French Holocaust memorial defaced with ‘Free Gaza’

A Holocaust memorial in Lyon was defaced with a “Free Gaza” inscription, city officials told AFP yesterday, fueling concerns over an increase in antisemitic acts and hate crimes in France.

In a photo city officials shared with AFP, the inscription appeared to have been scratched into the black marble of a plaque on the monument with a sharp object.

“The vandalism of the Holocaust Memorial in Lyon is an intolerable act. I condemn it and express my full solidarity with memory associations, survivors and their descendants,” the city’s mayor, Gregory Doucet, writes in a statement sent to AFP.

“The perpetrators will be sought and prosecuted. Lyon stands firm against hatred, antisemitism and racism,” Doucet adds.

The monument in central Lyon was inaugurated in January 2025 to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.

“The fact that this inscription was made on a Holocaust memorial clearly constitutes an antisemitic act,” a city hall official tells AFP, adding that the municipality had quickly removed the inscription to restore it.

The president of the Holocaust Memorial association, Jean-Olivier Viout, has filed a complaint, according to the city hall.

Antisemitism in France — home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the world — has soared following the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught and the outbreak of war in Gaza.