The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal which divided France from the 1890s to the early 1900s. The Dreyfus Affair began when a bordereau (detailed memorandum disclosing French military secrets was found in the possession of the Germans. The trial and conviction of Alfred Dreyfus was the event that instigated the Dreyfus Affair, a Political scandal which divided France during the 1890s While Alfred Dreyfus was serving his sentence on Devil's Island back in France a number of people began to question his guilt After Major Georges Picquart 's exile to Tunisia others took up the cause of the Alfred Dreyfus. The scandal over falsely accused Alfred Dreyfus grew into a public scandal of unprecedented scale J'accuse ("I accuse" was an Open letter published on January 13 1898 in the newspaper L'Aurore by the influential writer Émile François Zola ( (2 April 1840 &ndash 29 September 1902 was an influential French Writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of Trial of Esterhazy for forgery On the same day as this arrest the examining Magistrate Bertulus, disregarding the threats and entreaties directed at him on Alfred Dreyfus (9 October 1859 &ndash 12 July 1935 was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason A political scandal is a Scandal in which Politicians or government officials are accused of engaging in various illegal corrupt, or Unethical This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. It involved the conviction for treason in 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Jewish background who was in advanced training with the Army's General Staff. In Law, a conviction is the Verdict that results when a Court of law finds a Defendant guilty of a Crime. Alfred Dreyfus (9 October 1859 &ndash 12 July 1935 was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason

French intelligence officials conspired to obstruct justice by fabricating evidence to secure Dreyfus' conviction as a spy for Germany. They were eventually exposed , in large part due to a resounding public intervention by Emile Zola in January 1898. Émile François Zola ( (2 April 1840 &ndash 29 September 1902 was an influential French Writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society between those who supported Dreyfus (the Dreyfusards) and those who condemned him (the anti-Dreyfusards). The latter were often motivated by anti-Semitism. Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility

The accusations against Alfred Dreyfus were eventually demonstrated to be entirely baseless. Dreyfus was fully vindicated and reinstated as a Major in the French Army in 1906. He later served during the whole of World War-1 as a Lieutenant- Colonel.

Background

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Main article: History of the Jews in France

