An inscription “Free Gaza” was discovered on Saturday on a memorial dedicated to the Shoah in the center of Lyon, announced to AFP the city, whose mayor, Grégory Doucet, immediately denounced an “intolerable act”.
“Lyon is standing in front of hatred”
The town hall provided AFP a photo of the inscription, obviously engraved with a pointed object in the black marble of a presentation plate of the monument.
“The degradation of the Shoah Memorial in Lyon is an intolerable act. I condemn it and express all my solidarity to memory associations, survivors and their descendants, ”writes Grégory Doucet in a message transmitted to AFP.
“The authors will be sought and prosecuted. Lyon remains standing in front of hatred, anti -Semitism and racism, ”continues the mayor.
Erased registration
Near Lyon-Perrache Gare in the city center, the monument, named the Rails of Memory, was inaugurated in January 2025 for the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
This stack of intertwined rails on 3m high symbolizes the starting point of the convoys of deportees and sports in golden letter the following inscription: “In memory of the six million Jews victims of the Holocaust, including one and a half million children – 1941-1945 – 6.100 came from our region”.
“The fact that this registration was made on a memorial at the Holocaust is obviously an anti -Semitic act,” said AFP an official of the town hall. The municipality quickly erased the registration and “will restore the integrity of the plate next week,” said this source.
A complaint filed
The president of the association of the Shoah Memorial, Jean-Olivier Viout, filed a complaint, according to the town hall.
The anti -Semitic acts experienced a clear progression in France after October 7, 2023, the date of the unprecedented attacks of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel and the trigger of the war in Gaza.
Over the first six months of 2025, 646 anti -Semitic acts were identified in the country, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Or a decrease of 27.5% compared to the first half of 2024, but a leap of 112.5% compared to the same period of 2023.
