Military group wants Nazi gravestones changed; Veterans Administration says they’re ‘protected history’
Theresa Braine
By THERESA BRAINE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
MAY 13, 2020 | 2:53 PM
A nonprofit group dedicated to keeping religion out of the military is demanding the removal of three German World War II POW gravestones adorned with Nazi symbols from U.S. military cemeteries.
The graves have been there since the 1940s, when German soldiers who had been transported to the U.S. after being captured died and were buried alongside the people who had fought so valiantly against them.
The Veterans Administration calls them “protected history” and said they will stand.
The headstones came to light when a retired military officer saw them while visiting his grandfather’s grave Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, reported Salon. His grandfather, who was an ambulance driver and fought the Germans, is buried there, as are the officer’s aunt and uncle.
There are 132 Germans buried in Sam Houston, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency newswire. Two of them, both of soldiers who died in 1943, bear Nazi iron crosses — marks of valor — with swastikas in the center, and the stones are engraved in German with, “He died far from his home for the Führer, people and fatherland.”
There is also one at Fort Douglas Post Cemetery in Utah.
Throughout the United States there are as many as 860 graves of German POWs from both World War I and World War II buried in 43 cemeteries, according to the news agency.
The retired officer who alerted the nonprofit group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, to the graves kept his name out of it, he said, because he feared retribution given the increasing rash of anti-Semitism around the world, as reported by the Associated Press.
“This is the hallowed ground of people who gave their life for this country,” the man told Military Times. “To be buried next to people they fought displaying that symbol of hate is disgusting.”
“Leave out the Nazi symbols and the statement they honored Adolf Hitler and the fatherland,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation agreed and wants the stones ripped out and replaced with something devoid of Nazi symbolism. Foundation president and founder Mikey Weinstein also demanded an apology from Veterans Administration Secretary Robert Wilkie.
“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) hereby demands that V.A. Secretary Robert Wilkie IMMEDIATELY replace the gravestones of all German military personnel interred in V.A. National Cemeteries so that ABSOLUTELY NO Nazi-era symbols, such as the repulsive swastika, and no homages to Adolph Hitler, or the German people and the German fatherland he led as the evil Fuhrer of the Third Reich, will ever again be allowed to appear on such gravestones in V.A. National Cemeteries maintained by U.S. taxpayer dollars,” he said in a statement that misspelled Hitler’s first name. “Indeed, V.A. Secretary Wilkie must first timely explain WHY ANY such former enemy military personnel are even buried In V.A. National Cemeteries, in the first place, alongside our honored deceased American veterans?”
He also demanded an “immediate and heartfelt apology to all United States veterans and their families,” for “the shocking and inexcusable existence of these Nazi-adorned gravesites in V.A. National Cemeteries.”
The VA stands firm in its determination to keep the relics as historical markers, not to honor the sentiments but to keep the memory alive of what the world was fighting against, Wilkie said in a statement to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and media outlets.
“All of the headstones date back to the 1940s, when the Army approved the inscriptions in question. Both Ft. Sam Houston and Ft. Douglas cemeteries were subsequently transferred to the VA’s National Cemetery Administration, in 1973 and 2019, respectively,” the VA said. “The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 assigns stewardship responsibilities to federal agencies, including VA and Army, to protect historic resources, including those that recognize divisive historical figures or events. For this reason, VA will continue to preserve these headstones, like every past administration has.”
Theresa Braine
By THERESA BRAINE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
MAY 13, 2020 | 2:53 PM
A nonprofit group dedicated to keeping religion out of the military is demanding the removal of three German World War II POW gravestones adorned with Nazi symbols from U.S. military cemeteries.
The graves have been there since the 1940s, when German soldiers who had been transported to the U.S. after being captured died and were buried alongside the people who had fought so valiantly against them.
The Veterans Administration calls them “protected history” and said they will stand.
The headstones came to light when a retired military officer saw them while visiting his grandfather’s grave Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, reported Salon. His grandfather, who was an ambulance driver and fought the Germans, is buried there, as are the officer’s aunt and uncle.
There are 132 Germans buried in Sam Houston, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency newswire. Two of them, both of soldiers who died in 1943, bear Nazi iron crosses — marks of valor — with swastikas in the center, and the stones are engraved in German with, “He died far from his home for the Führer, people and fatherland.”
There is also one at Fort Douglas Post Cemetery in Utah.
Throughout the United States there are as many as 860 graves of German POWs from both World War I and World War II buried in 43 cemeteries, according to the news agency.
The retired officer who alerted the nonprofit group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, to the graves kept his name out of it, he said, because he feared retribution given the increasing rash of anti-Semitism around the world, as reported by the Associated Press.
“This is the hallowed ground of people who gave their life for this country,” the man told Military Times. “To be buried next to people they fought displaying that symbol of hate is disgusting.”
“Leave out the Nazi symbols and the statement they honored Adolf Hitler and the fatherland,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation agreed and wants the stones ripped out and replaced with something devoid of Nazi symbolism. Foundation president and founder Mikey Weinstein also demanded an apology from Veterans Administration Secretary Robert Wilkie.
“The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) hereby demands that V.A. Secretary Robert Wilkie IMMEDIATELY replace the gravestones of all German military personnel interred in V.A. National Cemeteries so that ABSOLUTELY NO Nazi-era symbols, such as the repulsive swastika, and no homages to Adolph Hitler, or the German people and the German fatherland he led as the evil Fuhrer of the Third Reich, will ever again be allowed to appear on such gravestones in V.A. National Cemeteries maintained by U.S. taxpayer dollars,” he said in a statement that misspelled Hitler’s first name. “Indeed, V.A. Secretary Wilkie must first timely explain WHY ANY such former enemy military personnel are even buried In V.A. National Cemeteries, in the first place, alongside our honored deceased American veterans?”
He also demanded an “immediate and heartfelt apology to all United States veterans and their families,” for “the shocking and inexcusable existence of these Nazi-adorned gravesites in V.A. National Cemeteries.”
The VA stands firm in its determination to keep the relics as historical markers, not to honor the sentiments but to keep the memory alive of what the world was fighting against, Wilkie said in a statement to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and media outlets.
“All of the headstones date back to the 1940s, when the Army approved the inscriptions in question. Both Ft. Sam Houston and Ft. Douglas cemeteries were subsequently transferred to the VA’s National Cemetery Administration, in 1973 and 2019, respectively,” the VA said. “The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 assigns stewardship responsibilities to federal agencies, including VA and Army, to protect historic resources, including those that recognize divisive historical figures or events. For this reason, VA will continue to preserve these headstones, like every past administration has.”
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