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Jewish Population

Year	Number of Jews
1930	1,064

The settlement was founded in the second half of the 19^th century. Most of the residents were Jewish and they dealt in agriculture and selling wheat. In order to build the village they bought land from a local estate owner and from peasants. Since the 1881 regulation prohibited Jews from owning land outside the cities, they circumvented the laws by using the names of Christian residents. After World War I, Bessarabia became part of Romania. In the anti-Semitic atmosphere that prevailed in the 1920s, the Christian villagers tried to evict the Jews from these lands. The judicial court in Iasi dealt with the issue and ruled in favor of the Christians. About 100 Jewish families lost their properties.

There are no details about the community and its institutions.

At the end of 1930, the Jews worked mainly in the wheat and fur trade. Some also owned flour mills.

We have no information on the condition of the Jews during Soviet times from May 1940 until June 1941. In May 1941, the wealthy Jews and the Zionists were expelled to Siberia.

The village was conquered by the German and Romanian armies on July 7, 1941. An unknown number of Jews had escaped earlier with the Soviets. However, many others did not manage to get away. The village was close to the new border with Romania. The troops that entered the village belonged to the 9^th German army, the 5^th Romanian Division and a troop of the Romanian border patrol. Jewish suffering began with the conquest.

On that day, July 7 1941, many were slaughtered in their homes by the troops passing through. The murderers were German and Romanian soldiers. The Romanians identified the Jewish homes and robbed them. We know of the murder of ten Jews who hid in the home of Gedalya Felder. Romanian soldiers killed and robbed them of all their belongings. When the Romanian soldiers left, the local Christian population finished the job and ransacked all Jewish homes. The Germans tried to blame their Romanian allies for all the murders and the robberies. On July 11, 1941, 4 days later, there was an investigation. The commander of the 11^th German army told the Romanian headquarters officers about the undisciplined behavior of the Romanian soldiers and the village citizens. He asked them to find the culprits and to punish them. The investigation by the Romanian authorities did not bring any positive results. They even intimated that the Jews of Parlita shot and killed two German soldiers and that the German officers only retaliated.

During the trials of the accused, after the war, it became known that 300 Jews were brought to the cemetery where they were forced to dig two large pits. They were shot by Romanian soldiers. Many others were shot in the fields and the valleys where they tried to hide. Before they killed the women, the Romanian soldiers abused them in front of their dear ones. They also amused themselves by killing children. Many were thrown alive into communal graves.

In 1943 a work detail of 100 Jews was brought from Baku. They found the communal graves full of bodies.

After the murders some Jews were still alive. They were sent, with other survivors, to Rautel Camp. Many of them died there of starvation and disease. Those who remained alive were later transferred to Marcu Lesti Camp and from there to Transnistria.

The Jewish homes in Parlita, after the robberies, were completely destroyed by order of the mayor. Only the synagogue remained standing and was used a dormitory for soldiers. The cemetery was desecrated and the gravestones were used in building pig sties. The Romanian soldiers even killed the Christian caretaker of the cemetery when he tried to stop them from taking the stones. He was buried in what had been the Jewish cemetery.

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Updated 16 Aug 2012 by MGH