Backlash over US removal of Black soldiers' panels at WWII cemetery in the Netherlands
Visitors to a US military cemetery in the Netherlands have voiced anger after two displays recognising Black American troops who fought in Europe during World War II were quietly removed.
The panels were taken down in the spring from the visitors centre at the American Cemetery in Margraten, where about 8,300 US soldiers are buried near the Belgian and German borders. The site is overseen by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), a US government agency responsible for American memorials abroad.
The removal followed a series of executive orders by US President Donald Trump that ended diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes. “Our country will be woke no longer,” Trump said in a March address to Congress. No public explanation was given at the time for the decision.
The move has upset Dutch officials, families of fallen soldiers and local residents, many of whom have spent decades honouring the dead by tending individual graves.
US Ambassador to the Netherlands Joe Popolo appeared to defend the decision. After visiting the cemetery amid the controversy, he wrote on social media that the displays were “not intended to promote an agenda that criticises America”. He later declined to comment further.
The displays highlighted the sacrifices of Black Americans
The removed panels highlighted the experiences of Black Americans during the war. One told the story of George H. Pruitt, a 23-year-old Black soldier buried at Margraten who died in 1945 while trying to rescue a drowning comrade. The other explained the racial segregation that defined the US military during World War II.
Around one million Black Americans enlisted during the war, serving in segregated units. Many were assigned menial tasks, though some saw combat. At Margraten, an all-Black unit dug thousands of graves during the brutal winter of 1944–45, known in the German-occupied Netherlands as the Hunger Winter.
Among those objecting to the panels’ removal is Cor Linssen, 79, the son of a Black American soldier and a Dutch mother. He grew up about 50 kilometres from the cemetery and later discovered his father's identity.
“When I was born, the nurse thought something was wrong with me because I was the wrong colour,” he told The Associated Press. “I was the only dark child at school.”
Linssen and other children of Black soldiers, now in their 70s and 80s, visited the cemetery in February 2025, hoping to see the displays.
“It’s an important part of history,” he said. “They should put the panels back.”
Questions about why the panels disappeared lingered for months. This month, emails obtained through a US Freedom of Information Act request and published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and Dutch News showed that Trump’s DEI policies directly prompted the ABMC’s decision.
The White House did not respond to questions from AP. The ABMC also declined to comment on the emails, though it previously said the panel on segregation did not fall within its “commemorative mission”. It said the Pruitt panel had been “rotated out” and replaced with one featuring Leslie Loveland, a white soldier killed in Germany in 1945 and also buried at Margraten.
Theo Bovens, chair of the Black Liberators foundation and a Dutch senator, said his organisation — which helped bring the panels to the visitors centre in 2024 — was not informed they would be removed.
“It is strange,” he said, “because they placed them there only last year. Something has changed in the United States.”
The locals remember the sacrifices of the Black soldiers
Both the city and provincial authorities have formally demanded that the panels be reinstated. In November, a Dutch television programme recreated the displays and installed them outside the cemetery, only for police to remove them shortly afterwards. The show is now searching for a permanent home for the replicas.
The Black Liberators foundation is also working to establish a permanent memorial to Black soldiers who died helping to free the Netherlands.
“When Black soldiers came to Europe during the Second World War, what they found was acceptance,” said Linda Hervieux, author of Forgotten, which documents the role of Black troops on D-Day and the segregation they faced at home. “They were treated as the heroes they were — and that includes the Netherlands.”
The removal of the panels, she added, “follows a historical pattern of writing men and women of colour out of the American story.”
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