It is a shock when Margot Piets visits the cemetery in Oostzaan on Tuesday morning. She is on her way to her parents’ grave, but finds out that dozens of graves have been destroyed. She immediately rings the bell with Evelien Leguit. She and Jack Woestenberg-Van Dalen have been working on the aftermath of the vandalism ever since that phone call. An initial inventory shows that 44 graves have been destroyed. “Stones have been kicked over, ornaments destroyed, layers of glass broken. It’s terrible,” says Woestenberg-Van Dalen.
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Jack Woestenberg-Van Dalen and Evelien Leguit for the Oostzaner Church
Archive photo Marcel Molle
De Oostzaner hopes that the cameras in the area will provide evidence. According to Joost Baljé of the municipality, the graves were ‘probably’ destroyed this weekend and the police are conducting a neighborhood investigation. The municipality will then file a report. “We are contacting the owners of the relevant graves so that they can also report the crime,” says Baljé.
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Jack Woestenberg-Van Dalen
Maintenance
The cemetery on the Kerkbuurt has been a thorn in the side of many Oostzaners for some time. Despite the honored mayors and village doctors who rest there, parts of the historic cemetery have subsided and chains are broken.
Woestenberg-Van Dalen and Leguit hope that the destruction will prompt the new council to take action. “Nothing has happened to the graves that are maintained,” says Woestenberg-Van Dalen. “If something is neat, vandals are less likely to target it. You see graffiti on uninhabitable buildings, less on houses with the light on.”
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Jack Woestenberg-Van Dalen
Woestenberg-Van Dalen told the newspaper earlier that he was surprised by the desire of the local VVD to refurbish the cemetery. He called it an ‘election stunt’. Now he hopes the party will keep its promise. “Now there are three VVD members in the college, so it is now time for action.”
Baljé says that the municipality is investigating how the graves can be repaired.
Jack Woestenberg-Van Dalen