Hi, my name is Zuzana and I'm a Holocaust researcher from the Czech Republic.

If you need any help, eg. with Holocaust research or the Czech language, feel free to send me a message.

Duplicates keep appearing for some Holocaust victims whose names differs in several sources (mostly because of language differences). Here are some of them, so please be aware of that their memorials already exist.

Kateřina Maria Borská (Marie Borská)

Liane Goldmannová (Liana Godmannová)

Lilian Adlerová (Liliana Adlerová)

Kitty Kopetzky (Kity Kopecká) and her family

Kató Niszel (Kató Nisel)

How do Czech surnames work?

Imagine a gravestone with with this text:

Rodina Novákova / Novotných / Bláhova / Petrů

Josef

1900-1950

Anna

roz. Čapková

1905-1955

• Rodina Novákova means Novák's (Novotný's / Bláha's / Petrů's) family (there are several types of Czech surnames and not all of them are conjugated the same way, so not all of them ends with -a here)
• the man's name is Josef Novák / Novotný / Bláha / Petrů
• the woman's name is Anna Nováková / Novotná / Bláhová / Petrů
• roz. is a shortage for rozená and it means Čapková is her maiden name

The main problem that I see here is that even the people who are a little bit familiar with Czech names don't know the difference between A and Á. While Novákova is a basic form how to say something belongs to Mr. Novák, Nováková is a form used only as a woman's surname. Even though it's the women's surnames that differ from the other languages, thanks to the Rodina Novákova thing, the men's surnames are a bigger problem for foreigners to transcribe correctly. While Anna Novákova isn't that much of a problem, because it's very close to the correct form, writing Josef Novákova is a mistake and it could mislead someone.