Limburg demands answers over U.S. whitewashing of Black history at WWII cemetery

The province of Limburg has asked the American ambassador to the Netherlands to replace the information panels about Black soldiers in the visitors center of the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten. NRC reported late last week that two panels highlighting the role of Black American liberators in World War II had been removed by the cemetery’s American administrator.

Over 8,000 Americans who died during the War are buried at the cemetery. Located just outside of Maastricht, it also features a monument to over 1,700 who were declared Missing in Action. The Visitor Center, a 600 m2 facility with exhibits and panels telling personal stories of from the War, was dedicated a year before U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in January.

The removal of the panels about the Black Americans who took part in the effort is "indecent and unacceptable," said the joint statement from eleven political parties in Limburg. They stated the move "does not do justice to history." They submitted written questions to the provincial executive body, in part to determine whether the municipal government can have the panels replaced.

Limburg King's Commissioner Emile Roemer said that the province also shares the “serious concerns” about the U.S. apparently whitewashing Black history at the American cemetery. He will soon meet with the American ambassador to discuss the matter.

“We will urgently appeal to him and the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) to put the panels back where they belong,” Roemer said.

All parties represented in the Limburg Provincial Council support the call except for the BBB, PVV, FvD, and OOS Limburg. If the American government refuses to replace the panels, the parties want to quickly investigate the feasibility of a temporary memorial for the Black American liberators, PvdA, VVD, GroenLinks, PvdD, D66, Lokaal-Limburg, SP, CDA, Horizon, 50PLUS, and JA21 told NRC.

A spokesperson for the ABMC called the removal of the panels a matter of “rotation.” But Kees Ribbens, senior researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies and endowed professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, told NRC that the removal is consistent with the Trump administration’s approach to reverse all diversity and inclusion policies.