The governor of Limburg, Emile Roemer, has joined calls for a permanent memorial to be established at the US cemetery in Margraten to black US soldiers who took part in the liberation of the Netherlands.

Alain Krijnen, the mayor of Eijsden-Margraten, wrote to the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) urging them to reinstate two panels commemorating the achievements of black servicemen.

It emerged at the weekend that the panels had been taken out of an exhibition at the cemetery’s visitor centre earlier this year. The ABMC said they had been rotated out of the exhibition and were still in use, but historians said it appeared to have been prompted by Donald Trump’s anti-diversity policies.

Some 8,000 US soldiers are buried at Margraten after being killed while fighting in the Netherlands or the neighbouring regions during the Second World War. They include 172 African-American servicemen.

The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, contacted the ABMC in March challenging its supposed failure to comply with Trump’s orders to cancel diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programmes across the US government. The ABMC placed its chief diversity officer, Priscilla Rayson, on “administrative leave” shortly afterwards.

“Excellent storyteller”

Krijnen said in his email he was writing in his capacity as mayor and on behalf of Roemer, whose role is the equivalent of king’s commissioner in other Dutch provinces. Both men have said they will also raise the issue with the newly appointed ambassador, Joe Popolo.

“As the municipality of Eijsden-Margraten and the province of Limburg, we greatly value the story of the Black Liberators in relation to the past, present and future,” Krijnen wrote.

“In that context, 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, and [we ask you to] therefore reconsider the removal of the displays.

“We cherish our good and long-standing relationship and consider the ABMC an excellent storyteller and manager of the American Cemetery in Margraten. We are convinced that you will seriously consider this request for permanent attention to the story of the Black Liberators in the visitor center.”

Nazism and racism

One of the removed panels commemorated the one million black Americans who served in the war, noting that they were fighting both Nazi occupation and racism. Many were given menial tasks in the segregated US army, such as grave-digging.

A second panel told the story of George H Pruitt, a 23-year-old soldier who drowned a month after the war ended while laying a telephone line across a river in Germany.

Krijnen told NOS he was unaware of whether the panels were removed as a direct consequence of Trump’s crackdown on DEI, but he said there was no justification for doing so.

“Whatever the motivation is, it seems to be wrong to me by definition, given the hugely important role that the Black Liberators played in the liberation of southern Limburg and the construction of the cemetery,” he said.

René Franssen, leader of the local BBB party group in Limburg’s provincial assembly, said he had been told by the cemetery’s managers that the panels had been “temporarily stored as part of a rotating exhibition”.

The BBB did not back calls by 11 local parties for the assembly to investigate options to place a permanent memorial at the cemetery. The far-right PVV, FVD and local group Oost Limburg also declined to participate.

“The ABMC maintains the legacy of all our liberators with great care and respect,” he told local news site L1 Nieuws. “The organisation deserves our support, not our suspicion.”

Local views matter

But Samuel de Korte, a writer specialising in Black American war history, said the views of Dutch people should be taken into account when selecting items for the exhibition.

“Museums always have to make choices about what they display from their collections, but by deliberately removing these panels they are reducing the visibility of one population group,” he told Dutch News.

“ABMC has a say as the owner of the cemetery, but the local population have an interest too because they look after it and maintain the graves. The US government should not just decide that the experiences of Black American soldiers is something the visitors to Margraten don’t need to see.