The municipality of Sint-Michielsgestel has decided to sell the Beekvliet farm, a historic building that served as a hostage camp during the Second World War, for housing. The boards of the foundations that manage the heritage are unpleasantly surprised, furious and indignant.
Within a year they have to leave the monumental farm. That message received the board of Stichting Gijzelaarskampen and Stichting Beekvlietboerderij two weeks ago from the municipality of Sint-Michielsgestel. “We were completely stunned. This is historical and cultural heritage. You can’t just make that disappear?” Says Ronel Dielissen-Kleinjans, board member of the Gijzelaarkampen Foundation.
The farm was once part of the hostage camp Beekvliet. During the Second World War, more than 1200 men were locked up here: politicians, clergymen, scientists and writers from all over the country. That history now lives on in the exhibition ‘Hostage but not defeated’ and school classes are taught about life in captivity.
The municipality wants the farm to be converted into five to ten houses through a so -called collective private commissioning (CPO). That is a group of private individuals who together set up and implement the construction project.
“We still received compliments from the municipality about what we do here.”
According to the municipality of Sint-Michielsgestel, it had been clear for a long time that the use of the farm would be temporary. In 2016 it was already decided that the building would be sold. “We don’t deny that either, but in the meantime a lot has happened,” explains the board member of the Gijzelaarkampen Foundation. “From the municipality we first received support and compliments about what we do in this place.”
A council letter from 2023 shows that the Municipal Executive was planning to sell the Beekvliet farm to the Beekvlietboerderij Foundation. Because, according to the municipality, the ‘preservation of this cultural heritage is of great social importance’.
“That is why we were all the more surprised that they are suddenly going to dispose of the building and suddenly want to build homes there,” she says. “We are certainly not against housing, but you are not going to break the Sint-Jan to put homes there either?”
According to the municipality, various interests were looked at. Because many new houses are needed, it was finally decided to build houses at this location.
“You can’t just remove such a special place.”
According to Dielissen-Kleinjans, the reactions to social media about the municipality’s decision are overwhelming. “We get messages from all over the country. People are angry and surprised. They all say: this is such a special place, you can’t just remove it.”
To make that clear, the foundation recently set a petition on. “We always got the question: can we do something to keep the farm? I arranged that immediately.” The petition is already signed more than four hundred times within two days.
“It has a completely different impact.”
The municipality does come up with an alternative: a permanent outdoor exhibition in the garden. The foundation can think along about the content. But that “is just a weak extract,” according to Dielissen. “You can’t compare that with a tour or lesson that you get about history. It has a completely different impact,” she says.
With the petition and the recording in Thursday’s municipal meeting, the volunteers hope that there will still be political support to retain this special place.