See also: Religion in France and Roman Catholicism in France

Antisemitism in France during the latter part of the 19th century was openly displayed in print and in public speeches by politicians and journalists belonging to the far right of the political spectrum. Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility The history of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group goes back many centuries This timeline of antisemitism chronicles the facts of Antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as a religious or ethnic group This is a list of resources analyzing Antisemitism in the alphabetical order of author's name A number of writers and researchers such as Walter Laqueur, Paul Berman, and Mark Strauss have argued that there is rising acceptance of Antisemitism Jewish exodus from Arab lands|Islam and Antisemitism|Anti Jewish Arabism Oxymoronic, as Although Christian antisemitism is considered to have started around the 12th century its roots are attributed by some scholars to anti-Jewish attitudes and polemic beginning See also Islam and Judaism Islam and antisemitism looks at the teaching of Islam relating to Jews and Judaism and the attitudes of the A number of Jewish organizations Christian organizations Muslim organizations and academics consider the Nation of Islam to be antisemitic New antisemitism is the concept that a new form of Antisemitism is on the rise in the 21st century emanating simultaneously from the left, the Right, and Racial antisemitism is the belief that Antisemitism, hatred or Prejudice toward Jews is justified and justifiable on racial and not religious grounds Origins of religious antisemitism Father Edward Flannery in his The Anguish of the Jews Twenty-Three Centuries of Antisemitism, traces the first clear examples Secondary antisemitism is a distinct kind of Antisemitism which is said to have appeared after the end of World War II. Evidence of antisemitic incidents on university campuses across North America Europe and Australia since 2000 has been recorded by a number of sources This is a list of countries where Antisemitic sentiment has been experienced An antisemitic canard is a deliberately false story inciting Antisemitism. Jewish Deicide is an Antisemitic canard that placed the Responsibility for the death of Jesus on the Jewish people as a whole Blood libels against Jews are false accusations that Jews use Human blood in certain aspects of their Religious rituals and holidays Although Human sacrifice is the act of Homicide (the Killing of one or several Human beings in the context of a Religious ritual ( ritual killing For the logical fallacy see Poisoning the well. Well-poisoning is the act of malicious manipulation of potable water resources in Host Desecration is a form of Sacrilege in Christianity, involving the mistreatment or malicious use of a consecrated Host, or communion wafer Jewish Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, Judeo-Communism, or in Polish Żydokomuna, is a Pejorative Antisemitic expression Usury (ˈjuːʒəri comes from the Medieval Latin usuria, "interest" or "excessive interest" from the Latin usura "interest" Zionist Occupation Government (abbreviated as ZOG) is an Antisemitic Conspiracy theory according to which Jews secretly control a country Holocaust denial is the claim that the Genocide of Jews during World War II —usually referred to as The Holocaust —did not occur in the On the Jews and Their Lies (Von den Jüden und iren Lügen in modern spelling de ''Von den Juden und ihren Lügen'' is a 65000-word treatise written by German Reformation The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ( Protocols of the wise men of Zion, Library of Congress 's Uniform Title; "Протоколы The International Jew is a four volume set of Booklets or Pamphlets originally published and distributed in the early 1920s by Henry Mein Kampf ( English: My Struggle/My Battle) is a book by Adolf Hitler. The Culture of Critique series comprises Kevin B MacDonald 's principal writings on Judaism and Jewish culture: A People That Shall See also Antisemitism, History of antisemitism, New antisemitism The persecution of Jews has occurred many times in Jewish history. In the course of history Jewish populations have been expelled or ostracised by various local authorities and have sought asylum from Antisemitism numerous times Jewish ghettos in Europe existed because Jews were viewed as cultural minorities due to their non-Christian beliefs in a Renaissance Christian environment A pogrom is a form of Riot directed against a particular group whether ethnic religious or other and characterized by destruction of their Homes Businesses For the modern Jewish skullcap see Kippah. The Jewish hat also known as the Jewish cap, Judenhut ( German) Judensau ( German for "Jews' sow" is a derogatory and dehumanizing image of Jews in obscene contact with a large sow (female Pig) which The yellow badge (or yellow patch) also referred to as a Jewish badge, was a cloth patch that Jews were ordered to sew on their outer garments in order The Spanish Inquisition started and was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile to maintain The Pale of Settlement (Черта́ осе́длости cherta osedlosti) was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, along its western border in which The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German The term neo-Nazism refers to post- World War II Political movements Social movements and ideologies seeking to revive Nazism, The Anti-Defamation League ( ADL) is an Interest group founded in 1913 by B'nai B'rith in the United States whose stated aim is "to stop The Community Security Trust ( CST) is a British charity established in 1994 to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish community in the UK The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA is a Vienna -based agency of the European Union inaugurated on 1 March 2007 The Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism is a research institute at Tel Aviv University in Israel. The Wiener Library is the world's oldest institution devoted to the study of the Holocaust, its causes and legacies The Southern Poverty Law Center ( SPLC) is an American Non-profit legal organization internationally known for its tolerance education programs its legal The Simon Wiesenthal Center (often abbreviated SWC) with headquarters in Los Angeles Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union (abbreviated UCSJ) is an umbrella organization of Jewish Human rights groups working in Eastern The Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism (Svenska Kommittén Mot Antisemitism SKMA) is a Sweden -based non-profit organization founded in 1983, that Yad Vashem (יד ושם also spelled Yad VaShem; "Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority" is Israel 's official memorial to the Jewish The Jewish community in France presently numbers around 600000 according to the World Jewish Congress and 500000 according to the Appel Unifié Juif de France and is France is a secular country where Freedom of thought and of religion are preserved in virtue of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the The Church of France, sometimes called the "eldest daughter of the Church" owing to its early communion (second century with the bishop of Rome is part of the worldwide Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility The far-right tradition in France founds its origins as the distinction of left and right in politics itself to the 1789 French Revolution. After the formal inception of the French Third Republic in 1871, in the 1880s nationalist politicians such as Georges Boulanger, Edouard Drumont (founder of the Antisemitic League of France) and Paul Déroulède (founder of Ligue des Patriotes) sought to capitalize on the new fervor for a unified Catholic France. The French Third Republic (in French, La Troisième République, sometimes written as La IIIe The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation Édouard Adolphe Drumont ( 3 May 1844 – 5 February 1917) was a French Journalist and Writer. The Antisemitic League of France (Ligue antisémitique de France was founded in 1889 by the journalist Edouard Drumont. Paul Déroulède ( September 2, 1846 - January 30, 1914) was a French Author and Politician, and a leading figure The Ligue des Patriotes was a French Far right league, founded by the Nationalist poet Paul Déroulède in 1882 The Church of France, sometimes called the "eldest daughter of the Church" owing to its early communion (second century with the bishop of Rome is part of the worldwide Since 1892, the anti-Semitic publication "La Libre Parole" had published highly defamatory contributions called "Les Juifs dans l'Armée" or "Jews in the Army". Consequently and in response, Jewish officers in the French Army such as Cremieu-Foa and Mayer had reacted by challenging to a duel the authors of these defamations. Captain Mayer had even lost his life in a duel against Marquis de Mores in June 1892, thus creating a major scandal anticipating that of the Dreyfus Affair. War Minister Freycinet had intervened in the Chambre des Députés (the French lower house) in those terms: " Gentlemen, in the Army, we do not recognize Jews, Protestants or Catholics, we only recognize French officers ". Chamber of Deputies (la Chambre des députés was the name given to several parliamentary bodies in France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries 1814–1848 However French Jews, in general, were later described by the historian George L. Mosse as being often perceived as a "nation within a nation". George Lachmann Mosse (September 20 1918 Berlin, Germany &ndash January 22 1999 Madison Wisconsin, United States) was a German-born American ^[1]

Nonetheless the situation of the Jewish community in France, in the 1890s, was better than that of Jews in certain other countries of continental Europe, such as Germany and worst of all in Czarist Russia. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending All French Jews had been fully integrated into the nation by law since the French Revolution of 1789 and Napoleon's First Empire. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821 was a French military and political leader who had a significant impact on the History of Europe. The Empire of the French (1804-1814 also known as the Empire of France, Greater French Empire, First French Empire, French Empire, or As a result they generally held higher positions in the government and the military than in most other European countries . By comparison, in Germany and Austria-Hungary, Jews could not attain high positions in either the government or the military. They were generally thought to control the financial and publishing sectors of those nations' economies and such stereotypes promoted further the growth of antisemitism. In France, the political changes resulting from the Dreyfus Affair brought about the 1905 Law on the Separation of Church and State. The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and State ( French: Loi du 9 décembre 1905 concernant la séparation des Églises et de l'État) was passed by It put an end to the favored status of the Catholic Church dating from Emperor Napoleon I 's Concordat with the Vatican . This placed French Protestants and French Jews on the same level than Roman Catholics, with regards to the Law and to public financing ( or lack thereof ) of places of worship.

Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a graduate of both École polytechnique and the École Supérieure de Guerre, was a promising young artillery officer. For other Écoles Polytechniques see École Polytechnique de Montréal and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Artillery (from French artillerie) is a military Combat Arm which employs any apparātus machine His high exit rankings in these elite institutions had led to a training position on the French Army's General Staff in January 1893. The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre (Land Army is the land-based component of the French Armed Forces and its largest Alfred Dreyfus' family background was solidly upper middle class and rested on a successful family-owned textile manufacture in Mulhouse, a city in Alsace that is close to the German and Swiss borders. Mulhouse (Mulhouse myluz Alsatian: Milhüsa or Milhüse, pronounced; Mülhausen i Alsace (Alsace alzas Alsatian and Elsass pre-1996 German: Elsaß; Alsatia is one of the 26 Regions of France, located on the eastern After the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 and the annexation of Alsace by the German Empire, part of the Dreyfus family had chosen to retain its French nationality and moved permanently to Paris. The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War ( 19 July, 1870 — 10 May, 1871 The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from 1871 to 1918 when it was a semi- Constitutional monarchy: beginning with the Unification French nationality law is historically based on the principle of Jus soli, according to Ernest Renan 's definition opposed to the German Its younger members, including 12-year-old Alfred Dreyfus jr. and his brother Mathieu Dreyfus, grew up there.

Arrest and accusations

Abruptly in October 1894, shortly after he had begun his training assignment in the "3eme Bureau" of the General Staff, Captain Dreyfus was arrested and charged with passing military secrets to the German embassy in Paris. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. A diplomatic mission is a group of people from one State or an international Inter-governmental organization (such as the United Nations) present in Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city He was convicted of treason by a military tribunal in December 1894 and sentenced to life imprisonment in solitary confinement on Devil's Island, a prison island off the coast of French Guiana. A military tribunal is a kind of Military Court designed to try members of enemy forces during Wartime operating outside the scope of conventional For other uses see Devils Island. Devil's Island (Île du Diable is the smallest and northernmost island of the three Îles du Salut French Guiana (Guyane française officially fr ''Guyane'' is an Overseas department (French département d'outre-mer, or DOM) of France Captain Dreyfus's conviction was based on a handwritten list (the bordereau) offering access to secret French military information. This list had been retrieved from the waste paper basket of the German military attaché in Paris, Maximilian Von Schwartzkoppen, by a French cleaning woman and spy in the employ of French military counter-intelligence (the so-called "Section de Statistique" led by a Lt Col Sandherr). Her name is widely recognized and quoted since the early 1900s as Marie Bastian (born Caudron).

The list, or "bordereau", appeared to implicate an artillery officer since it proposed access to technical information concerning a recent French artillery weapon, the Modèle 1890 120mm Baquet howitzer. A howitzer is a type of Artillery piece that is characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small explosive charges to propel projectiles Dreyfus was suspected because of his artillery training, his Alsatian origins, his yearly trips to his now-German home town of Mülhausen to visit his ailing father, and because he was a Jew, a negative connotation for the anti-Semitic Sandherr and also for some high-level officers at the "4eme Bureau" of the General Staff. Alsace (Alsace alzas Alsatian and Elsass pre-1996 German: Elsaß; Alsatia is one of the 26 Regions of France, located on the eastern Mulhouse (Mulhouse myluz Alsatian: Milhüsa or Milhüse, pronounced; Mülhausen i Above all, the handwriting on the bordereau resembled that of Dreyfus. However, by the time the High Command realized it could not find substantial evidence against Dreyfus ( aside from the "bordereau" over which forensic experts could not agree that it was Dreyfus' handwriting ) it became impossible to withdraw the prosecution without a scandal that would have brought down the highest levels of the French Army. ^[2] The obstinacy of the Army's General Staff in pressing unfounded charges against Captain Dreyfus led to criminal activities by officers belonging to French military counter-intelligence, including the fabrication of false documents designed to incriminate Dreyfus. The protracted cover-up of such activities by highly placed members of the Army's General Staff is at the very heart of the Dreyfus Affair. While there were undoubtedly anti-Semitic overtones to these actions, aggravating the situation was the fact that Dreyfus, although generally praised by his superiors, was not popular with some of his colleagues because of his aloof personality and comparatively wealthy background. His father had died in 1893 and had left him a small fortune. Captain Dreyfus' personal income, in addition to that of his wife, exceeded that of a general officer in the French Army (Doise, 1994).

