The municipality of Oostzaan denies that the cemetery on Dominee Nanne Zwiepsingel has fallen prey to vandalism. Just under two weeks ago, volunteers from the cemetery discovered that as many as 44 graves had been destroyed and reported it. In a message that reads like a declaration of war, the municipality accused the volunteers of the cemetery of having made a false report.
“The cause lies in several aspects,” says the municipality. “There are no surviving relatives of several graves. Those graves are therefore not maintained either. This is the responsibility of the relatives. And an unmaintained grave eventually expires. There was also a storm in February that caused damage to several to dig.”
“Now we would be hurting others. Disgraceful!”
The volunteers are dumbfounded. Margo Piets made the first report on Tuesday afternoon, June 14. She was there a week before and is 100 percent sure that nothing was wrong then. She tells about a pillar that is regularly turned over and which she then puts up again. “This time I saw not one but six pillars. So I was shocked. Then I walked down the row of graves and I saw chains tangled. Those are not things that come from a storm, unless I’m completely crazy.”
She continues: “We spoke to a maintenance worker. He hadn’t seen anything at the time either. Well, then you work there and those graves broke down four months ago? That’s not possible.”
Jack van Woestenberg-Dalen was also at the cemetery a few days before Margo’s report. And he didn’t see anything suspicious either. “This is just destruction. Period. This has nothing to do with storms or subsidence. Stones have been pushed over with great violence. That is why we also want to know: who determined that it is not about destruction?”
The spokesperson for the municipality would not say that when asked. He does report: “We already had photos of the graves that have been broken for a long time. Then there was also a storm in February. There are graves of which relatives have approached us: ‘Wow, that is damage from the storm. There has been no vandalism at all.’ We now have enough reason to indicate that no vandalism has taken place.”
View the report that NH Nieuws made after the discovery below.
Text continues below the video.
Great grief for 44 destroyed graves in Oostzaan – NH Nieuws
The message from the municipality also states: ‘The broken graves have been broken for a long time. Mayor Polak has not checked the report of vandalism because: “if such a report is made in such a place, I can assume that this is the case and therefore take the report extremely seriously.”
(…) ‘By reporting this, unnecessary pain and sorrow has been evoked by the inhabitants of Oostzaan and especially by the relatives. That investigation is a matter for the police. They will have to find out who had known for some time that these graves had been damaged and why the vandalism had been reported after all.’
“We haven’t done anything wrong,” Van Woestenberg-Dalen responds. “We have acted in good conscience. Now we would cause suffering to others. Then I think: ‘Stop saying it’. Disgraceful! Really too bad for words.”
Mail from official
Volunteers Evelien Leguit tells about an e-mail that came in today, from an official of the municipality. She had asked for an update on the investigation, and he replied by asking to be patient. “I read that this afternoon, and now I read this! Then we are now ignominiously dismissed by the municipality as people who make a false declaration and cause people a lot of grief.” She breaks down: “I have no words for it.”
Coincidence or not: tonight the cemetery is the subject of discussion in the committee meeting of the municipality of Oostzaan. The volunteers will also be involved. Earlier today, the police informed NH Nieuws that they were not yet able to make any announcements about the investigation into the vandalism.
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