@mekkaokereke
RE
The 761st Tank Battalion was an all Black tank unit that served with distinction as part of Pattons 3rd army
Speaking of "served with distinction"
#BarackObama greets #HonorFlight #veterans in surprise visit during their DC trip, ‘Tears in my eyes’
@mekkaokereke Here's an update you'll like: the satirical Dutch newsprograms 'Even tot hier' ('Up until here') has placed duplicate panels just outside the US controlled grounds, including panels about Trumps discriminatory executive orders, and spelled out the name William F. James Junior in hay bales in an adjacent field. Unfortunately, all panels were soon removed by the police; they are now looking for a permanent location. #BlackLivesMatter #BlackLiberators #Margraten #Veterans #BlackFedi
@mekkaokereke
"Killing a lot of Nazis" is not in itself a good thing. Liberating French cities is a good thing. Killing mostly young, mostly conscripted, heavily indoctrinated men is never good in itself. Sadly, the nature of war is that powerful men make it necessary to kill in order to liberate.
Two generations ago I had relatives fighting on both sides of WWII. My grandmother was in a column of German refugees straffed by American bombers. My grandfather was at
the opening of Bergen-Belsen. War is always horrible for everyone. @mekkaokereke
@mekkaokereke that being said, for the french, it’s harder commemorating the North African soldiers who helped us…
The whole point of the authoritarian government is not to govern only to demonstrate who is subordinate.
The only thing MAGA is after is the eraser of history to fit what they think will bring a golden age.
This isn’t any different than the very famous modification of history Stalin engaged in
Besides state stakes in companies like Intel the pumpkin spice, Stalin is engaging another behavior familiar from the past.
Why would Netherlands comply?
@tomjennings Added clarification. The cemetery is US government controlled.
Apparently this was done by the US without notifying officials in the Netherlands. It's clearly part of the attack on DEI initiated by Trump. No doubt the fact that Biden had them installed in 2024 added an element of revenge.
@mekkaokereke Even when force is used, you can always refuse. They did it because they wanted to. What power does Dozy dementia Don have over them?
Actually, the American cemetery in the Netherlands is operated by a US entity. The US entity took down the rotating display honoring Black veterans who both built the cemetery and fought bravely in WWII.
@mekkaokereke
I was wondering how the Americans could force the Dutch to do anything like this. Sounds like an American did it and the Dutch want it reversed.
"two panels highlighting the role of Black American liberators in World War II had been removed by the cemetery’s American administrator.
https://nltimes.nl/2025/11/10/limburg-demands-answers-us-whitewashing-black-history-wwii-cemetery
Just recently heard a radio program about a Dutch town that searched for the history of indigenous soldiers from Canada buried over there, and then built a memorial exhibit honouring and teaching about their involvement in the war.
Now the exhibit will travel to Canada, because we shamefully need others to teach us our own erased history.
@mekkaokereke @nflux Just double checked and although it doesn’t change that they are indeed removed, please correct the statement that the Dutch would have done so, as they haven’t. Inquiries are ongoing of how they have been removed and when, Americans in charge of maintaining the graveyard have likely removed them by executive order from the US.
@mekkaokereke The kleptocratic powermongers who have managed to seize control of our government are despicable people, every one of them.
@mekkaokereke
RE
The 761st Tank Battalion was an all Black tank unit that served with distinction as part of Pattons 3rd army
Speaking of "served with distinction"
#BarackObama greets #HonorFlight #veterans in surprise visit during their DC trip, ‘Tears in my eyes’
@SharonCrockett
Thx 4 orig mekka boost
@mekkaokereke
RE
But they weren't immortal...they were just brave. Many Black soldiers died freeing Europe from the nazis. Europeans were grateful. #Racist Americans? Not so much
This is why the US #4thestate #thepress etc can help to expose, that #racism is a bad thing
The #WW2 Black Panther tank division, is like the _reverse_ newspapers slogan,
⭕If it leads, it bleeds
@mekkaokereke F*%ck that, valour has no expiry date. ⚔️
@mekkaokereke Erase those soldiers from memory is pure EVIL, in capitals.
Period.
@mekkaokereke I am forever grateful for that they kicked my grandfathers' asses so that I, a white German, doesn't have to follow the same death cult ideology that my ancestors did. Danke ❤ I did not know about this incident. Can you tell me where in de Netherlands the memorial was? Link a source?
@mekkaokereke thank you for letting us know about this!
@mekkaokereke I just watched a great movie called The Key with William Holden and Sophia Loren. Holden plays an American (who posed as Canadian) Captain of an English Rescue Tug tasked with the dangerous task of rescuing convoys that got attacked by Nazi subs.
At one point in the movie, after much tribulation, Holden says to Loren "Everything's going to be all right, America's coming into the war." And she says "On which side?" To which Holden gives a wry look and says "Good question."
@mekkaokereke
Don't get philosophical here the Europeans, and especially the French literally had colonies in Africa at the time of WW2.
