Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial at Margraten, January this year. > The cemetery was created in November 1944. As the war was coming to an end, it was expected that the cemetery would have to be built twice in the following years: first to accommodate what would become more than 20,000 dead of the last months of the conflict, including enemy dead, then to what would become a reduced population of 8,000 as other permanent cemeteries were opened, bodies were returned to America at the wish of American families, and enemy dead were moved to their home countries. > The first ground in the cemetery was broken with the labor of the largely African American 960th Quartermaster Corps at the outset of what would be a historically cold and wet winter. The workers used picks and shovels to create a standard grave that was 6 feet deep, 6 feet long and 2½ feet wide. After processing, the body was to be placed in a mattress cover with its dog tag in its mouth. The first 300 dead were buried during Thanksgiving 1944. As the winter went on the process was complicated by frozen remains, the constant flooding of graves before they could be filled, and the inability of transport and machinery to maintain reliable solid ground. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_American_Cemetery Since 2024 the cemetery's visitor center contains two panels describing the role of the black liberators, and their fight against both the enemy and racism in the segregated army. Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad now reports that these two panels have been silently removed. https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/11/07/op-margraten-zijn-twee-panelen-over-zwarte-amerikaanse-bevrijders-van-nederland-opeens-weg-past-bij-beleid-van-de-regering-trump-a4911994?gift_token=4911994~1763150917~Y_3FDp0IEeKfgABQVoV_mg~gsGsWgSYRO_lKUvOkPuq_bg4xs7E9QsmL06dtBQSLi0 #margraten #ww2 #warcemetery #remembrance #remembranceday #commemoration #lestweforget