Two tombstones, engraved with Nazi symbols – swastikas, have been removed from Houston’s Fort Sam National Cemetery (Texas), where 140 German prisoners of war are buried. Headstones stood on the graves of two World War II prisoners of war who died in 1947 – Alfred Kafka and Georg Forst. Both were awarded the Iron Cross, a military order of Nazi Germany that featured a swastika.
Each gravestone was also engraved with an inscription in German: “They died away from home for the Fuhrer, people and homeland.”
After numerous complaints from war veterans and their families, workers at the cemetery, led by its director, removed the swastika tombstones and replaced them with new ones without Nazi symbols.
Michael Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Foundation for Religious Freedom, noted in an interview with the Associated Press that his organization had long demanded the removal of the headstones, but the Department of Veterans Affairs refused to do so, citing the need to “preserve historical memory.” Only in June last year, the Department yielded to the demands of veterans and a number of lawmakers and allowed to replace the headstones.
Senator Ted Cruz and Congressmen Will Hard, Keitz Granger and Joaquim Castro supported the action. “The symbols of the Third Reich and the Nazi regime must not be allowed to stand in the American military cemetery,” Castro said.
Newspaper headline:
Erase memory!