"Whitewashed" new panels to replace those about Black soldiers at Margraten war cemetery
The United States embassy in The Hague has revealed the contents of two replacement information panels for the Margraten American Cemetery, over two months after the removal of the old panels caused an uproar in the Netherlands and among American veterans and their families. The new panels focus much less on the role of Black soldiers in the Second World War and don’t mention segregation in the U.S. Army at all, NOS reports. A NIOD historian called the new panels "polished or whitewashed."
The old panels highlighted the role of Black soldiers in WWII and in the construction of the Margraten cemetery, as well as the segregation and racism they faced in the military and at home. These panels, which had been installed only a year earlier, were removed a few months into Donald Trump’s second term. Internal emails from the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), which manages all overseas American cemeteries, indicate that Trump’s anti-diversity policy was the cause.
The removal caused an uproar in the Netherlands, the United States, and among WWII veterans and their families. The province of Limburg called on the American Ambassador to the Netherlands, Joe Popolo, to return the panels. Veteran Robert Gray called their removal a “total dishonor” at the time. He pointed out that African American soldiers buried the majority of the over 8,000 soldiers laid to rest at the cemetery.
ABMC decided not to return the panels but replace them with two new ones, including one that will only be digital. The panel about a Black soldier who died during the war will be replaced by a digital panel featuring ten soldiers, two of whom are African American. The panel replacing the one about segregation in the US Army during WWII does not mention segregation at all. It mentions that Black Americans helped construct the cemetery, but without the context provided by the old panel.
ABMC director Thomas Soephr said during a press conference that this was a conscious decision and that Margraten was a cemetery, not a history museum. He said that racism and segregation are important topics to discuss, but that’s the task of a different kind of museum.
Historian Kees Ribbens, affiliated with the NIOD institute for war, Holocaust, and genocide studies, found the new panels “disturbing and disappointing,” he told ANP. “The text of the new panel makes no reference to racial segregation in the American army. The old panel did. To that extent, the image has been polished or whitewashed.”
The Black Liberators Foundation, which advocates for the recognition of the role of Black soldiers during WWII, called it a “step in the right direction” that a panel will be placed mentioning the role of African-American soldiers. The foundation also said it would continue “telling their stories and the important story of the segregation of the American military. It is a painful part of history for both the veterans themselves and their families that must not be forgotten.”
