Liquidation of the Parczew ghetto

A small town on the edges of Polesia, surrounded by forests and marshes, Parczew had a majority Jewish population of Hassidic tradition. In addition to its inhabitants, the occupier confined there Jews from nearby hamlets and convoys arriving from Slovakia and the Reich. In spring and then in autumn, the town was emptied in several operations: convoys departed for Treblinka, and those who went into hiding were shot on the spot or in the cemeteries. The proximity of the forests nonetheless allowed entire groups to flee; families spent the winter there in dugout shelters, and Parczew became one of the rare places in Poland where a Jewish population survived outside the camps until liberation.