When visitors and local researchers in the Netherlands realized earlier last month that two panels honoring Black American soldiers who helped liberate Europe from the Nazis had disappeared from the U.S. military cemetery at Margraten, the reaction was swift .

Local officials demanded explanations, historians raised concerns, and the story quickly spread through Dutch and international media. The country’s leading Holocaust museums and World War II memorial centers issued a joint letter urging the United States to restore the displays, and more than 30 members of the U.S. Congress sent their own letter seeking answers.

But the explanations publicly offered were only partial. The American Battle Monuments Commission, which manages Margraten and all overseas U.S. military cemeteries, sai

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