Judicial errors and obstructions of justice

The subsequent court-martial was notable for its numerous errors of procedure. A court-martial (plural courts-martial) is a Military court. These military courts can determine Punishments for members of the Military subject Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated Criminal law. For example, the defense was not made aware of a secret dossier that the prosecution had provided to the military judges (Bredin, 1986). A dossier is typically a briefing paper based on an individual of interest in Police or intelligence circles Withholding this dossier from the defense was illegal under French law. The French military historian Jean Doise, a retired officer in the French Army's General Staff, has published evidence (Doise, 1994) that led him to propose the conclusion that Dreyfus may have been used, at least initially, as a decoy by French military counter-intelligence (the "Section de Statistique" led by Lt Colonel Sandherr). A decoy is usually a person device or event meant as a distraction to conceal what an individual or a group might be looking for Military intelligence (abbreviated MI int Commonwealth, or intel This article is a subset article of Intelligence cycle security. According to Doise^[3], the intense prosecution of Alfred Dreyfus may have been initially designed to mislead German espionage into believing that it had stumbled onto highly sensitive artillery information.

It has long been demonstrated, in fact since 1896 by Lt Col Picquart, that the torn up bordereau used to incriminate Alfred Dreyfus had in reality been hand written and delivered to the German Embassy by someone else: a French-born infantry officer of Hungarian descent, Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy ( December 16, 1847 &ndash May 21, 1923) was a French Traitor, who served as a At the top of the list on the borderau was a promise to deliver to the German Military Attaché technical information concerning the oleo-pneumatic recoil mechanism of a new French howitzer (the 120 mm Baquet) . Esterhazy had either hoped to extract money from the German Attaché or had, as proposed by Jean Doise (1984), deliberately planted a deception into German hands to throw them off the Canon de 75 modèle 1897 field gun project. The French 75mm field gun was a quick-firing field Artillery piece developed in 1894 and which saw widespread service in World War I and served into As if by coincidence, the new French 75 prototype and its highly advanced oleo-pneumatic recoil nechanism were in secret progress at that very same time . Conversely, the 120mm Baquet had already been earmarked for early termination because of " systemic irregularities in the functioning of its oleo-pneumatic recoil system " which was primitive compared to that of the French 75 (Alvin and Andre, 1923). Jean Doise's explanation fits with the fact that Esterhazy, although identified by Lt Col Picquart as the author of the "bordereau", was surprisingly acquitted by French military Justice in January 1898 and let go to retire in England with a pension. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland A pension is a steady income given to a person upon Retirement, typically in the form of a guaranteed annuity. Moreover, and as recently confirmed one more time by the French archival records, Walsin-Esterhazy had once worked full-time as a lieutenant on the staff of military counter-intelligence (the "Section de statistique") and knew Lt Col Sandherr quite well. This episode took place during the early part of Esterhazy's career, before the Dreyfus Affair (in "L'Armée de Dreyfus", 2004, Tallandier (Paris) editor, by General Andre Bach, past Director of: “Service Historique de l'Armée de Terre”, the French Army's central historical archives. )

However, the theory that Esterhazy was not exactly what he appears to be - a man who sold military secrets to the Germans to cover his many debts and as revenge against France for denying him the promotion and appointments he wanted - has several problems. If Esterhazy was actually a double-agent working for Sandherr at the time that the bordereau was written, Sandherr's reaction to the discovery of the bordereau makes no sense. This, indeed, would be true if the bordereau handed over by Esterhazy to the German attaché had not been a decoy designed to divert his attention onto a howitzer that had already been eliminated from large scale production: the Model 1890 120mm Baquet. As a matter of public record, only 84 of the 120mm Baquet howitzers had been manufactured (Doise, 1994) after which their production had been halted in 1893 because of basic flaws in their oleo-pneumatic recoil systems (Alvin and Andre, 1923). Another telling fact is that, in 1914-18, the few 120mm Baquet howitzers that were still in existence had been dropped out of the active French artillery inventory amd handed over to the Serbian Army. An important point to be examined as well is that, beginning with the Section de Statistique, up through the Ministry of War and to the French President himself, nobody suggested at any time prior to the Dreyfus trial that the bordereau might be the work of a double agent. However, how could the Army's High Command destroy Esterhazy's credibility with the German attaché since the disinformation planted in the bordereau had been designed to divert German attention away from the French 75 ! The completed French 75mm field gun was eventually adopted three years later in 1897 and mass produced prior to WW-1 (4,500 guns). Nevertheless a more conventional explanation is reasonable if one prefers to exclude Doise's thesis involving the French 75: Esterhazy's acquittal may then be understood not as the vindication of a patriot, but as a result of the collusion of the Section de Statistique to vindicate him in order to justify and conceal their fabrication of evidence against Dreyfus.

