The head of French Jewry’s representative body, Crif, has condemned the “despicable” defacing of the Memorial to the Holocaust in Lyon over the weekend.
Yonathan Arfi said the words “Free Gaza” had been etched into the marble stone at the entrance of the Rails of Memory memorial.
“Defiling the memory of the victims of the Holocaust is an attempt to Nazify the Jews,” he said on X, “but it also attacks the fundamental values of the Republic, because the memory of the Holocaust is the common good of all French people."
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
“Hatred of Israel fuels both hatred of Jews and hatred of the Republic,” he added.
The Rails of Memory Holocaust memorial in Lyon (photo: Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
The vandalism was also denounced by the Lyon’s mayor, Gregory Doucet, and the prefect of the Rhone region, Fabienne Buccio, Reuters reported.
The memorial, inaugurated earlier this year, consists of an installation of 1,173 metres of rail track, symbolising the 1,173 kilometres from Lyon to Auschwitz where French Jews were deported.
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