A photo catalog of the burials of this cemetery is available at the LINK 

Pietrykaw is the center of the district of the same name in the Gomel region in Belarus with a population of over 10 thousand people. According to legend, it was founded in the 10th century. According to written sources, it has been known since the 16th century, when Prince Yuri Olelkovich built a wooden castle, around which a small town arose.

It was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, then the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was a private property of the princes of the dynasty from the 18th century. Since 1793 it has been part of the Russian Empire. It received city status in 1925.

Jews settled on the territory of the Gomel region from the 16th century. By the end of the 19th century, Jews made up more than a third of the 5.5 thousand population of Pietrykaw. The community suffered during the revolutionary events of 1917-1919.

In the first third of the 20th century, there were two Jewish schools in the city, there was a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery. By the 1930s, the Soviet government launched an active offensive against communal institutions. The seven-year Jewish school was transformed into a general education school with the Belarusian language of instruction.

Data on the number of Jews in Pietrykaw in 1939 has not been preserved. With the beginning of the Soviet-German war, part of the Jewish youth of the city went to the front, some ended up in partisan detachments. Some of the Jews were evacuated before the advance of the German army. Representatives of the older generation, remembering the experience of the First World War and the stay of the Germans in Pietrykaw, did not believe in stories about Nazi atrocities in the occupied territories. The story of Yankl Friedman, who sent his family to evacuation, while he himself remained in Pietrykaw ‘to guard property’ and died, is indicative.

The occupation of the city lasted from July 29, 1941 to June 29, 1944. In the first days of the occupation, the Nazis killed the oldest member of the Jewish community, 70-year-old Aron Feinstein, who was in charge of the local pharmacy.

The occupiers carried out an action of mass extermination on September 14, 1941. According to various sources, from 400 to 500 people died in it. According to eyewitnesses, the Nazis drove the Jews in groups of 30-40 to the banks of the Pripyat River. Victims were driven into the water and shot with firearms. Memories of witnesses regarding the performers of the action differ. According to one testimony, the action was carried out by the Nazis. Others recall local organizers from a gang led by a certain Shpak.

After the liberation of Pietrykaw, local Jews organized a search for the bodies of the dead. They were reburied in the Jewish cemetery after a religious ritual. A metal monument was erected at the burial site.