Only two people are buried in this disappeared cemetery, popularly called the criminal cemetery. Only a sign still reminds of this place where many people have seen white shadows wandering around and heard nasty screams. They are said to be the wandering souls of Balthazar and Adriaan whose bodies still lie here.
In the past, those who wanted to get a place in heaven also tried to get as close to God as possible after death. Reason that the deceased were buried in or just outside the church.
Those who had enough money were given a place in a house of worship, the poor had to make do with a final resting place outside the church walls.
But there are quite a few disadvantages to being buried in a place of worship. Because bodies began to rot and the stones did not seal a grave airtight, the smell in the church was often unbearable. Apparently that’s where the saying ‘rich stinker’ comes from.
Moreover, the decomposition process also released a number of gases and sounds and that noise frightened the already superstitious people. Is evil bubbling up from the depths there?
Unsanitary conditions
King William I wants these unsanitary conditions to come to a quick end and in 1829 he decrees that no more people may be buried in or near a church. Places with more than a thousand inhabitants are required to build a cemetery outside the city limits.
Catholic and Protestant denominations build their own cemeteries. But from 1869 onwards, there must also be public burial grounds where everyone, regardless of religion, can have a place. Oosterhout decides to build it on the Oude Bredasebaan.
In 1891 the first dead person was given a place there. It’s Balthazar Litzroth. The man is as poor as a church rat and the father of four young children. When his wife is pregnant with her fifth child, he decides to end his life. He hangs himself in a bush behind Slotje Brakenstein in Oosterhout.
Criminal
Suicide is a major sin at that time and people consider it downright criminal that Balthazar left his family in great poverty. Mr. Pastor refuses to make a place available for him in the Catholic cemetery and so the suicide bomber is transferred to the general cemetery, which has since been called the criminal cemetery.
It takes six years before Balthazar is joined. The unmarried worker Adriaan Smits commits suicide and the Protestants and Catholics do not want to burn him either. Adriaan’s body is transferred to the Oude Bredasebaan where he can prepare for a stay in hell in the eyes of believers.
Spooky place
In the years that followed, the cemetery received little or no maintenance and fell into disrepair. The morgue is destroyed and disappears. The haunted place stimulates the senses of many who pass by. Stories go around about people seeing white shadows and hearing icy screams. They would be the wandering souls of Balthazar and Adriaan, who cannot find peace.
No one is buried anymore and in 1934 the cemetery is closed. The bodies of both sinners are left behind and slowly every trace of the cemetery disappears. Until 2013, when, at the initiative of Heemkundekring De Heerlijkheid Oosterhout, the municipality unveiled a plaque that is a lasting reminder of this sad place.
Bygone Past
Vervlogen Verleden is a weekly column about fun, remarkable or funny facts from Brabant’s rich past. If you have a tip, please email: [email protected].