Graffiti reading “Free Gaza” was discovered on a Holocaust memorial in the center of Lyon, prompting city officials to condemn the act as antisemitic and unacceptable.
Mayor Grégory Doucet called the incident on Saturday “unacceptable” and said those responsible will be identified and prosecuted. “Lyon will continue to stand firm against hatred, antisemitism and racism,” he said in a statement provided to French news agencies.
The memorial, known as Les Rails de la Mémoire or “The Rails of Memory,” stands near the Lyon-Part-Dieu train station. Inaugurated in January 2025 to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, it consists of a three-meter-high stack of interlocking railway tracks representing deportation trains. A golden inscription reads: “In memory of six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, including 1.5 million children, 1941–1945, of whom 6,100 came from our region.”
City officials said the graffiti appears to have been scratched into the memorial’s black explanatory plaque with a sharp object. The inscription was quickly removed and the memorial will be restored in the coming week.
Jonathan Arfi, president of CRIF, the umbrella organization of France’s Jewish community, condemned the act, saying it “attempts to turn Jews into Nazis and attacks the core values of the Republic, as Holocaust remembrance is a shared heritage for all French citizens. Hatred of Israel simultaneously fuels both antisemitism and hostility toward the Republic.”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar also criticized French leadership, saying: “When U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner expressed concern over rising antisemitism, he was reprimanded for ‘interfering in internal affairs.’ France needs to wake up!”
Antisemitic incidents in France have risen sharply since the October 7, 2023 terror attacks and the outbreak of war. According to the Interior Ministry, 646 antisemitic acts were recorded in the first half of 2025, a 27.5% decrease from the same period in 2024 but a 112.5% increase compared with the first half of 2023.