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. of Pelagia Lukaszewski (née Kapuscinski) and her husband, Franciszek Lukaszewski.

Career

After receiving a BA in 1957, he was a research consultant between 1957 and 1958 at the United States Air Force Historical Archives. He was awarded an MA in 1960 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".Lukas, Richard C. (1964). "Air Force aspects of American aid to the Soviet Union: the crucial years, 1941–1942". Ann Arbor: University microfilms. Julian, Thomas A., Lieutenant Colonel (September–October 1970). "Lend-Lease and Soviet-American Relations". Air University Review. Volume 21, p. 73, n. 8.

Lukas worked at Tennessee Technological University for 26 years from 1963, first as an assistant professor until 1966, then associate professor until 1969, and professor from then until 1989. He moved from Tennessee that year to Wright State University, teaching at its Lake campus until 1992. 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.Clarke, Frances M. (2002). "Mining the Measures of the Valley of the Shadow". Perspectives: Newsletter of the American Historical Association. Volume 40, p. 13."About the Author" . "Forgotten Survivors". University Press of Kansas.

Controversies

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. The ADL noted:

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.

Holocaust revisionism

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

Related pages

 Jan Żaryn
 David Irving
 Louis Farrakhan
 Polish Memory Law
 Marek Jan Chodakiewicz

Footnotes

References

Category:Antisemitism
Category:Controversies
Category:Living people
Category:American people
Category:Historical studies