These recent exposures by professional French Army historians entirely confirm what had already been known and/or suspected since the early 1900s: the criminal character of the machinations devised by Lt Col Sandherr and his small group (particularly Major Hubert Joseph Henry and Captain Lauth) at the "Section de Statistique". Because these counter-intelligence officers operated within a loosely supervised bureaucracy distinct from the regular military intelligence section (the 2è bureau ) at the French War Ministry, they drifted into forging evidence against Dreyfus (the "faux Henry") and perverting the course of justice (Bredin, 1986 and General Andre Bach, 2004). In English or Irish Law, perversion of the course of justice is a criminal offence in which someone acts in a manner that in some way prevents Justice This happened because Lt Col Sandherr had been encouraged over the years to report directly and secretly to the office of the politically appointed War Minister himself (General Auguste Mercier who occupied this key position until 1896). It is now further documented (Bach, 2004) that General Auguste Mercier, was the responsible party in initiating this chain of events, and later in pressing for the cover-up of the Dreyfus miscarriage of justice. That he had been inspired at the very beginning by General Deloye, who directed French Artillery and supervised the French 75's secret development, is a plausible but unprovable speculation (Doise, 1984).

Dreyfus cashiered in a public ceremony. Cashiering (sometimes referred to a degradation ceremony, although that term may

Alfred Dreyfus was tried in 1894 on charges of espionage; he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison on Devil's Island. Alfred Dreyfus (9 October 1859 &ndash 12 July 1935 was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason For other uses see Devils Island. Devil's Island (Île du Diable is the smallest and northernmost island of the three Îles du Salut He was publicly cashiered: his rank marks and buttons were ripped off his uniform and his sabre was broken. Cashiering (sometimes referred to a degradation ceremony, although that term may In June 1899 the case was reopened, following the uncovering of exonerating evidence and of the fact that Dreyfus had been denied due process during the initial court-martial. Exculpatory evidence is the evidence favorable to the Defendant in a criminal trial, which clears or tends to clear the defendant of Guilt. Due process (more fully due process of law) is the principle that a person has a right to receive notice and be heard in an orderly proceeding in order to protect his or her France's Court of Cassation quashed his conviction and ordered a new court-martial. The Court of Cassation ( Cour de cassation in French) is the main Court of last resort in France. Despite the new evidence presented at his second military trial, Dreyfus was re-convicted in September and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was subsequently pardoned by President Émile Loubet and freed, but would not be formally exonerated until July 12, 1906, when the Court of Cassation annulled his second conviction. Émile François Loubet (31 December 1838 - 20 December 1929 was a French Politician and the 7th President of France. Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting

He was thereafter formally reinstated as a major in the army in July 1906 and made a Knight of the Légion d’Honneur. However, he decided, of his own accord, to retire in July 1907. Seven years passed until Dreyfus was recalled to active duty in August 1914, at the age of 55. He served mostly behind the lines of the Western Front as a Lieutenant-Colonel of Artillery, but also performed front line duties in 1917. Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914 the German army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining Lieutenant Colonel ( Lieutenant-Colonel in English from the French grade 's spelling is a rank of Commissioned officer in the armies Finally, Alfred Dreyfus was raised to the rank of Officer of the Légion d'Honneur in July 1919. This elevation constituted official recognition that he had served his country in time of war with distinction and well beyond the normal retirement age. However his personal life and that of his family, not to speak of his military career, had been deeply damaged by the baseless accusations made against him since 1894.

Scandal and aftermath

L'Aurore's front page on January 13, 1898 features Émile Zola's open letter to the French President Félix Faure denouncing the miscarriage of justice

This cartoon of a French family dinner by caricaturist Caran d'Ache illustrates the divisions in French society during the Dreyfus affair. Events 532 - Nika riots in Constantinople. 888 - Odo Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks Year 1898 ( MDCCCXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Félix François Faure (30 January 1841&ndash16 February 1899 was President of France from 1895 until his death Caran d'Ache was the Pseudonym of the 19th century French satirist and Political Cartoonist Emmanuel Poiré. In the top panel, the host says, “Above all, let us not speak of the Dreyfus affair!” The bottom panel shows the dinner party in disorder: “They have spoken of it. ”

The Dreyfus affair became one of the gravest crises to rock the French Third Republic. The French Third Republic (in French, La Troisième République, sometimes written as La IIIe "The Affair" deeply divided the country into Dreyfusards (supporters of Dreyfus) and anti-Dreyfusards. Generally speaking, royalists, and conservatives(the "right wing") were anti-Dreyfusards, while Dreyfusards were socialists, republicans and anticlericalists, though there were exceptions. Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes Religious (generally Catholic institutional power and influence real or alleged in all aspects of public and political

On the other hand and contrary to common belief, the French Army at the end of the 19th century was not an anti-Semitic institution. Dreyfus's Jewish background was well-known, yet he had been admitted to the most selective military schools in the country and had been assigned to a sensitive position in the General Staff. During that same period, there were over 250 career officers professing the Jewish faith (Birnbaum, 1998) in the French Army, including many colonels and at least one general officer, General Samuel Naquet-Laroque (1843–1921), who occupied a high position in the state armament industries. That same period also saw the rise of Lt Colonel Mardochee-Georges Valabregue (1854–1934), an artilleryman from the École Polytechnique and an observant Jew. He became Commander in Chief of the École Supérieure de Guerre in 1905 and a full general during World War I. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Another high ranking French officer of Jewish descent was General Jules Mordacq(1868-1943). He was a captain at the time of the Dreyfus Affair but his own career continued to progress normally. He became a highly decorated general and divisional commander in the field during WW-1 . General Mordacq was then chosen by Prime Minister Clemenceau, in early 1918, to become his principal military liaison with the High Command. The general remained in this important cabinet position with Clemenceau until the end of the war, in November 1918. He also assisted Clemenceau during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

