The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles under German Occupation 1939-1945 by Richard Lukas

(For high school students, teachers, and parents) In recounting the human suffering of World War II, Hitler’s genocide of European Jews remains the dominant narrative in popular literature, academic writing, and public school curricula. By contrast, Hitler’s genocide of Poles remains largely unknown. As Richard Lukas points out, Hitler’s planned genocide of Poles was evident in his speech to senior generals a week before Germany’s invasion of Poland. Hitler ordered his generals to “send to death mercilessly and without compassion men, women and children of Polish language and derivation” and added that “Only thus shall we gain the living space [Lebensraum] we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” In his book, Lukas combines the Polish and Jewish narratives into one and demonstrates that the full tale of human agony in Poland cannot be reduced to that of the Holocaust alone. He presents a factual account of how Poles experienced their own tragedy at the hands of the Germans and died in various ways, including shooting, gassing, hanging, torture, hard labor, lethal injections, beatings, and starvation. Lukas also addresses a number of compelling subjects that include the underground government, the Home Army, civilian resistance and collaboration, the relationships between Poles and Jews during the occupation, the Warsaw Uprising, Polish efforts to rescue Jews despite the Germans’ ever-present death penalty, and many other relevant facts.