In the winter of 1944, as some of the bloodiest fighting in World War II ramped up in Europe, 19-year-old then-1st Sgt. Jefferson Wiggins, along with hundreds of other Black soldiers, were tasked with burying the dead in the southern Netherlands.
What was once a fruit orchard would become the final resting place for thousands of fallen US service members. It was difficult, gruesome work, done in near-constant rain and snow with only pick axes and shovels. Years later, Wiggins would recall how soldiers under his command in the 960th Quartermaster Service Company cried as they lowered the bodies of men into their graves.
The site, in the village of Margraten located in the southeastern part of the Netherlands, became one of the largest American military cemeteries in Europe. And for months, visitors to the cemetery, which is run by the American Battle Monuments Commission (AMBC), haven’t been able to learn about the soldiers’ work.
In March, the small, little-known federal agency took down a display from the cemetery’s visitor center that commemorates the
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