PARCZEW: Lubelskie

Alternate names: Parczew [Pol], Partchev, פרצ׳׳ב [Yid], Parchev, Парчев [Rus], Parcevo, Parcheve, Partsev, Partzeva. 51°38' N, 22°54' E, 30 miles NNE of Lublin, 45 miles SE of Siedlce. 1900 Jewish population: 3,392. Yizkor: Parczew - sefer zikaron le-kedoshei Parczew ve-ha-seviva (Haifa, 1977). The town in eastern Poland with a population of 10,352 in 2004 in the Lublin Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Biała Podlaska Voivodeship (1975-1998) is the capital of Parczew County. An organized Jewish community existed in the town since the early 16th century. In 1939, 5,000 Jews lived here, more than 50% of the town's population. The synagogue facade (clothing warehouse) at ul. Piwonia 3 and beit midrash at ul. Piwonia 1 (cinema) remain. Confined to a ghetto, then deported to Treblinka in September 1942, the town's Jews were murdered there. A number of Jewish partisan groups operated in area forests. After WWII, Parczew was one of the very few shtetls that re-established the Jewish community with about 200 Jews there in early 1946, but most fled in early 1946 when three Jews were killed in a pogrom and several homes were robbed. [June 2009]

CEMETERY: The only trace of the former cemetery is a Holocaust memorial erected in 1979 along Aleje Zjednoczenia but does not mention the executions that occurred here during WWII. What the Nazis did not destroy was obliterated when post-war communist authorities created a city park there. Not one matsevah remains. [June 2009]

US Commission No. POCE000393

Alternate name: Parczewa (Partseva) (Yiddish). Parczew is located in Biala-Podlaska at 51º38 22º54, 50km NNE of Lublina. The cemetery is located at Aleja Zjedroczenia (Zjedroczenia Avenue). Present population is 1,000-5,000 with no Jews.

• Town: Urzad Miasta i Gminy, ul. Warszawska 1, 21-200 Parczew; tel. 541434.
  
• Local: Urzad Miasta i Gmiy, ul. Warszawska 1, 21-200 Parczew; tel. 541434.
  
• Regional: PSOZ-WKZ, ul. Brzeska 41, 21-500 Biala Podlaska.
  

The Jewish population (census) before World War II was 5000. There had been a Jewish community in Parczew since the early 16th century. The Orthodox cemetery on urban flat land has a sign in both Yiddish and Polish mentioning Jewish soldiers. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all with no fence or wall. No gravestones are visible. The cemetery contains marked mass graves. Municipality owns site used for recreation. Properties adjacent are used both for recreation and residential. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II. Since then, the municipal authorities clear vegetation periodically.

Michal Witwickiu, ul. Dembowskiego 12/53, 02-784 Warszawa, tel: 6418345 completed survey on 10/08/1991. The private archives of Jan Jagielski were consulted.

BOOK: Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Jewish Heritage Travel A Guide to East-Central Europe. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1992. p. 77