It was only in recent years that it became known that among more than 10,000 soldiers buried and memorialized in the Netherlands American Cemetery at Margraten there are 172 African Americans. One hundred sixty-nine of them found their final resting place beneath the earth; three others are remembered on the Walls of the Missing.

That number could be established because the army kept meticulous track of the race of individual soldiers and units in its records. The burial certificates of a soldier did not name the race of the individual, but included a code. Race code “2” indicated that the soldier was African American. The Quartermaster division of the Ninth Army kept track of “colored” units by marking related documents with an asterisk.

Over the years, members of the vibrant remembrance community in Margraten have made a tremendous effort to know the stories of those buried and memorialized in the American cemetery. While knowledge about who these men were, whether in combat or support, and what they accomplished continues to steadily expand, much remains unknown still. Identifying the names of the 172 African American soldiers at Margraten has been the starting point of a long quest to learn more about a group of soldiers whose stories have been lost to history. 

You are invited to contribute whatever you may know about those named in this document through the website blackliberators.nl and the email address contact@blackliberators.nl 

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