MAGRATEN, Netherlands (AP) — Visitors have filled guestbooks with objections since two exhibits commemorating the black soldiers who helped free Europe from the Nazis were removed from a U.S. military cemetery in the southern Netherlands.
Sometime this spring, the American War Monuments Commission, a U.S. government agency responsible for maintaining memorial sites outside the U.S., removed panels from the visitor center at Magraten American Cemetery, the final resting place of some 8,300 U.S. soldiers in the rolling hills near the border with Belgium and Germany.
The move comes after President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs. “Our country will no longer be woke,” Trump said in a speech to Congress in March.
The demolition, which was carried out without a public explanation, angered Dutch officials, families of American soldiers and local residents who commemorate American sacrifices by caring for the graves.
Joe Popolo, the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, appeared to support the removal of the displays. “Magraten’s slogan was not intended to push an agenda critical of the United States,” he wrote on social media after visiting the cemetery after the controversy erupted. Popolo declined a request for comment.
These exhibits highlight the sacrifices of black Americans
One of the exhibits tells the story of George H. Pruitt, a 23-year-old black soldier buried in the cemetery who died in 1945 while trying to rescue a drowning comrade. Another exhibit describes the racial segregation policies implemented in the United States during World War II.
About 1 million black soldiers enlisted during the war and served in various units, mostly performing menial tasks but also taking part in some combat missions. In 1944-45, as the German-occupied Netherlands endured a brutal famine season, known as the “Hunger Winter,” an all-black unit dug thousands of graves in Margraten.
Cor Linssen, 79, the son of a black American soldier and a Dutch mother, was among those who opposed the removal of the panels.
Linson grew up about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the cemetery, and although he didn’t know who his father was until later in life, he knew he was the son of a black soldier.
“When I was born, the nurses thought there was something wrong with me because I was the wrong color,” he told The Associated Press. “I was the only black kid in school.”
In February 2025, Linsen visited the cemetery and viewed the display panels with a group of other children of black soldiers in their 70s and 80s.
“It’s an important part of history,” Linson said. “They should put the panels back.”
The decision was based on Trump’s DEI policies
After months of mystery surrounding the disappearance of the panels, two media organizations – the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and the online outlet Netherlands News – this month released emails obtained through a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request showing that Trump’s DEI policies directly prompted the commission to remove the panels.
The White House did not respond to an inquiry from The Associated Press about the removal of the panels.
The American War Memorials Commission did not respond to inquiries from The Associated Press about the revelations. Earlier, the ABMC told The Associated Press that the panel discussing segregation “was outside the scope of the commemoration mission.”
It also said the team on Pruitt had been “rotated” out. The figure on the replacement panel is Leslie Loveland, a white soldier killed in Germany in 1945 and buried in Margraten.
Dutch Senator Theo Bovens, president of the Black Liberator Foundation, said his organization pushed for the panels to be included in the visitor center but was not informed they had been removed. He told The Associated Press that it was “bizarre” that the U.S. committee found the panels to be incompatible with the mandate they set out in 2024.
“Something has changed in America,” he said.
Bovens is from the area surrounding Magraten and is one of thousands of locals who visit graves at the cemetery. People who adopt the graves regularly visit the graves and leave flowers on the fallen soldiers’ birthdays and other holidays. This responsibility often passed through Dutch families, and there was a waiting list for the graves of American soldiers to be adopted.
Locals remember black soldiers’ sacrifices
The city and province where the cemetery is located are demanding the panels be returned. In November, a Dutch television program recreated the panels and installed them outside the cemetery, but police quickly removed them. The show is currently looking for a permanent location for them.
The Black Liberators are also looking for a permanent site to commemorate the black soldiers who gave their lives to liberate the Dutch.
On the American Square, in front of the Esden-Magrathen town hall, there is a small park named after Jefferson Wiggins, a black soldier who, at the age of 19, dug many graves in Magrathen while stationed in the Netherlands.
In a memoir published after his death in 2014, he described burying the bodies of white comrades with whom he was forbidden to associate during his lifetime.
When black soldiers came to Europe in World War II, “they found people accepted them, welcomed them, treated them as heroes. And that included the Netherlands,” said Linda Hevious, whose book “Forgotten” chronicles the black soldiers who fought on D-Day and the segregation they faced back home.
She said removing the panels “follows a historical pattern of writing the stories of men and women of color in America.”