Of all the gravestones in all the military graveyards in the United States, a total of three have borne swastikas -- two in Texas and one in Utah. All three represent German POWs who died before WWII ended.
The inscriptions on the pair in Texas include an Iron Cross with a swastika inside, along with these words: "He died far from his home for the Leader (Führer), people and fatherland."
The third headstone has a similar graphic. It's on the grave of a German POW in Fort Douglas Post in Salt Lake City. When he died in 1944, fellow POWs paid for his stone's inscriptions out of their 50-cent-a-day allowance.
There the gravestones have stood, next to other POWs' graves, for more than 70 years. Was anyone offended? Probably. Why were the gravestones allowed there? A wild guess: With Germany defeated, Americans may have seen the Texas POWs as victims of a treacherous national government. Sorrow breeds compassion, and many sons and brothers had died.
But then, another reaction is rage. In May 2020, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and the Southern Poverty Law Group made strongly worded appeals to the Veterans Administration. The MRFF, highly offended, wrote, "In light of the shocking and inexcusable existence of these Nazi-adorned gravesites ... MRFF demands that Secretary Wilkie issue an immediate and heartfelt apology to all United States veterans ...."
The SPLG asked, in a press release, "Have they forgotten the millions of Jews who died in the Holocaust?" and noted that "documented antisemitic incidents in the United States have reached a new high" since Donald Trump was elected.
It's a new zeitgeist for the VA. At first, the agency said Nope, sorry. "The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 assigns stewardship responsibilities ... to protect historic resources, including those that recognize divisive historical figures or events," they announced -- in the magazine Salon.com, of all places.
That didn't last long. On May 25th, the Veterans Affairs secretary received a letter from a group of House Representatives, saying that "symbols and messages of hatred, racism, intolerance, and genocide is especially offensive to all the veterans who risked, and often lost, their lives defending this country and our way of life," and calling the symbols "a stain on the hallowed ground..."
In June, the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, who worked with MRFF, announced that the VA had reversed course.
On December 23rd, the Department of Veterans Affairs finally removed the two headstones in Texas. There was no word on what would replace them, or on the headstone in Utah.
What do you think about these gravestones bearing Swastikas? Can, or should, they be allowed to stay that way?
Is getting rid of the Swastika-bearing headstones a form of intolerance of its own? Or is it about time they were removed?
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/25/us/va-cemeteries-swastikas-headstones-removed-trnd/index.html
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