But yes, a couple years of living under the heels of Nazism cures most people from idiotic ideas like racism, not all, hardcore idiots stay idiots. But a surprising number of people who lived through the war in Europe become a bit of peace loving progressives.
Just confirming: you do know that I was born in one of those European colonies, right? I am very aware of European colonization of Africa, and when those African countries' independence days were.
@mekkaokereke french here 👋. Regarding France, and racism, and WW2, there is an horrifying event that came back in the news here recently. The Thyaroye massacre : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiaroye_massacre
Racism in France at the time was very, very real.
@mekkaokereke Not disagreeing with one word of your post. But, I feel the need to point out how France treated the Harki Muslim soldiers who protected France in WWII.
(see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harki)
And the SubSaharan soldiers that did the same:
(see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiaroye_massacre)
The USA does not have a monopoly on racism.
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io From the reporting I've seen, the US removed the memorial and didn't tell the Dutch they were removing it. And the Dutch are kinda pissed about it.
@mekkaokereke the province of Limburg is trying to restore the memory of the black soldiers in the village near Margraven. All kinds of stories are more published in our newspapers...
@mekkaokereke @webhat fact check: true? How did the Dutch EVER cave to that??? @1sand0s ??
@claushoumann @mekkaokereke @webhat it's been all over the news in the past few days.
Dutch govt has officially complained
@mekkaokereke my father was a child in occupied Holland during WWII and I remember him saying the US black soldiers were the first black people he ever saw in his young life and they were revered by locals. They and the other liberating forces left a lasting impression on him.
He was quite shocked to the state of things when he grew up and immigrated to the US in the early 60s.
@mekkaokereke @Balderdoordash I grew up in Germany near a US Army base in the 80s when the memory of liberation was still strong (even with the German population). I was friends with one US soldier in particular and remember him saying that black soldiers loved being stationed in Europe because there, they were Americans first and black second.
@TheCybermatron @mekkaokereke @Balderdoordash
Black Americans do get a lot more respect in Germany than Black people born in Africa, since they don't have the "immigrants from poor countries" stigma.
@TheCybermatron @mekkaokereke @Balderdoordash
I had similar experience when I moved to live near to a number of US bases, and despite having had to visit the bases to get to my customer (SATO), I hadn't realised how often this happened in civilian life. Sometimes we'd get chatting and I'd ask why they'd stayed here after service. "Nothing to go back for, and I'm treated better here" was a common response.
@TheCybermatron @mekkaokereke @Balderdoordash Now let's talk about Black musicians who were respected everywhere in the world except their homeland.
Round Midnight was semi-fictional, but gave a good account of that reality: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Midnight_(film)
@mekkaokereke forced the Dutch to remove it? How?
@rasmus91 The memorial building sits on ground that is on permanent loan to the US. The US didn’t need to force the Dutch, and removed the panels themselves. @mekkaokereke
@mekkaokereke I wish we were half as just and fair as you imagined us, but unfortunately we weren’t.
The French military ordered their (considerable) black colonial units to not go to the big Paris liberation parade either. I forgot where exactly, but there was an order that pretty much boiled down to „no colonial units north of this line on the map“.
You can hear more about it (and other parts of unequal treatment) in this 2.5 hours long radio show about forgotten colonial unit veterans of the allies in ww2
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/lange-nacht-ueber-afrika-asien-und-ozeanien-im-2-weltkrieg-100.html
I hope the Dutch just moved the memorial to another place, rather than take it down.
The Dutch are talking about building their own memorial, that honors Black US soldiers, but isn't under the control of the US government.
The biggest challenge is that the visitor center that most tourists visit to pay their respects, is located on the part that the US government oversees.
It's amazing how silly this all is.
@mekkaokereke @TCatInReality Not silly: racist, white supremicist, antihistorical, Orwellian.
Good move by the Dutch
It should be obvious to all that the US cannot be relied upon for anything anymore
@mekkaokereke There's a call for a memorial next to the cemetary from the provincial council (though obviously not backed by the racist right-wing parties)
https://www.dutchnews.nl/2025/11/calls-for-permanent-memorial-in-limburg-to-black-us-liberators/
@mekkaokereke A satirical show made their own memorial display at the graveyard (though the police ordered it to be taken down) but they also made a giant sign out of hay bales in the land of a farmer next to it.
In Dutch, but you'll get the gist
https://youtu.be/lfsZ-1NXcRc
@mekkaokereke
I mostly have no fucks left to give, but I just found one in the back:
FUCK THOSE RACISTS.
@mekkaokereke as someone living in the Netherlands I didn't know, that's awful the government agreed to that
@mekkaokereke The French were indeed shocked by the overt racism of the Americans, but around the same time they massacred an unknown number (estimates up to 400) of their own Senegalese troops for refusing to disperse to their homes without the demobilisation pay to which they were entitled.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiaroye_massacre
Still being rehashed and reassessed in French political life: https://www.franceinfo.fr/culture/patrimoine/histoire/au-senegal-des-archeologues-exhument-les-corps-du-cimetiere-de-thiaroye-pour-elucider-le-massacre-des-tirailleurs_7580245.html
@mekkaokereke every day, more and more reasons to hate this regime and the damage they are doing. 🤬
So of course, it is the same 761 unit that was among those prevented from celebrating the liberation of Paris that they were so instrumental in bringing about...
