Jewish historians" and detailing "distortion, misrepresentation, and inaccuracy" in the book.[19] An extensive correspondence followed among Lukas, Engel, and others in Slavic Review.[26] Michael R. Marrus wrote in The Washington Post that "Lukas tells this story with an outrage properly contained within the framework of a scholarly narrative" but criticized what he felt was an unjustified "sustained polemic against Jewish historians".[20]George Sanford noted in International Affairs that in tackling the subject of the suffering of ethnic Poles, Lukas's work is "strictly objective and academic in tone, presentation and content. But the underlying purpose is inevitably a polemical one, as he has to rake over the smouldering ashes of numerous sensitive controversies."[21]
Karl A. Schleunes in his review of Lukas's book Did the Children Cry?: Hitler's War Against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939–45 (1994) for The American Historical Review noted that it deals with an under-researched topic, and is a valuable contribution to studies of
Germanization and the Holocaust. Schleunes writes that "Lukas makes it a point... to stress 'the commonality of suffering of Jewish and Polish children', an effort in which he largely succeeds."[30]Barbara Tepa Lupack, in The Polish Review, wrote that "Lukas in the current volume provides a gripping portrait of the Nazis' systematic genocide plan for all of Poland as well as an excellent analysis of the relationship between Poland's Jewish and gentile communities".[31]
Lukas' continuing interest in the Polish tragedy during World War II culminated in his final volume, the Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation (2004).[36] Isabel Wollaston in her review of the book for The Slavonic and East European Review noted that "if approached as a memorial volume and/or a collection of oral histories, this is a fascinating book", but due to methodological issues and containing mostly primary accounts, "it should be handled with care and needs to be supplemented and contextualized from other sources if it is to be used for scholarly purposes".[37]
Bibliography
Books
Air Force Combat Units of World War II (contributing author), USGPO, 1961; Franklin Watts, 1963.
Eagles East: The Army Air Forces and the Soviet Union, 1941-1945, Florida State University Press, 1970,
ISBN0-8130-0428-4.
The Strange Allies: the United States and Poland, 1941-1945, University of Tennessee Press, 1978,
ISBN0-87049-229-2.
Bitter Legacy: Polish-American Relations in the Wake of World War II, University Press of Kentucky, 1982,
ISBN0-8131-1460-8.
Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust, University Press of Kentucky, 1989,
ISBN0-8131-1692-9.
The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944, University of Kentucky Press, 1986; Hippocrene Books, 1990; second revised edition, 1997; third revised edition, 2012,
ISBN0-7818-0901-0.
Did the Children Cry: Hitler's War Against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945, Hippocrene Books, 2001,
ISBN0-7818-0870-7.
Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation, University Press of Kansas, 2004,
ISBN0-7006-1350-1.
Articles
"The Polish Experience during the Holocaust," in A Mosaic of Victims, New York University Press, 1990
"Of Stereotypes and Heroes", Catalyst magazine, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, July–August 2002
"Their Legacy is Life", Canadian Messenger, 1991
"Jedwabne and the Selling of the Holocaust", Inside the Vatican, November 2001; reprinted in The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland, Princeton University Press, 2004
"Irena Sendler: World War II's Polish Angel", St. Anthony Messenger, August 2008
"Rozmowa z Prof. Richardem Lukasem" ("A Conversation with Prof. Richard Lukas"), Uwazam Rze Historia, wrzesień (September) 2012
"The Encounter" (fiction), Liguorian, March 2013
"God and Country: Catholic Chaplains during World War II", The Priest, June 2014
"I'll Be Seeing You: The Warsaw Uprising and the Akins Crew", The Elks Magazine, June 2014
"To Save a Life," The Priest, January 2015
"Marcus Shook: A Mississippi Hero," in Mississippi History Now, November 2016
"Don't Sit on the Torpedo!" (fiction), Liguorian, November 2017
^
abClarke, Frances M. (2002). "Mining the Measures of the Valley of the Shadow". Perspectives: Newsletter of the American Historical Association. Volume 40, p. 13.
^Lukas, Richard C. (1964). "Air Force aspects of American aid to the Soviet Union: the crucial years, 1941–1942". Ann Arbor: University microfilms.
OCLC1016419368
^Julian, Thomas A., Lieutenant Colonel (September–October 1970). "Lend-Lease and Soviet-American Relations". Air University Review. Volume 21, p.
73, n. 8.
^Hudson, James J.; Sims, Edward H.; Lukas, Richard C. (April 1973). "Fighter Tactics and Strategy, 1914-1970". The American Historical Review. 78 (2): 407.
doi:
10.2307/1861180.
JSTOR1861180.
^Frank, Sam H.; Lukas, Richard C. (December 1971). "Eagles East: The Army Air Forces and the Soviet Union, 1941-1945". The Journal of American History. 58 (3): 800.
doi:
10.2307/1893804.
JSTOR1893804.
^
abEngel, David (1987). "Poles, Jews, and Historical Objectivity". Slavic Review. 46(3-4): 568–580.
JSTOR2498105Lukas, Richard C. (1987). "[Poles, Jews, and Historical Objectivity]: A Response". Slavic Review. 46(3-4): 581–590.
JSTOR2498106
^Sword, Keith (1988). "Review of Forgotten Holocaust. The Poles under German Occupation, 1939-1944". The Slavonic and East European Review. 66 (2): 316–318.
ISSN0037-6795.
JSTOR4209789.
^Wynot, Edward D.; Lukas, Richard C. (February 1987). "The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation, 1939-1944". The American Historical Review. 92 (1): 172.
doi:
10.2307/1862884.
JSTOR1862884.
^LERSKI, GEORGE J. (1990). "Review of Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust". The Polish Review. 35 (3/4): 350–351.
ISSN0032-2970.
JSTOR25778533.
^Schleunes, Karl A.; Lukas, Richard C. (April 1996). "Did the Children Cry? Hitler's War against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945". The American Historical Review. 101 (2): 520.
doi:
10.2307/2170499.
JSTOR2170499.
^Lupack, Barbara Tepa (1996). "Review of Did the Children Cry? Hitler's War Against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-45". The Polish Review. 41 (3): 359–361.
ISSN0032-2970.
JSTOR25778946.