Relatives of black American soldiers buried at Margraten war cemetery in Limburg have spoken of their outrage at learning that two panels commemorating their achievements were removed from the visitor centre without consultation.

Robert Gray, a US Navy veteran living in Kansas City, said the US government was “dishonouring” the memories of Black Liberators by removing all reference to them at the standing exhibition.

“Most of the cemetery was built by Afro-Americans,” he told NOS. “They dug the graves and buried most of the soldiers.”

The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) said the panels, one featuring a quotation from a black soldier who survived the war and the other telling the story of an engineer buried at the cemetery, were taken out of the rotating displays but were still part of the collection.

But Carmaletta Williams, CEO of the Black Archives of Mid America, argued the decision was consistent with the Trump administration’s policy of degrading the achievements of black Americans and abolishing diversity programmes.

“It’s the cheese slicing method,” NOS quoted her as saying. “They keep cutting away rights until there’s no cheese left.”

Ambassador’s visit

Members of Limburg’s provincial assembly have called for a permanent memorial to the Black Liberators to be erected on Dutch soil outside the cemetery, while the province’s governor, Emile Roemer, and the mayor of Eijsden-Margraten, Alain Krijnen, wrote to the ABMC asking it to restore the panels.

The newly appointed US ambassador to the Netherlands, Joe Popolo, visited the cemetery on Monday but declined to answer questions about the removal of the panels or when they would return.

He said on social media platform X: “The displays at Margraten are not here to push an agenda criticizing America.” One of the two removed panels carried a quotation from 1st Lt. Jefferson Wiggins describing how the black soldiers were fighting on two fronts, against Nazism in Europe and racial segregation in the US.

The municipality said Popolo and Krijnen had a meeting on Monday where the mayor proposed further discussions with local and regional liberation communities.

The awe-inspring Netherlands American Cemetery is here to honor the incredible sacrifice our troops made in World War II, including the ultimate sacrifice made by many brave African-American soldiers.

The displays at #Margraten are not here to push an agenda criticizing… pic.twitter.com/raPxUTuBzD

— U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands (@usambnl) November 17, 2025

Popolo highlighted a panel featuring Private Willmore Mack, a black soldier who was killed while serving with the 784th Tank Battalion, and said criticism of the ABMC and Trump was “inappropriate and ill-informed”.

The ABMC has not responded to detailed questions from Dutch News about why the panels were removed without informing local organisations that campaigned for them to be included a year ago.

Heritage Foundation

The panels appear to have been removed after The Heritage Foundation, an influential right-wing think tank, queried why the ABMC was not complying with Trump’s directives to terminate DEI in US government agencies. Within days, the ABMC had placed its chief diversity officer on administrative leave.

Margaret Pender, whose aunt, Elizabeth Baldwin, is the sister of a black soldier who died at the age of 25 while serving as an army scout in Germany, said: “I hope the panels are restored. That’s what we’re fighting for.”

Gray, who researched the story of Baldwin’s brother Willy James Jr., told NOS: “They went over to liberate the European continent from fascism and racism.”

James Jr. was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the US’s highest military distinction for valour, in 1997. President Bill Clinton presented the medal to his widow.

Gray pointed out that before the war, James Jr. was not allowed to cross the railway tracks in his native city. “They also wanted racial equality in the US. That was what they fought for,” he said.