A panel commemorating the experiences of black American soldiers who served in the Netherlands during the Second World War will not be restored to the US military cemetery in Margraten.

The American Battle Monuments Commission said the panel, which features a quote from former 1st Lieutenant Jefferson Wiggins about US soldiers fighting on two fronts, against Nazism and racism, did not fit with its “commemorative mission”.

As a 19-year-old recruit, Wiggins dug graves for his fallen comrades in Limburg and later spoke out about segregation in the US army, where black soldiers were given menial tasks.

He told a TV show in 2011: “During World War Two, America had two armies. One army was white, one army was black. They were segregated, as rigidly as my home town Alabama was. We were tasked with doing the things that needed doing but nobody wanted to do.”

Wiggins’ comments were included in the exhibition following appeals to the ABMC by his wife, Janice Wiggins, and the former US ambassador, Shefali Razdan Duggal, along with Dutch war historians. Some 172 Black Liberators are among the 8,300 servicemen buried at Margraten.

“Dishonouring” servicemen

Local mayor Alain Krijnen and the governor of Limburg, Emile Roemer, wrote to the ABMC after it emerged that the panel had been removed and another featuring a black soldier, George H Pruitt, had been taken out of rotation.

They wrote: “We would greatly appreciate it if the story of the Black Liberators – like the 172 Black Liberators buried in Margraten – could be given permanent attention in the visitor center”.

Relatives of servicemen buried at Margraten said the removal of the panels was “dishonouring” their memory and accused the Trump administration of trying to erase them from history.

The ABMC placed its chief diversity officer on administrative leave shortly after an influential right-wing think tank, The Heritage Foundation, accused the agency of failing to comply with Trump’s directive to terminate DEI programmes.

Another panel was included in the exhibition featuring Private Willmore Mack, who died in combat while liberating the city of Venlo. Mack is one of four black soldiers included in a group of 15 panels that are displayed on rotation.

It was pointed out by the new ambassador, Joe Popolo, on his first visit to Margraten this week. Popolo said the US was committed to telling the stories of its fallen heroes “no matter a person’s rank, race, gender or creed”.

“Critical agenda”

But he also said in a social media post that “the displays at Margraten are not here to push an agenda criticizing America”.

The ABMC said the Wiggins panel had been removed in March following an “internal review” of the visitor centre’s content by its former secretary, Charles Djou, who told CNN that it had been prompted by the Trump administration.

“While 1st Lt. Wiggins’ quote represented the immense contributions of many African American service members during the creation of the site, portions of the panels were outside the scope of ABMC’s commemorative mission,” the agency said.

The ABMC denied that the panel had been removed in response to pressure from the Trump administration, which has ordered the cancellation of diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programmes at all levels of the US government.

“There was no external consultation or direction regarding its removal,” it said.

Samuel de Korte, a writer specialising in Black American history, said the removal of the panel meant the loss of “important information that would allow visitors to understand and honour the service and sacrifice of Black American soldiers.”

Guidelines needed to be introduced to prevent “intentional or unintentional erasure, for example, when someone ‘forgets’ to include a Black American soldier during the next panel rotation,” he added.