That was part of the force that liberated Netherlands, and whose dead are among those honored by the Dutch at the cemetery in Margraten.
Some things that are true:
* Black soldiers have served with distinction in every major US war
* Racist white people will always try to minimize the accomplishments of Black soldiers or erase them completely
"Double victory" describes Black soldiers' need to fight oppression abroad and at home
🙂🙃
This type of attempted racist erasure doesn't even make sense in the digital era.
There were over 1 million Black US soldiers who fought in WW2. You can buy as many Twitters and newspapers and TV stations and remove as many plaques as you like. You can't hide all those stories.
@mekkaokereke https://bookshop.org/p/books/half-american-the-heroic-story-of-african-americans-fighting-world-war-ii-at-home-and-abroad-matthew-f-delmont/4c555f5c11635561?ean=9781984880413&next=t&utm_source=google&utm_medium=pmax&utm_campaign=16243454879&utm_content=&utm_term=%7Bsearchterm%7D&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16235479093&gbraid=0AAAAACfld40lPf7ZU1KFXqMN5gwKeHiRk&gclid=Cj0KCQiA5uDIBhDAARIsAOxj0CH-kaiYSZ16Mv_yHb0j8hVMYLBkcIRNNq7dAF4Mf-vElQIn_QEfOZ0aAhmSEALw_wcB
@mekkaokereke
"You can buy as many Twitters and newspapers and TV stations and remove as many plaques as you like. You can't hide all those stories."
This!☝️
@mekkaokereke the people they liberated remember though.
@mekkaokereke
I remembered I had an old LIFE magazine and dug it up to show here in your thread.
@mekkaokereke I grew up 10 miles from Margraten and coincidentally I’m back home just as this unfolds.
I wrote a long number of replies on Bluesky for others with the contact data of all the provincial parliament factions that voted in favour of doing something to ensure that the black soldiers‘ contribution doesn’t get forgotten, the municipality of Margraten and a local foundation that lets local inhabitants adopt each grave (to regularly put flowers on it and to make sure someone visits the grave of the fallen soldiers whose families live so far away and can’t come visit as easily).
If anyone feels the need to encourage the locals so that they know, that they aren’t alone (if you call, please mind the time difference! Margraten is 6 hours earlier than New York and 9 hours earlier than Los Angeles):
The town of Margraten
https://bsky.app/profile/vonneudeck.com/post/3m57rtf5z522s
The foundation to adopt graves
https://www.adoptiegraven-margraten.nl/en/
The 11 (yes) factions of the provincial parliament in solidarity
https://bsky.app/profile/vonneudeck.com/post/3m57t5cyr6c2s
@mekkaokereke
As usual, thank you for surfacing history I was unaware of.
@mekkaokereke Best lesson I’ve given this year was the one about black soldiers in the Revolutionary War. My diverse classroom was hooked and I have heard them refer back to that lesson repeatedly. History can be hard to teach and I often have to hunt down “supplementary” materials to balance it out so we attend to more than just “white” history.
The post-WWII occupation of Germany was also a strange affair for Black soldiers stationed in Germany.
Inside US bases, they were segregated. Outside their bases, segregation in Germany was now illegal.
Yeah, but post-war German history has its own racist chapter of shittyness towards Black GIs.
Like, German mothers of children of Black soldiers didn't have legal custody in most cases. Nor did the children have German citizenship.
So quite a few of these 5k-10k children ended up in "orphanages for brown babies" ("Kinderheime für Mischlingskinder") and got adopted out of Germany.
https://afrogermans.us/german-brown-babies-2/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Babies#During_World_War_II_and_Post-World_War_II
Today, Black US soldiers face a racist US leadership that is changing policies to try to force them out of the military.
If you're a navy SEAL and you get shot during combat, a corpsman fixes you up. A SEAL corpsman is like a cross between an EMT and trauma nurse.
Nigerian born Navy SEAL corpsman.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2k_3ACqcg3Y
Shout out to everyone that thinks this thread is "pro war!" Instead of "against racism."🤡
All war is bad. Civilians get hurt the most. Mostly children.
And shout out to everyone that thinks the military's most important mission is "war fighting" or doing shirtless pull ups🤡, instead of listening.
@mekkaokereke the fact that they fought fascism here and then had to go back to segregated US...
@mekkaokereke there's a significant Black population in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk - a good distance inland from the more multicultural areas close to tidal rivers/coast such as Ipswich and Felixstowe, and even today not well known for much else than a sugar factory and a big warehouse distributing tools for mechanics and other maintenance and construction workers..
Many are the descendants of Black airmen from USA who served at the nearby aerodromes of Lakenheath and Mildenhall during WW2, and quite wisely realised that the quality of life here in post war UK was way better than what they would have returned to in the segregated USA, so decided to stay here!
