Two swastikas have been found spray-painted on buildings in aParissuburb that served as aWorld War IItransit camp for some 63,000Jewsdeported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

The Drancy internment camp served as the main departure point for Jewish deportees fromFrancetoNazideath camps between August 1941 and August 1944.

The two swastikas were drawn in two different buildings. One measured a few centimetres across, while the other was nearly one metre (3.2 feet) in diameter.

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A candidate in the upcomingmunicipal electionsspotted the swastikas Wednesday while campaigning, before notifying memorial associations, he told AFP.

"In this neighbourhood more than any other, which was once a transit camp forHolocaustvictims before they were deported to death camps by the Nazis, these acts are extremely serious," Gokhan Unver, a mayoral candidate for the hard-leftFrance Unbowed(LFI), told AFP.

Three local lawmakers had filed a report with judicial authorities, he added.

A memorial near the housing estate where the swastikas were spray-painted, was vandalised in March 2024.

France is home to western Europe's largest Jewish population, at around half a million people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

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Members of France's Jewish community have said the number of antisemitic acts has surged following the attack by Hamas on Israel onOctober 7, 2023which triggered Israel'smilitary response.

The interior ministry recorded 886 antisemitic acts between January 1 and August 31, 2025, 20-percent down on the same period in 2024.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Originally published on France24