Monument Placed By Nazis at Chattanooga National Cemetery-- Part 4: What To Do With It?

There are other monuments around the United States dedicated to German POWs who died in captivity during World War I.  One stands in Asheville, North Carolina and another in Utah.  Unlike the monument in Chattanooga, however, they were  erected with the help of the American Legion and their inscriptions included both German and English versions.

This begs the question these days of should the monument be allowed to stand or removed in this day of Woke and Cancel Culture.  We al know of the campaign to remove Confederate monuments, whose adherents consider Confederates to be essentially American Nazis.

After World War II, symbols of Nazi Germany were removed by order of the victorious Allies.  But, according to one expert, a monument like the one at Chattanooga would have been allowed to remain.

From time to time, members of the German consulate in Atlanta have traveled to Chattanooga to lay a wreath at the monument.    Every year, a detachment of German soldiers stationed at Georgia's Fort Benning visits the graves of the buried POWs.

As for the monument itself, there are no plans to move or remove it.

According to a member of the National cemetery Administration: "Federal statute directs [the Department of Veterans Affairs] to maintain all memorials and monuments transferred to the department.  In keeping with national shrine standar5ds, these sites are maintained in the same manner as other sites."

--GreGen