Richard C. Lukas

Lukas' first book, Eagles East: The Army Air Forces and the Soviet Union, 1941-1945 (1970), a military-diplomatic study based on his doctoral dissertation, earned him the national history award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.[3]

R. S. Hughes 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 writes 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 calls the book "an excellent example of military-diplomatic history".[10] Sam Frank, in his review, writes that the book "reflects extensive research and effective writing. An excellent balance has been achieved between factual presentation and interpretation."[11]

Lukas wrote two scholarly books on Allied wartime and postwar relations with Poland. His book, The Strange Allies: Poland and the United States, 1941-1945 (1978) studied in-depth the relationship between the United States and the Polish government-in-exile and highlighted the impact of American Polonia in United States-Polish relations.[12] The sequel to The Strange Allies was Bitter Legacy: Polish-American Relations in the Wake of World War II (1982), which dealt with postwar Polish history and Polish-American relations, as well as the aid that was extended to Poland after World War II.[13]

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).[14][15][16] It focuses on the sufferings of ethnic Poles in German- and Soviet-occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945.[17]

Reviewers had differing views of the book.[18][19][20][17][21][22][14][23][24] A critical review by David Engel was published in the Slavic Review describing Lukas' book as a one-sided rebuke of "Jewish historians" and detailing "distortion, misrepresentation, and inaccuracy" in the book.[18] An extensive correspondence followed among Lukas, Engel, and others in Slavic Review.[25] 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".[19] 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."[20]

Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust (1989) is a volume edited by Lukas dealing with memoirs of Poles concerning the Holocaust. John Klier noted that the book is "a useful contribution" to the literature about The Holocaust in Poland[26] Jerzy Jan Lerski called the book "timely", but noted it is the weakest of Lukas' books up to date, criticizing it as "uneven, poorly organized and [lacking] focus".[27] The book was also reviewed in German by Dieter Pohl.[28]

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 is dealing with an under-research topic, and is a valuable contribution to the studies of Germanization and the Holocaust. He notes that "Lukas makes it a point... to stress "the commonality of suffering of Jewish and Polish children", an effort in which he largely succeeds."[29] Barbara Tepa Lupack writing for The Polish Review wrote that "Lukas in the current volume provides a gripping portrait of the Nazi's systematic genocide plan for all of Poland as well as an excellent analysis of the relationship between Poland's Jewish and gentile communities".[30]

The book received the Janusz Korczak Literary Award from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The award was accompanied by a two-page analysis by the ADL describing why the book was "problematic in several ways". The biennial prize, awarded to books about children, was recommended by a panel of judges. The ADL decided to withdraw the prize ten days before the award ceremony but reinstated it when Lukas threatened to sue them. According to the ADL, the book "strongly understated the level of anti-Semitism in Poland. It also strongly overstated the number of people who rescued Jews." The ADL cancelled the award ceremony and mailed the $1000 US prize money to Lukas.[31][32][33]

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).[34] Isabel Wollaston in her review of the book 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".[35]

• 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, ISBN 0-8130-0428-4.
• From Metternich to the Beatles, Mentor, 1973, ISBN 0-451-61191-8.
• The Strange Allies: the United States and Poland, 1941-1945, University of Tennessee Press, 1978, ISBN 0-87049-229-2.
• Bitter Legacy: Polish-American Relations in the Wake of World War II, University Press of Kentucky, 1982, ISBN 0-8131-1460-8.
• Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust, University Press of Kentucky, 1989, ISBN 0-8131-1692-9.
• 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, ISBN 0-7818-0901-0.
• Did the Children Cry: Hitler's War Against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945, Hippocrene Books, 2001, ISBN 0-7818-0870-7.
• Forgotten Survivors: Polish Christians Remember the Nazi Occupation, University Press of Kansas, 2004, ISBN 0-7006-1350-1.

• "The Polish Experience during the Holocaust," in A Mosaic of Victims, New York University Press, 1990
• "The Merchandising of the Holocaust", Catalyst magazine, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, October 31, 1997
• "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