Outrage Erupts as Pentagon Removes Memorial to Black WWII Soldiers from Dutch Cemetery

Washington, D.C. – November 10, 2025 – In a move critics are decrying as a blatant erasure of African American contributions to World War II, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC)—overseen by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon—has quietly removed two memorial panels honoring Black soldiers from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The panels, installed in the visitor center’s permanent exhibition, were taken down earlier this year following a complaint from the conservative Heritage Foundation, according to Dutch media reports and military historians.

The decision has sparked international fury, with civil rights advocates, veterans’ groups, and Dutch officials labeling it a “disgraceful” assault on history, especially poignant as Veterans Day approaches. “This is not just about two panels; it’s part of a relentless war on Black history,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), House Minority Leader, in a statement Sunday. “These brave soldiers fought Nazis abroad while battling segregation at home. Erasing them dishonors their sacrifice and rewrites America’s story to suit a racist narrative.”

One panel detailed the service of approximately one million African American volunteers during the war, many confined to segregated support roles—such as quartermaster duties, engineering, and graves registration—despite their eagerness to fight. It highlighted the irony of Black troops liberating Europe from fascism while enduring Jim Crow laws, including separate barracks, blood banks, and even burial grounds. The second panel commemorated Pvt. George H. Pruitt, a telephone engineer from the 960th Quartermaster Service Company (QMSC), an all-Black unit. Pruitt drowned on June 10, 1945, while attempting to rescue a comrade who fell into a river near the Rhine during post-liberation cleanup. His story symbolized the quiet heroism of Black service members who built and maintained the very cemetery where they now rest.

Military history blogger Chris Evans (@ChrisO_wiki), whose viral X thread first amplified the story, described the panels as essential context for the cemetery’s 8,301 American graves, including 172 belonging to Black soldiers. “Not only did they play a crucial role in the construction of the cemetery in Margraten, 172 of them also received their final resting place there,” Evans wrote, noting the 960th QMSC’s grueling task of burying thousands amid the Battle of the Bulge’s aftermath. Many bodies arrived mutilated, forcing Black troops into traumatic labor under white officers—a segregated reality the panels unflinchingly portrayed. Evans’ post, shared over 10,000 times, has fueled a digital backlash, with users like @PamelitaTweets calling it “institutional racism” and @Wiseronenow demanding, “No public explanation. Just silence. Just erasure.”

The Netherlands American Cemetery, the only U.S. military burial ground in the Netherlands, spans 65 acres and honors those who fell liberating South Limburg in September 1944. Established on farmland donated by locals, it was constructed largely by the 960th QMSC from September to November 1944, under First Sgt. Jefferson Wiggins. Dutch villagers, still grateful for the Allied push against Nazi occupation, have “adopted” every grave through the Foundation for Adopting Graves American Cemetery Margraten—a tradition since 1945. Annual Liberation Concerts and photo exhibits like “Faces of Margraten” keep the memory alive, with over 7,500 portraits displayed biennially.

The panels’ removal, first reported by Dutch outlet NRC, stems from a Heritage Foundation complaint earlier in 2025, decrying them as “politically charged” and “divisive.” Heritage, a key architect of Trump’s “Project 2025” agenda, has long criticized efforts to highlight racial inequities in U.S. history. ABMC, an independent agency under the Pentagon, complied without public comment, citing a review of “historical accuracy.” Critics point to a pattern: In February, Hegseth axed official Defense Department observances for Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and other “cultural awareness” events, scrubbing related content from DOD websites—including pages on the Tuskegee Airmen and Navajo Code Talkers—though some were later restored amid outcry.

Hegseth, a Fox News veteran and vocal critic of “woke” military policies, has framed such actions as restoring a “warrior ethos” focused on “lethality” over “diversity.” Yet the irony cuts deep: Just weeks ago, he ordered the reinstatement of a Confederate “Reconciliation Monument” at Arlington National Cemetery—removed in 2023 for glorifying the Lost Cause with images of enslaved Black figures serving white rebels. “We don’t believe in erasing American history,” Hegseth said on Fox, calling the original removal by “woke lemmings” an affront. Historians like Kevin Levin, in a Substack essay, blasted the contrast: “The Trump administration’s war on African-American history is a lost cause,” especially as it coincides with restoring symbols of treason and slavery.

Dutch politicians have mobilized. Eleven parties in Limburg Province urged their deputy to intervene with Eijsden-Margraten municipality, demanding the panels’ return. “This erases the full story of liberation,” said one lawmaker, per NRC. The U.S. Embassy in The Hague declined comment, but local adopters—many tracing family ties to 1945—vowed to protest. In Margraten, where villagers once delivered flowers by truck to the temporary graves, the removal feels personal. Mieke Kirkels, an oral historian who interviewed Wiggins before his 2013 death, told reporters: “These men buried our liberators. Forgetting them buries the truth.”

The NAACP and Tuskegee Airmen Inc. condemned the act as “beyond disgraceful,” linking it to Trump’s rhetoric on “rewriting history.” Protests are planned at the Pentagon and Arlington, with #RestoreMargraten trending on X. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) called for hearings: “We cannot let fascists at Heritage Foundation dictate whose heroism matters.”

Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson defended the ABMC’s autonomy but offered no specifics, stating only that exhibits must “reflect balanced history.” Heritage’s Kevin Roberts hailed it as correcting “revisionist narratives,” insisting the panels “politicized a sacred site.” Yet as Margraten’s white crosses stand sentinel—six bearing Medals of Honor—the absence of Black voices echoes louder. In a cemetery built by segregated hands, the removal isn’t mere oversight; it’s a deliberate unmaking of sacrifice.

For the 960th QMSC, who dug through frozen soil amid war’s end, and for Pruitt, lost to a river’s pull, the fight persists. As Evans tweeted: “As Veterans Day approaches, never forget that this country both compels and disrespects Black military service. Always.” Whether this sparks a “tidal wave” of restoration, as one activist put it, or fades into silenced archives, one truth endures: History, once buried, demands exhuming.