A monument in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, an event known in Hebrew as the Shoah, has been vandalised in Lyon by having “Free Gaza” scratched onto it.
The violation came amid serious concerns about the rise of anti-Semitism in France.
On August 30, the monument near the Perrache train station in Lyon, The Rails of Memory, was defaced.
It had only been inaugurated in January to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), an umbrella organisation in France representing the interests of French Jewish communities and which combats anti-Semitism, called it “a despicable act”.
“Desecrating the memory of the victims of the Shoah in this way is an attempt to Nazify the Jews, but it is also an attack on the fundamental values of the Republic, because the memory of the Shoah belongs to all French people,” Arfi said.
“Hatred of Israel fuels both hatred of Jews and hatred of the Republic.”
Un acte abject.
Un tag "Free Gaza" a été gravé sur le Mémorial de la Shoah de Lyon.
Souiller ainsi la mémoire des victimes de la Shoah, c'est tenter de nazifier les Juifs mais c'est aussi s'en prendre aux valeurs fondamentales de la République, car la Mémoire de la Shoah est… pic.twitter.com/XF85vrpVlS
— Yonathan Arfi (@Yonathan_Arfi) August 30, 2025
Jérémy Benhaïm, who campaigns against anti-Semitism said: “What responsibility do the Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, solely because they were Jews, bear for the situation in Gaza? None, except for the gratuitous hatred of Jews.”
The city of Lyon said the tag was quickly removed and the plaque would be restored in the coming days. It added it was looking for the person or persons who deface the monument, seeking to prosecute them.
“The perpetrators will be sought and prosecuted. Lyon remains standing tall in the face of hatred, anti-Semitism and racism,” Mayor Grégory Doucet said.
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar reacted with some cynicism to the vandalism.
On August 31 on X he stated: “But when the US Ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, expressed his concern about the rising antisemitism there – he was rebuked for interfering in ‘internal affairs’. France must wake up!”
Minister of Immigration and Absorption, Ofir Sofer, said: “The French Government, which is considering rewarding terrorism with a Palestinian State and took offence at the American ambassador’s interference in its internal affairs, must first and foremost combat the anti-Semitism directed at its Jewish citizens. Anti-Semitism that has not been seen for decades.”
Around 6,100 Jewish victims of the Shoah came from the region and were sent to the camps from the Perrache train station.
The materials used for the construction of the Memorial were inspired by the fundamental elements of a railway track: Steel rails, wooden sleepers and ballast.
Intersecting rails are stacked up to 3 metres high to symbolise the starting point of the convoys of deportees
Symbolically, the memorial incorporates 1,173 meters of rails — provided by France national railway company SNCF — representing the 1,173 kilometres separating Lyon from Auschwitz in Poland.
In 2023, anti-Semitic incidents quadrupled compared to the year before, according to the CRIF, the highest spike since it began tracking. The numbers have remained high ever since.
The US ambassador to France has written to French President Emmanuel Macron to denounce what he said was the French Government’s insufficient action against anti-Semitism. https://t.co/z3W7DkPmKc
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 25, 2025
