From Alabama to Margraten: The Story of War Veteran Jefferson Wiggins in the Segregated US Army during World War II (1)

By: Mieke Kirkels

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Synopsis: When he returned to the Netherlands in 2009, decades after World War II, Jefferson Wiggins realized that no one he met knew about the segregated US Army during the war, nor did they know about the contribution of Black American soldiers to the liberation of the Netherlands. They were not mentioned anywhere in Dutch history books or in archives. Together with oral historian Mieke Kirkels, Wiggins sat down to record his memories. Wiggins passed away in 2013, and his widow, Janice Wiggins-Paterson, continued the project in his memory. With newly discovered archival material, and richly illustrated, this book gives a lively account of an undocumented story of WWII, Black American, and Dutch military history. This book: • Is the first book ever published in the Netherlands about the participation of Black soldiers in the US Liberation Army during WWII. • Memories of an African American Veteran WWII – a former gravedigger- about the development of a huge ABMC cemetery in the South of the Netherlands • Memories of an African-American veteran of his service in the segregated US Army during WWII.