Richard C. Lukas

Richard Conrad Lukas (born August 29, 1937) is an American historian interested in military, diplomatic, Polish, and Polish-American history. Some of his books cover the Holocaust in Poland.

Early life

Lukas was born on August 29, 1937, in Lynn, Massachusetts, to a Polish-American family.[1] of Pelagia Lukaszewski (née Kapuscinski) and her husband, Franciszek Lukaszewski.[2]

Career

After receiving a BA in 1957,[2] he was a research consultant between 1957 and 1958 at the United States Air Force Historical Archives.[3][4] He was awarded an MA in 1960[2] 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".[5][6]

Lukas worked at Tennessee Technological University for 26 years from 1963, first as an assistant professor until 1966, then associate professor until 1969,[4] and professor from then until 1989. He moved from Tennessee that year to Wright State University, teaching at its Lake campus until 1992.[2] After this he worked as an adjunct professor of history at the Fort Myers campus of the University of South Florida until retiring in 1995.[3][7]

Controversies

Further information: Jedwabne pogrom (1941); 1941 Szczuczyn pogrom; Antisemitic violence in Bielsk County, Poland (1941); and Kraków pogrom

Disputes with Jewish groups

In 1996, Lukas made a legal threat towards the American Jewish group Anti-Defamation League (ADL), when it tried to withdraw the Janusz Korczak Literary Award from one of his books that "borders on antisemitism". Lukas is popular among Polish Catholics, but not highly regarded among Holocaust scholars.[8] The ADL noted:[8]

“ [Richard Lukas' book] strongly understated the level of anti-Semitism[a] in Poland. It also strongly overstated the number of people who rescued Jews. ”

Eva Fogelman, a Holocaust scholar who wrote the book Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, said that Lukas was defensive of the Poles who participated in the Holocaust.[8]

Holocaust revisionism

Lukas is seen by some historians as a "Holocaust revisionist".[11] In his 1986 book The Forgotten Holocaust, Lukas claimed that a "separate Holocaust against ethnic Poles" had happened.[11] Lukas alleged that "Jewish historians" were "controlling Holocaust history".[11][12] David Engel, a Holocaust historian, wrote a 30-page article in the journal Slavic Review to criticize him,[11][12] pointing out that Lukas invented facts, ignored archival sources, and failed to assess secondary sources.[11][12] Historian Jan Grabowski[b] also criticized Lukas' views on the Holocaust:[11]

Take The Forgotten Holocaust, a 1986 book by the aforementioned Richard C. Lukas that borders on Holocaust distortion. Lukas attempted, without any reference to historical evidence from the Polish, Israeli, or German archives, to broaden the definition of the Holocaust in such a way as to also include the killings of ethnic Poles by the Germans.

[...]

David Engel, one of the most eminent historians of the Holocaust, wrote a thirteen-page scathing critique of the book in the journal Slavic Review [...] demonstrated in detail that Lukas had made sweeping generalizations, invented facts, disregarded archival sources, and displayed a complete lack of familiarity with secondary sources.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The term is spelled by some as anti-Semitism, but such spelling is controversial. Historians have pointed out that anti-Semitism is misleading as there is no such an ideology as "Semitism" that can be opposed,[9][10] while the concept Semites derived from pseudoscientific 19th-century scientific racism.[9][10]
  2. ↑ A chair professor of history at University of Ottawa who won several awards for his books about the Holocaust in Poland.[13]

References

  1. ↑ Grondelski, John M. (2023-11-21). "Richard C. Lukas, The Torpedo Season: Growing Up During World War II, Las Vegas, NV, 2021". Studia Polonijne (in Polish). 44: 389–392. doi:10.18290/sp2344.21. ISSN 2544-526X.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Wierzbiański, Bolesław (1996). Who's who in Polish America: 1996-1997. Bicentennial Publishing Corporation. p. 270. ISBN 9780781800105.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Clarke, Frances M. (2002). "Mining the Measures of the Valley of the Shadow". Perspectives: Newsletter of the American Historical Association. Volume 40, p. 13.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Writers Directory 1980-1982. The Macmillian Press Limited. 1979. p. 771. ISBN 978-1-349-03650-9.
  5. ↑ Lukas, Richard C. (1964). "Air Force aspects of American aid to the Soviet Union: the crucial years, 1941–1942". Ann Arbor: University microfilms. OCLC 1016419368
  6. ↑ Julian, Thomas A., Lieutenant Colonel (September–October 1970). "Lend-Lease and Soviet-American Relations". Air University Review. Volume 21, p. 73, n. 8.
  7. ↑ "About the Author" Archived 2022-08-15 at the Wayback Machine. "Forgotten Survivors". University Press of Kansas.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "ADL forced to honor a book that teeters on anti-Semitism". The Jewish News of Northern California. March 15, 1996. Archived from the original on June 8, 2025. Retrieved June 8, 2025.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Bard, Mitchell. "Anti-Semitism or Antisemitism?". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved November 4, 2024.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Grabowski, Jan; Klein, Shira (February 9, 2023). "Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust". The Journal of Holocaust Research. 37 (2): 133–190. doi:10.1080/25785648.2023.2168939. Retrieved January 20, 2025. Take The Forgotten Holocaust, a 1986 book by the aforementioned Richard C. Lukas that borders on Holocaust distortion. Lukas attempted, without any reference to historical evidence from the Polish, Israeli, or German archives, to broaden the definition of the Holocaust in such a way as to also include the killings of ethnic Poles by the Germans. As soon as The Forgotten Holocaust came out, David Engel, one of the most eminent historians of the Holocaust, wrote a thirteen-page scathing critique of the book in the journal Slavic Review, where he charged Lukas's research with 'distortion, misrepresentation and inaccuracy.' Engel demonstrated in detail that Lukas had made sweeping generalizations, invented facts, disregarded archival sources, and displayed a complete lack of familiarity with secondary sources.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Engel, David (1991). "David Engel Replies to Richard C. Lukas". Slavic Review. 50 (3): 742–747. doi:10.1017/S0037677900115955. Retrieved February 28, 2025. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
  13. ↑
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