The writer Émile Zola can be credited to have exposed the affair to the general public in a famously incendiary open letter to President Félix Faure to which the French journalist and politician Georges Clemenceau had affixed the headline "J'accuse!" (I accuse!); it was published January 13, 1898 in the maiden issue of the newspaper L'Aurore (The Dawn). Émile François Zola ( (2 April 1840 &ndash 29 September 1902 was an influential French Writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience or a letter intended for an individual but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally Félix François Faure (30 January 1841&ndash16 February 1899 was President of France from 1895 until his death Georges Benjamin Clemenceau ( Mouilleron-en-Pareds ( Vendée) 28 September 1841 24 November 1929 was a French statesman physician and Journalist Events 532 - Nika riots in Constantinople. 888 - Odo Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks Year 1898 ( MDCCCXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common L’Aurore (French for “The Dawn” was a literary liberal and socialist newspaper published in Paris France from 1897 to 1914 It had the effect of a bomb—in the words of historian Barbara Tuchman, "it was one of the great commotions of history" . Barbara Wertheim Tuchman ( January 30, 1912 &ndash February 6, 1989) was an American self-trained Historian and author Émile Zola's intent was to force his own prosecution for libel so that the emerging facts of the Dreyfus case could be thoroughly aired. In this he succeeded. He was convicted, appealed, was retried, and, before hearing the result, fled to England on the advice of his counsel and friends, returning to Paris in June 1899 when he heard that Dreyfus's trial was to be reviewed.

Zola's worldwide fame and respected reputation brought international attention to what he considered Dreyfus's unjust treatment. However, most of the work of exposing the errors in Dreyfus's conviction was done by four people: Dreyfus's brother Mathieu, who fought a lonely campaign for several years ; Jewish journalist and anarchist Bernard Lazare, who first used the word J'accuse in L’Eclair, on 15 September 1896, a paper which he rewrote under the title The Dreyfus Affair – A Miscarriage of Justice, published in Belgium in November 1896  ; then Lt.Colonel Marie-Georges Picquart, a senior infantry officer who had replaced Lt. Anarchism in France dates from the 18th century Many Anarchists such as the Egalitarians took part in the French Revolution. Bernard Lazare ( 15 June 1865 — 1 September 1903) was a Jewish French literary critic political journalist anarchist Marie Georges Picquart ( Strasbourg September 6, 1854 – Amiens January 18, 1914) was a French army officer and Minister Colonel Sandherr, now deceased, at the helm of French Military Counter-intelligence ; and the Alsatian vice-president of the French Senate, Auguste Scheurer-Kestner . This article is a subset article of Intelligence cycle security. They all worked resolutely to make the case for a revision of Dreyfus's conviction by the French military justice system. Picquart himself, who had demonstrated that the real author of the "bordereau" was Major Esterhazy, was reassigned to a post in the south of Tunisia in December 1896. Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa. This was not necessarily an inappropriate assignment, since Picquart had originally been transferred from a North African Tirailleur regiment to lead military counter intelligence in Paris. Tirailleur literally means a Sharpshooter in French from tir - target The intention now, however, was to get Picquart away from Paris in order to silence him. It was, in fact, a deliberate obstruction of justice by highly placed members of the French military leadership. The crime of obstruction of justice includes crimes committed by Judges Prosecutors attorneys general, and elected officials in general

The affair saw the emergence of the "intellectuals"—academics and others with high intellectual achievements who took positions on grounds of higher principle—such as Zola, the novelists Octave Mirbeau and Anatole France, the mathematicians Henri Poincaré and Jacques Hadamard, and the librarian of the École Normale Supérieure, Lucien Herr. An intellectual (from the adjective meaning "involving thought and reason" is a person who tries to use his or her Intelligence and analytical thinking, Octave Mirbeau ( February 16, 1848 in Trévières - February 16, 1917) was a French Journalist, Art critic Anatole France (16 April 1844—12 October 1924 born François-Anatole Thibault, Anatole France studied at the Collège Stanislas and after graduation Jules Henri Poincaré ( 29 April 1854 &ndash 17 July 1912) (ˈʒyl ɑ̃ˈʁi pwɛ̃kaˈʁe was a French Mathematician Jacques Salomon Hadamard ( December 8, 1865 – October 17, 1963) was a French Mathematician best known for his proof of École Normale de Musique de ParisThe École normale supérieure (also known as Normale Sup’, Normale, ENS, ENS-Paris, ENS-Ulm or Lucien Herr (1864 &ndash 1926 was a French intellectual librarian at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and mentor to a number of well-known socialist Constantin Mille, a Romanian Socialist writer and émigré in Paris, identified the anti-Dreyfusard camp with a "militarist dictatorship". Constantin Mille ( December 21, 1861 – February 20, 1927) was a Romanian journalist novelist poet lawyer and socialist Militarism is the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or ^[4]

In 1906 the Chamber of Deputies overwhelmingly approved measures to rehabilitate and promote Dreyfus and Picquart in the Army (Picquart became a general before WW-1 and even held the position of Minister of War in a later Clemenceau government in 1906). War Minister general de Galliffet , also in 1906, formally put an end to the Dreyfus Affair during an intervention in the Chamber of Deputies which ended with the famous phrase : " The incident is closed ". However, anti-Dreyfusards in the civilian realm never really ceased to denounce the Dreyfus affair to further their own political ends.

