(Thanks to commenter Kaptain Amerika for bringing this to our attention.)
In 1944, the all-Black 960th Quartermaster Service Company was given a horrific task: build the Netherlands American Cemetery at Margraten. They dug graves by hand in frozen ground, burying over 20,000 bodies. The trauma was so severe, their leader, Jefferson Wiggins, didn't speak of it for 65 years.
In 2024, memorial panels were finally installed to tell their story. In November 2025, Donald Trump ordered them to be removed.
This is the story of the 960th, the 65-year-long secret, and the present-day political fight—allegedly following a complaint from the Heritage Foundation—to erase their memory from the very cemetery they built.
This is all about Captain Bonespurs and his indifference to real war heroes --especially when they're Black.Via The Guardian:
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.
Bas Albersen, spokesperson for the governor of Limburg, said on Monday the provincial government would be making an “urgent appeal” to the ABMC and US ambassador to return these panels. “The displayed panels represented a history that we can never forget and from which we can learn, especially now that differences in the world are ever more magnified,” he said. “They fought for a freedom that they did not have themselves.”
Let the Heritage Foundation know what you think. (202) 546-4400. It wouldn't hurt to call your congressperson, either. (202) 224-3121.
