Kicked loose chains, broken nameplates and pushed over tombstones. It makes you quiet when you walk through the Oostzaan cemetery. A total of 44 graves have been destroyed by hitherto unknown vandals. “Material damage can be repaired, but this is emotional damage. People who are very dear lie here,” says volunteer Jack Woestenberg-Van Dalen.
Together with Evelien Leguit, he has been campaigning for the cemetery for years. “Those who have done this have no idea what this does to people emotionally,” he says. “To think they danced on the graves, set a shack, kicked down stones… at 44 graves, that’s quite a bit. In a historic graveyard, terrible.”
The volunteers show the damage in the video below. (Text continues below the video)
“I feel that flame of anger rising in me again,” says a touched Leguit. “It varies from minor destruction to missing ornaments and knocked over stones.” The police are investigating the vandalism. “The next step is to clean up and try to restore everything to its original state as much as possible. But the very old part is about ancient graves. Can you get that back in the same condition? Even if the fractures have been repaired, you will keep seeing.”
Pim Beudeker, chairman of Stichting Oudheidkamer Oostzaan, is just as dumbfounded as Evelien. “It’s dramatic, shocking.” He points out the old graves that have been destroyed and their cultural-historical value: “You come across a lot of well-known East Zaan names.”
Cemetery maintenance
The volunteers hope that the municipality will seize this destruction to take the maintenance of the cemetery more seriously from now on. “We’ve been complaining about maintenance for years, especially in the old part,” says Leguit.
“The municipality is responsible for the maintenance of the paths and the graves are often kept by relatives. But the perpetual graves behind the church are no longer even relatives. But they do have great historical value for Oostzaan. sometimes the cow parsley up to your groin. We think the municipality should keep it there too.”
Beudeker agrees: “In recent years, the municipality has not maintained the cemetery very efficiently, to put it very carefully. Steps are being taken, but not with any zeal.”
Mayor Polak responds: “There is indeed talk about how we can better keep this cemetery up to date. That conversation has already started, will continue and I believe that action must also be taken quickly. But that is independent of what happened here. “
One or more perpetrators are not yet in sight, the police are investigating the case.