The King William II barracks were built just before WWII to house an infantry battalion. Before this the Netherlands had always lagged behind its neighbours with the expansion of its army, but due to the danger of war with Germany, the year 1939 saw the building of no less than 24 groups of barracks throughout the country. After the liberation of Tilburg in 1944 the barracks were used for various purposes until in 1993 it was finally handed over to the Ministry of Justice to remedy a shortage of prisons in the Netherlands. The barracks became a penal institution, but when it was no longer needed the Ministry of Justice decided to rent out the prison to Belgium that had a prison shortage of its own.