A Holocaust memorial in Lyon, France, has been defaced with the words “Free Gaza” scratched into its black marble surface, local officials said, as concerns over antisemitic incidents in the country continue to grow. The memorial, located outside the city's main railway station, was vandalised late on Saturday, according to Lyon's mayor, Grégory Doucet.
Mayor Doucet described the defacement as “intolerable” and said the perpetrators would be “pursued and prosecuted”. He added that Lyon “continues to stand firm against hatred, antisemitism and racism”. Yonathan Arfi, of the Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), posted a photograph of the damage on social media and called the incident “despicable”.
The 3-metre-tall memorial was unveiled in January to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. It stands outside the station from which hundreds of Jews were transported to Nazi death camps during the Second World War.
The incident comes amid heightened concern about antisemitism in France. According to the French interior ministry, the number of anti-Jewish acts recorded in the first six months of 2025 was 27% lower than in the same period the previous year, but still more than twice as high as in the first half of 2023. The rise in such incidents has been linked to the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent military offensive in Gaza, which has killed at least 63,000 Palestinians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry.
The political backdrop also includes a recent dispute between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron over Macron’s call for international recognition of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu accused Macron of contributing to a surge in antisemitism, a claim Macron dismissed as “abject” and “erroneous”. Separately, the French government summoned the US ambassador to Paris after he accused France of not doing enough to combat anti-Jewish hate crimes.
