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Concept
Dreyfus affair
Summary
The Dreyfus affair (l'affaire Dreyfus, afɛːʁ dʁɛfys) was a political scandal that divided the Third French Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. L'Affaire Dreyfus has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francophone world; it remains one of the most notable examples of a complex miscarriage of justice and antisemitism. The role played by the press and public opinion proved influential in the conflict.
The scandal began in December 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason. Dreyfus was a 35-year-old Alsatian French artillery officer of Jewish descent. He was baselessly convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. He was sent overseas to the penal colony on Devil's Island in French Guiana, where he spent nearly five years imprisoned in very harsh conditions.
In 1896, evidence came to light—primarily through an investigation made by Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, head of counter-espionage—which identified the real culprit as a French Army Major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. When high-ranking military officials suppressed the new evidence, a military court unanimously acquitted Esterhazy after a trial lasting only two days. The Army laid additional charges against Dreyfus, based on forged documents. Subsequently, writer Émile Zola's open letter J'Accuse...! in the newspaper L'Aurore stoked a growing movement of political support for Dreyfus, putting pressure on the government to reopen the case.
In 1899, Dreyfus was returned to France for another trial. The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society between those who supported Dreyfus (now called "Dreyfusards", such as Sarah Bernhardt, Anatole France, Charles Péguy, Henri Poincaré and Georges Clemenceau) and those who condemned him (the anti-Dreyfusards, such as Édouard Drumont, the director and publisher of the antisemitic newspaper La Libre Parole). The new trial resulted in another conviction and a 10-year sentence, but Dreyfus was pardoned and released.
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