Amid criticism, Secretary Wilkie won’t commit to removing Nazi headstones from VA cemeteries
House lawmakers on Thursday angrily demanded Veterans Affairs officials immediately remove a series of grave markers bearing Nazi swastikas and tributes to Adolf Hitler at a pair of department-run cemeteries, calling leadership’s response so far confusing and offensive.
But in his first public remarks on the controversy, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said he is looking for ways to “find a way to put this in historical context” rather than simply remove the problematic grave markers.
“Anti-Semitism is rearing its head all over Europe and in some places in this country,” he told members of the House Appropriations Committee during a hearing Thursday. “The last thing we need to do is to not remind Americans of the horrors of anti-Semitism and the Nazi cult.
“I happen to think that making sure when people visit our cemeteries they are informed of that horror is an important thing to do … erasing these headstones removes them from memory.”
At issue are three grave sites at two VA cemeteries: Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in Texas and Fort Douglas Post Cemetery in Utah. Both were used to inter dozens of unclaimed remains of enemy troops following World War II.
While most of the foreign troops’ grave markers list only names and dates of death, the three in question— which all date back to the 1940s — are also engraved with with a swastika in the center of an iron cross and in inscription in German which reads “He died far from his home for the Führer, people and fatherland.”
Earlier this month, following complaints from local veterans about the offensive messages, leaders from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation demanded VA remove the grave markers, saying their presence alongside American veterans was unforgivable.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/05/28/amid-criticism-secretary-wilkie-wont-commit-to-removing-nazi-headstones-from-va-cemeteries/