| Message to take home If you are looking for the persons with the names that starts with Polish L with the stroke = Ł look in the box with Z.  |
| Child from Ravensbrück that arrived most probably with White buses got her card placed at Z instead of L or Ł. |
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| Numerous persons with the names that starts with Polish L with the stroke = Ł are not in the box that includes L and Ł but in the box with Z, Ź and Ż. Here picture from the Swedish National Archives. |
The Polish alphabet is the script of the Polish language, the basis for the Polish system of orthography. It is based on the Latin alphabet but includes certain letters with diacritics: the kreska or acute accent (ć, ń, ó, ś, ź); the overdot or kropka (ż); the tail or ogonek (ą, ę); and the stroke (Ł, ł).
The Polish alphabet has 32 letters, nine of which are unique. Considering that some of the letters form digraphs and even one trigraph, this adds up to a total of 17 signs, which you’ll unfortunately have to learn by heart. On the other hand, once you know them all, you’ll be able to pronounce any Polish word.
Over the years and with the help of a few diacritic signs (like the ogonek , the kropka , and the kreska) Polish has developed all the necessary letters for its specific needs:
Ą, Ć, Ę, Ł, Ń, Ó, Ś, Ź, Ż.
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The Polish alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet but includes certain letters with diacritics: the kreska or acute accent (ć, ń, ó, ś, ź); the overdot or kropka (ż); the tail or ogonek (ą, ę); and the stroke (Ł, ł). L with stroke Ł causes often problems in Swedish and probably other archives using Swedish or English alphabet. Ł is marked on the photo above and is following L in the Polish archives arranged according to the sequence in Polish alphabet. |
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| Łuczkowska was found not at L but at Z as if her name was Żuczkowska. Both names do exist in Polish. |
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We note that the Polish and Russian writing of the names on various documents has led to the erroneous alphabetical categorization of documents under the letter "Z". Researchers looking for the names starting with "Ł" would not be able to find them as they were placed under "Z".
The letter “Ł” in Polish was often interpreted as the letter “Z”, as illustrated in the examples below. Sometimes it was even visibly changed from "Ł" to "Z" on the document.
Similarly, the same problem occurs with respect to Russian last names starting with a using "L".
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| Russian names starting with "Ł" as above "Łazarenko" are also found at Z when using Latin alphabet. |
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| Russian names starting with "Ł" as above are also to be on file at Z when using Latin alphabet. |
Message to take home
If you are looking for the persons with the names that starts with Polish L with the stroke = Ł look in the box with Z.
Polish names starting with Ł:
(Polska efternamn som startar med Ł i alfabetisk ordning):
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| Jewish painter - Tamara Łempicka |
