‘Unacceptable’: Leaders demand permanent memorial for Black WWII soldiers after plaques removed

Nearly one million African American soldiers fought in Europe during World War II. Now, plaques at a memorial site honoring the sacrifice of African American soldiers in the Netherlands have been removed at the only U.S. cemetery in the country.

According to NRC, the two panels celebrating the “Black Liberators” of the Netherlands from Nazi rule were removed from display “earlier this summer” without an exact reason given as to why.

More than 8,200 U.S. soldiers are buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten. One hundred seventy-four of those troops were African Americans. Lawmakers in the Netherlands have called for either a temporary replacement of the plaques or a permanent monument to be erected in honor of the Black soldiers who helped build the cemetery, calling their removal “indecent” and “unacceptable.”

One of the panels at the memorial site celebrated the Black soldiers’ fight on two fronts: against Germany and racism in the U.S. military. The military was desegregated in 1948.

“Initially, that exhibition paid no attention to African-American soldiers whatsoever,” Kees Ribbens, a senior researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies and endowed professor of popular historical culture of global conflicts and mass violence at Erasmus University Rotterdam, said. Ribbens says he was “shocked” to learn that the plaques commemorating the soldiers had been removed and offered an opinion as to why it happened.

“It aligns with the Trump administration’s policy,” he said.

In January, President Trump signed an executive order regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in federal agencies, ordering all agencies to shutter programs and eliminate positions dedicated to diversity. One of those centers, the American Battle Monuments Commission, drew criticism from the Heritage Foundation for refusing the order, as then-Chief Diversity Officer Priscilla Rayson held her title. Rayson was quietly removed from the role in March, and information regarding her role was taken down. The issue saw swift backlash and the U.S. Air Force restored a Tuskegee Airman video after removing it due to Trump’s DEI policy.

The ABMC falls under the executive branch and oversees “26 permanent American military cemeteries, 31 federal memorials, monuments, and markers, in 17 foreign countries,” according to their website.

“We hope that the panels will come back, because of the importance of the contribution of Afro-American soldiers to the liberation of the Netherlands,” Theo Bovens, a Dutch lawmaker who serves as the president of the Black Liberators told Newsweek.