Mayor says city stands firm against antisemitism after message scratched into black marble memorial
A Holocaust memorial unveiled only eight months ago in the French city of Lyon has been inscribed with the words “Free Gaza”, local officials said, amid growing concern about antisemitic incidents in France.
The words were scratched into the black marble memorial late on Saturday, the city’s mayor, Grégory Doucet, said. Yonathan Arfi, of the Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), posted a photo on social media and called the incident “despicable”.
Doucet said the defacement of the 3-metre-tall memorial, outside the city station from where hundreds of Jews were transported to Nazi death camps, was “intolerable” and the perpetrators would be “pursued and prosecuted”. Lyon “continues to stand firm against hatred, antisemitism and racism”, the mayor said.
The memorial was unveiled in January to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
