The US reacted by removing panels honoring black soldiers at WWII cemeteries in the Netherlands

MARGRETTEN, Netherlands (AP) — Ever since a U.S. military cemetery in the southern Netherlands removed two displays recognizing black troops who helped liberate Europe from the Nazis, visitors have filled a guestbook with objections.

Sometime in the spring, the American War Memorials Commission, the U.S. government agency responsible for maintaining memorial sites outside the United States, removed the panels from the visitor center at the American Cemetery in Margaretton, the final resting place for about 8,300 American soldiers on the border of Belgium and Germany.

The move comes after US President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Addressing Congress in March, Trump said, ‘Our country will not wake up.

The removal, carried out without public explanation, has angered Dutch officials, the families of American soldiers and local residents who honor American sacrifice by tending the graves.

Joe Popolo, the US ambassador to the Netherlands, appeared to support the removal of the demonstrations. “Margretan’s signs are not meant to promote an agenda of criticizing America,” he wrote on social media after visiting the cemetery as the controversy flared. Popolo declined a request for comment.

The exhibits highlighted the sacrifices of black Americans

One display shows 23-year-old George H. The story was told of Pruitt, a black soldier buried in the cemetery, who died trying to save a friend from drowning in 1945. Another described America’s policy of racial segregation during World War II.

About 1 million black soldiers enlisted in the U.S. Army during the war, serving in separate units, mostly performing general duties but also fighting in some combat missions. An all-black unit dug thousands of graves at Margraten during the brutal 1944-45 season of starvation in the German-controlled Netherlands, known as the Hunger Winter.

Core Linsen, the 79-year-old son of a black American soldier and a Dutch mother, is among those protesting the panel’s removal.

Linsen grew up about 30 miles (50 km) from the cemetery and although he didn’t find out who his father was until later in life, he knew he was the son of a black soldier.

“When I was born, the nurse thought there was something wrong with me because I was the wrong color,” he told The Associated Press. “I was the only dark kid at school.”

Linssen, along with a group of other children of black soldiers, now all in their 70s and 80s, went to the cemetery in February 2025 to see the panels.

“It’s an important piece of history,” Linsen said. “They should put the panels back.”

The decision was based on Trump’s DEI policies

After months of mystery surrounding the panel’s disappearance, two media organizations – the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and online media Dutch News – this month published emails obtained through a US Freedom of Information Act request that show Trump’s DEI policies directly prompted the commission to remove the panels.

The White House did not respond to questions from the AP about the removed panels.

The American War Memorial Commission did not respond to AP questions about the disclosure. Earlier, the ABMC told AP that the panel discussing the bifurcation “does not fall within the memorial mission”.

It also said the panel about Pruitt was out of “rotation.” A replacement panel features Leslie Loveland, a white soldier killed in Germany in 1945, who is buried at Margareten.

Theo Bovens, president of the Black Liberators Foundation and a Dutch senator, said his organization, which pushed for the panels to be included in the visitor center, had not been notified that they had been removed. He told the AP that it was “amazing” that the US commission felt the panels were not on their mission, as they had been in 2024.

“Something has changed in the United States,” he said.

Bowens, who hails from the area around Margaretton, is one of thousands of locals who hang out at the cemetery. People who patronize the grave visit it regularly and leave flowers on the dead soldier’s birthday and other holidays. The responsibility is often passed down through Dutch families, and there is a waiting list to adopt American soldiers’ graves.

Locals remember the sacrifices of black soldiers

Both the city and the state where the cemetery is located have demanded the return of the panel. In November a Dutch television program recreated the panels and installed them outside the cemetery, where they were quickly removed by police. The show is now looking for a permanent location for them.

Black Liberators are also seeking a permanent location for a memorial to black soldiers who gave their lives to free the Dutch.

In America Square, in front of the Eijsden-Margraten City Hall, is a small park named after Jefferson Wiggins, a black soldier who, at the age of 19, dug several graves in Margraten while stationed in the Netherlands.

In his memoirs, published posthumously in 2014, he describes burying the bodies of his white friends who were barred from fraternizing with them while they were alive.

When black soldiers came to Europe during World War II, ”what they found were people who accepted them, welcomed them, treated them as heroes. And that includes the Netherlands,” said Linda Hervieux, whose book “Forgotten” is about the black soldiers who fought on D-Day and the segregation they faced back home.

Removing the panels, she said, “follows a historical pattern of writing the stories of men and women of color in the United States.”