The factions in the Dreyfus affair remained in place for decades afterwards. The far right remained a potent force, as did the moderate liberals. The liberal victory played an important role in pushing the far right to the fringes of French politics. It also prompted legislation such as a 1905 law separating church and state. The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and State ( French: Loi du 9 décembre 1905 concernant la séparation des Églises et de l'État) was passed by The coalition of partisan anti-Dreyfusards remained together, but turned to other causes. Groups such as Maurras' Action Française, formed during the affair, endured for decades. The Action Française is a French Monarchist ( Orléanist) Counter-revolutionary movement and periodical founded by Maurice Pujo and The right-wing Vichy Regime was composed to some extent of old anti-Dreyfusards and their descendants. Vichy France, or the Vichy regime are the common terms used to describe the government of France from July 1940 to August 1944 The Vichy Regime would later close its eyes to the arrest of Dreyfus's granddaughter, Madeleine, by the Gestapo and to her deportation and death at Nazi extermination camp Auschwitz, in January 1944. The ( contraction of ge heime Sta ats' po' lizei: "Secret State Police" was the official Secret police of Nazi Germany "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany ^{[5] [6]}

Lucie Dreyfus, the loyal wife of Alfred, wrote many letters of comfort to him during his exile. She had also written the Vatican for mercy, but her letter was never answered. It was she who appealed to Émile Zola for help. Lucie survived the Holocaust by changing her identity and hiding in Southern France at a Catholic convent under the name of Mme Duteil. She died in Paris at age 76, on December 14, 1945. ^[7]

In 1985, President François Mitterrand commissioned a statue of Dreyfus by sculptor Louis Mitelberg to be installed at the École Militaire, but the minister of defense refused to display it although Alfred Dreyfus had been rehabilitated into the Army and fully exonerated in 1906

The Dreyfus Affair, Anti-Semitism and the birth of Zionism

The Austrian-Jewish journalist Theodor Herzl had been assigned to report on the trial and its aftermath. François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand ( 26 October 1916 8 January 1996 served as President of France from 1981 to 1995 elected as representative of the Socialist The École Militaire (Military School is a vast complex of buildings housing various military teaching facilities located in Paris, France, southeast of the Theodor Herzl (בנימין זאב הרצל ( Binyamin Ze'ev Herzl) (May 2 1860&ndashJuly 3 1904 was an Austrian Jewish journalist who founded modern Soon afterward, Herzl wrote The Jewish State (1896) and founded the World Zionist Organization, which called for the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. Der Judenstaat (German The Jewish State) is a book written by Theodor Herzl and published in 1896 in Leipzig and Vienna by M The World Zionist Organization ( Hebrew: ההסתדרות הציונית העולמית or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization ( Hebrew The anti-Semitism and injustice revealed in France by the conviction of Alfred Dreyfus had a radicalizing effect on Herzl, demonstrating to him that Jews could never hope for fair treatment in European society. Historically, it is true that the Dreyfus injustice was not the initial motivation for Herzl's actions . However it did go a long way to keep motivating him further into promoting Zionism. History of Zionism|Timeline of Zionism|World Zionist Organization|Zionist political violence Zionism is an international political movement that originally supported the His persistent activism during his lifetime eventually led to the creation of a Jewish state long after his death.

In the Middle East, the Muslim Arab press was sympathetic to the falsely accused Captain Dreyfus, and criticized the persecution of Jews in France. See also Antisemitism, History of antisemitism, New antisemitism The persecution of Jews has occurred many times in Jewish history. ^[8]

Not all Jews saw the Dreyfus Affair as evidence of antisemitism in France, however. It was also viewed as the opposite. The Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas often cited the words of his father: "A country that tears itself apart to defend the honor of a small Jewish captain is somewhere worth going. "^[9]

Centennial commemoration

On 12 July 2006, President Jacques Chirac held an official state ceremony marking the centenary of Dreyfus's official rehabilitation. Events 1191 - Saladin 's garrison surrenders ending the two-year Siege of Acre. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. This was held in the presence of the living descendants of both Émile Zola and Alfred Dreyfus. The event took place in the same cobblestone courtyard of Paris' École Militaire, where Capitaine Dreyfus had been officially stripped of his officer's rank. The École Militaire (Military School is a vast complex of buildings housing various military teaching facilities located in Paris, France, southeast of the Chirac stated that "the combat against the dark forces of intolerance and hate is never definitively won," and called Dreyfus "an exemplary officer" and a "patriot who passionately loved France. " The French National Assembly also held a memorial ceremony of the centennial marking the end of the Affair. The French National Assembly. The other is the Senate ( “Sénat”) This was held in remembrance of the 1906 laws that had reintegrated and promoted both Dreyfus and Picquart at the end of the Dreyfus Affair.

