U.S. removal of panels honoring Black soldiers at WWII cemetery in the Netherlands draws backlash
Source: NBC News/AP
Dec. 30, 2025, 5:00 AM EST / Source: The Associated Press
MARGRATEN, Netherlands Ever since a U.S. military cemetery in the southern Netherlands removed two displays recognizing Black troops who helped to liberate Europe from the Nazis, visitors have filled the guestbook with objections.
Some time in the spring, the American Battle Monuments Commission, the U.S. government agency responsible for maintaining memorial sites outside the United States, removed the panels from the visitors center at the American Cemetery in Margraten, the final resting place for roughly 8,300 U.S. soldiers, set in rolling hills near the border with Belgium and Germany.
The move came after President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Our country will be woke no longer, Trump said in an address to Congress in March. The removal, carried out without public explanation, has angered Dutch officials, the families of U.S. soldiers and the local residents who honor the American sacrifice by caring for the graves.
U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Joe Popolo seemed to support the removal of the displays. The signs at Margraten are not intended to promote an agenda that criticizes America, he wrote on social media following a visit to the cemetery after the controversy had erupted. Popolo declined a request for comment.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/world/europe/us-removal-panels-honoring-black-soldiers-wwii-cemetery-netherlands-rcna251475
REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143563121
OLDMDDEM
(3,019 posts)everyonematters
(4,010 posts)You are not going to see pictures of black and white soldiers acting together.
ZDU
(1,082 posts)Lonestarblue
(13,204 posts)Republicans are the party of hatred for anyone not white or male. Women are nothing but baby machines to them and LGBTQ+ people should not be allowed to exist. Only white males should have rights.
dutch777
(4,842 posts)It has struck me in the No Kings and other marches locally, eastern PA, that while we have a significant minority community, they are not well represented in the marches. I can get that maybe if you are Hispanic you could be worried about getting targeted by ICE or something but the rest being MIA is curious to me.
BumRushDaShow
(165,372 posts)45 is currently in the process of ERASING ALL of the history of AAs here and extorting every corporation and institution of higher learning into purging us AND OUR HISTORY, including that OF PROTEST.
What more do you want from a population that represents only 14% of the U.S. population?
💔
Igel
(37,318 posts)Specific to this issue: https://blackliberators.nl/en/stories/margraten
3825-87867
(1,793 posts)No longer the Republican Party, they are now the Republiklan Party.
And trump is the top Republiklan.
Maybe that needs to be spread.
Hope22
(4,446 posts)Disgraceful .
RazorbackExpat
(889 posts)Really, this is so fukked up
70sEraVet
(5,217 posts)Where is the condemnation from VFW or the American Legion??
surfered
(11,280 posts)Evolve Dammit
(21,450 posts)Sedona
(3,854 posts)From World War I Memorials in the 1930's
So not a surprise
patphil
(8,687 posts)That's disgusting.
mn9driver
(4,816 posts)Maybe this is just me, but maybe the Dutch would be better suited to maintain that rather than giving an obviously delusional US control over anything over there
Ohioboy
(3,852 posts)A "woke" military would not have needed separate plaques to commemorate certain troops.
A "woke" military would have been integrated, and everyone would have been on the same plaque.
Get it, MAGA??????????
The fact that black soldiers had a separate "special" plaque at this particular cemetery was not because of "wokeness", it was the opposite of "wokeness", the segregation that existed in our military at the time of WW2.