US shocks Dutch by removing cemetery displays of black soldiers

At the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, in the south of the Netherlands, a battle has begun over the quiet removal of two display panels about African American soldiers who fought the Nazis.

- Senay Boztas Margraten

Relatives, local communities, politicians and historians have called for a permanent memorial to African American servicemen after it emerged that displays commemorating black soldiers had been removed.

Critics of the removal in the Netherlands, including a community that cares for the graves, have demanded answers about why the black American soldiers have all but vanished from displays.

The Netherlands American Cemetery near Maastricht holds the graves of 8,301 Americans who died liberating Europe from the Nazis, including 174 African Americans.

In 2023, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), which runs the site, opened a visitor centre and last year added two panels, including one on the million African Americans who enlisted but were "fighting on two fronts", against the Nazis in Europe and against America's racist segregation policies.

Bas Albersen, spokesperson for the governor of Limburg, said on Monday that the provincial government would be making an "urgent appeal" to the ABMC and US ambassador to return these panels.

"The displayed panels represented a history that we can never forget and from which we can learn, especially now that differences in the world are ever more magnified," Albersen said. "They fought for a freedom that they did not have themselves."