**Sun Sets Over WWII Graves as Controversy Grows Over Removal of Displays Honoring Black Soldiers at Netherlands American Cemetery**
*MARGRATEN, Netherlands —* The sun sets over the graves of more than 8,300 World War II soldiers at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands, where controversy has erupted following the removal of two displays honoring Black liberators from the visitors center.
The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), the U.S. government agency responsible for maintaining memorial sites outside the United States, removed the displays sometime in spring 2025. The panels recognized Black troops who helped liberate Europe from Nazi rule and were located at the visitors center of this solemn site, situated near the borders with Belgium and Germany.
This move followed a series of executive orders issued by then-President Donald Trump that ended Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in March 2025. In an address to Congress, Trump proclaimed, “Our country will be woke no longer.”
The removal of the panels was carried out without public explanation, sparking anger among Dutch officials, families of U.S. soldiers, and local residents who honor the American sacrifice by caring for the graves in Margraten.
U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, Joe Popolo, seemed to support the removal, stating on social media after a visit to the cemetery that “The signs at Margraten are not intended to promote an agenda that criticizes America.” Popolo declined further requests for comment.
### The Story Behind the Removed Displays
One display told the story of 23-year-old George H. Pruitt, a Black soldier buried at the cemetery who died heroically in 1945 attempting to rescue a comrade from drowning. The other panel described the U.S. military’s racial segregation policy during World War II.
During the war, approximately one million Black soldiers enlisted and served mostly in segregated units. While many performed menial tasks, some participated in combat missions. Notably, an all-Black unit dug thousands of graves at Margraten during the brutal 1944–45 “Hunger Winter” famine in the German-occupied Netherlands.
### Voices of Opposition
Cor Linssen, 79, son of a Black American soldier and a Dutch mother, strongly opposes the removal. Linssen grew up about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the cemetery. Though he learned later in life who his father was, he knew from an early age that he was the son of a Black soldier.
“When I was born, the nurse thought something was wrong with me because I was the wrong color,” Linssen told The Associated Press. “I was the only dark child at school.”
Linssen, along with other children of Black soldiers now in their 70s and 80s, visited the cemetery in February 2025 to see the panels. “It’s an important part of history,” he said. “They should put the panels back.”
### Uncovered Emails Reveal Trump Administration’s Influence
After months of uncertainty, two media organizations—the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and Dutch News—published emails obtained through a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request revealing that Trump’s DEI policies directly motivated the ABMC to remove the panels.
The White House did not respond to AP’s inquiries about the removals, nor did the ABMC comment on the new revelations.
Earlier, the ABMC had told AP that the panel discussing segregation “did not fall within (the) commemorative mission.” It also claimed that the panel about Pruitt was simply “rotated” out. The replacement panel features Leslie Loveland, a white soldier killed in Germany in 1945 and also buried at Margraten.
### Local Reaction and Preservation Efforts
Theo Bovens, Dutch senator and chair of the Black Liberators Foundation—which originally advocated for the panel inclusion—said his organization was not informed about the removal. “It’s strange that the U.S. commission now feels the panels are not part of their mission, considering they placed them in 2024,” he said. “Something has changed in the United States.”
Thousands of local Dutch residents tend to the graves in Margraten, adopting plots and regularly visiting to leave flowers on fallen soldiers’ birthdays and holidays. This responsibility is often passed down through generations, and a waiting list exists to adopt graves of U.S. soldiers.
The city and province where the cemetery is located have demanded the panels’ return. In November 2025, a Dutch television program recreated and installed the panels outside the cemetery, but police quickly removed them. The program is now seeking a permanent location for the panels.
The Black Liberators foundation also seeks a permanent memorial to honor the Black soldiers who sacrificed their lives to free the Dutch.
On America Square, in front of the Eijsden-Margraten city hall, a small park honors Jefferson Wiggins, a Black soldier who, at 19, dug many of the graves at Margraten. His posthumously published memoir recounts burying the bodies of white comrades he was barred from fraternizing with while alive.
“When Black soldiers came to Europe in the Second World War, what they found was people who accepted them, who welcomed them, who treated them as the heroes that they were. And that includes the Netherlands,” said Linda Hervieux, author of *Forgotten*, a book chronicling Black soldiers who fought on D-Day and the segregation they faced back home.
Hervieux added that the removal “follows a historical pattern of writing out the stories of men and women of color in the United States.”
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