Un cimitero di guerra olandese ha aggiunto display che mostrano soldati americani neri. Poi furono rimossi silenziosamente
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/11/displays-black-soldiers-african-american-margraten-cemetery-netherlands
di Wagamaga
8 commenti
A white marble cross marks the final resting place of Julius W Morris, private first class in the US army, who died in April 1945.
But at the cemetery where he lies in Margraten, a village in the south of the Netherlands, a new battle has begun over the quiet removal of two display panels about African American soldiers, like Morris.
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.
The move has sparked shock in the Netherlands, with critics of the removal, including a community that cares for the graves, demanding 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: 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.
wait what why would they remove displays about black US soldiers who actually served there that makes no sense
It’s a difficult question imo, because on the one hand the graves of American soldiers in Europe can be considered cultural/historical heritage of the US, where they have this culture of differentiating people by race, but on the other hand these graves are in Europe and can also be considered European heritage, where we don’t have this race culture.
“The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), which manages U.S. war graves and monuments outside the United States, says in NRC that there is no “erasing” of Black Americans from military historiography.
Panels such as the one about Pruitt were “designed to rotate regularly throughout the exhibition’s run so that as many individual stories as possible can be featured.” That panel would not be part of the rotation. Questions about the other panel have not been answered.”
Do not screw with the war graves in the Netherlands, the Dutch take the respect and care owed to those who gave all for the freedom of Europe very very seriously! I will suggest looking up the Christmas Eve ceremony that are held at the war grave cemeteries,
https://youtu.be/9Iq24t768C8?si=V0sZF3am7QoUOfDC
That’s fucked. Everyone who died defending Europe should be remembered. One should also remember that many black Americans were assigned to support roles, which is why there’s a large difference between white American and black American deaths in Europe during WWII. Although, I don’t think anyone really got to choose where they went in general.
The American Battle Monuments Commission is a US government agency. Many web sights run by various US government agencies have removed pages dedicated to black, female, and minority pioneers and heroes thanks to the current administration. As an American, these panels being removed does not surprise me.
The title is incorrect, it’s an American war cemetery in the Netherlands and it’s managed by the US (i.e. Trump).