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‘Free Gaza’ – Holocaust memorial vandalized in France

Mayor Gregory Doucet called the act “intolerable” and vowed the perpetrators would be prosecuted.

By World Israel News Staff

A memorial to victims of the Holocaust in Lyon, France, was defaced by an unknown vandal who carved the words “Free Gaza” onto the memorial plaque.

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

“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,” Lyon Mayor Gregory Doucet said in a statement to AFP.

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

A municipal employee told AFP that “the fact that this inscription was made on a Holocaust memorial clearly constitutes an antisemitic act.”

The employee emphasized that the city swiftly removed the vandalism and restored the memorial to its original state.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned the desecration as part of a broader wave of antisemitic hostility in France.

He pointed to the recent reprimand of U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner, who had warned publicly about the sharp spike in anti-Jewish attacks and rhetoric.

“Desecration of a Holocaust memorial in Lyon, France. But when…Kushner expressed his concern about the rising antisemitism there – he was rebuked for interfering in ‘internal affairs.’ France must wake up!” Sa’ar wrote on X.

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The Lyon attack followed another antisemitic act earlier in August, when an olive tree planted in memory of Ilan Halimi — a young Jewish man kidnapped, tortured, and murdered in a 2006 antisemitic attack — was cut down by unknown perpetrators.

“The cutting down of the tree in memory of Ilan Halimi is an attempt to kill him a second time,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.

“It will not happen: the nation will not forget this French boy who died because he was Jewish. Every measure will be taken to punish this act of hate. In the face of antisemitism: the Republic is always uncompromising.”