Films and theatre

Films:

• L'Affaire Dreyfus, Georges Méliès, Stumm, France, 1899
• Trial of Captain Dreyfus, Stumm, USA, 1899
• Dreyfus, Richard Oswald, Germany, 1930
• The Dreyfus Case, F. W. Kraemer, Milton Rosmer, USA, 1931
• The Life of Emile Zola, USA, 1937
• I Accuse!, José Ferrer, England, 1958
• L'Affaire Dreyfus (released in Germany as Die Affäre Dreyfus), Yves Boisset, 1995

A British-made television film of 1991, Prisoner of Honor, directed by Ken Russell, focuses on the efforts of Colonel Picquart to have the sentence of Alfred Dreyfus overturned. The Life of Émile Zola is a 1937 Biographical film of famous French author Émile Zola. (Colonel Picquart was played by American actor Richard Dreyfuss, who says he is a descendant of Alfred Dreyfus). Richard Stephen Dreyfuss (born October 29 1947 is an Academy Award -winning American Actor, known for a number of film television and theater roles such

Theatre:

• Seymour Hicks wrote a drama called One of the Best, based on the Dreyfus trial, starring William Terriss. Seymour Hicks ( 30 January 1871 &ndash 6 April 1949) was a British actor Music hall performer playwright screenwriter William Terriss ( 20 February 1847 - 16 December 1897) was an English Actor, known for his swashbuckling hero roles such It played at the Adelphi Theatre in London in 1895. The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The idea was suggested to Hicks by W.S. Gilbert. Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 &ndash 29 May 1911 was an English Dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen

Literature

• The Dreyfus affair plays an important part in In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust, especially Vols. In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (À la recherche du temps perdu is a semi-autobiographical 3 and 4.

See also

• Antisemitism
• Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy the true perpetrator of the crime of which Alfred Dreyfus had been wrongly accused and convicted. Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy ( December 16, 1847 &ndash May 21, 1923) was a French Traitor, who served as a

Notes

References

• Adam Kirsch (July 11, 2006), The Most Shameful of Stains, The New York Sun
• Ronald Schechter (July 7, 2006), The Ghosts of Alfred Dreyfus, The Forward
• Stanley Meisler (July 9, 2006), Not just a Jew in a French jail, The Los Angeles Times
• Kim Willsher (June 27, 2006), Calls for Dreyfus to be buried in Panthéon, The Guardian
• Anya Rous The Rising Celebrity and Modern Politics—The Dreyfus Affair
• Jean Doise, 1984, "Un secret bien gardé. Events 911 - Signing of the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between Charles the Simple and Rollo of Normandy. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1456 - A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 455 - Roman military commander Avitus is proclaimed Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1358 - Republic of Dubrovnik is founded 1709 - Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Histoire militaire de l'Affaire Dreyfus. " Editions du Seuil, Paris, ISBN 2-02-021100-9
• General Andre Bach, 2004, "L'Armée de Dreyfus. Une histoire politique de l'armée française de Charles X a l'"Affaire". Tallandier,Paris, ISBN 2-84734-039-4
• Pierre Birnbaum,1998,"L'Armée Française était elle antisemite ?", pp 70-82 in Michel Winock: "L'Affaire Dreyfus", Editions du Seuil, Paris, ISBN 2-02-032848 *Colonel Alvin and Commandant Andre, 1923," Les Canons de la Victoire. Manuel d'Artillerie Lourde". Charles-Lavauzelle,Paris. This highly technical manual documents (Pages 334-339) the unsatisfactory character of the 120mm Baquet howitzer ( the artillery piece prominently listed in the Esterhazy "bordereau".

External links

• (English) (French) 1906 : Dreyfus rehabilitated. Site of the French Ministry of Culture
• (French) Site of the National Assembly
• Text of J'accuse! (in French)
• Text of J'accuse! (in English and French)
• Alfred Dreyfus and "The Affair"
• Complete Digital Bibliography on CD-ROM
• Greatest Newspaper Article of all Time (Journalistic retrospective of Zola's "J'accuse!")
• Prisoner of Honor at the Internet Movie Database
• JewishEncyclopedia.com - Andre Cremieu-Foa
• Temporal and Eternal by Charles Péguy, translated by Alexander Dru
• The Life of Emile Zola at the Internet Movie Database

Further reading

• Jean-Denis Bredin, The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus (1986), ISBN 0807611751
• Eric Cahm, The Dreyfus Affair in French Society and Politics (1996), ISBN 0-582-27679-9)
• Guy Chapman, The Dreyfus Trials (1972)
• Nicholas Halasz, Captain Dreyfus: The Story of a Mass Hysteria (1955), ASIN B000JC5HXO
• Michael Burns, France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Documentary History (1999), ISBN 0312218133
• David Levering Lewis, Prisoners of Honor, the Dreyfus Affair(1994), Henry Holt and Co, ISBN 0-8050-3766-7
• The Hon Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG, The Dreyfus Case a Century On—Ten Lessons for Ireland & Australia http://www.lawsociety.ie/documents/committees/hr/lectures/dreyfusaffair2006.pdf
• Betty Schechter, The Dreyfus Affair: A National Scandal (1965), ISBN 0395070929
• Pierre Miquel,L'Affaire Dreyfus(1959),Presses Universitaires de France, ISBN 2 13 053226 8