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May 20, 2024 · Dreyfus affair, political crisis, beginning in 1894 and continuing through 1906, in France during the Third Republic. The controversy centered on the question of the guilt or innocence of army captain Alfred Dreyfus, who had been convicted of treason for allegedly selling military secrets to the Germans in 1894.
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May 21, 2024 · While Dreyfus began serving a life sentence under brutal conditions in the notorious prison on Devil’s Island, off the coast of South America, his family back in Paris...
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October 15 - Dreyfus is accused of high treason, arrested, and imprisoned in secrecy. December 19-22 - First Trial: Dreyfus’s first court-martial held in closed session. Dreyfus is sentenced to perpetual deportation. 1895. January 5 - Degradation: Military degradation of Dreyfus. Dreyfus is publicly stripped of his rank in the courtyard of ...
The Dreyfus affair (French: affaire Dreyfus, pronounced [afɛːʁ dʁɛfys]) was a political scandal that divided the Third French Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. The scandal began in December 1894 when Captain Alfred Dreyfus , a 35-year-old Alsatian French artillery officer of Jewish descent , was convicted of treason for ...
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The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal that rocked France between 1894 and 1906 and revealed growing antisemitism across Europe.
A scandal that rocked France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Dreyfus affair involved a Jewish artillery captain in the French army, Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), who was falsely convicted of passing military secrets to the Germans.
In 1894, after a French spy at the German Embassy in Paris discovered a ripped-up letter in a waste basket with handwriting said to resemble that of Dreyfus, he was court-martialed, found guilty of treason and sentenced to life behind bars on Devil’s Island off of French Guiana. In a public ceremony in Paris following his conviction, Dreyfus had the insignia torn from his uniform and his sword broken and was paraded before a crowd that shouted, “Death to Judas, death to the Jew.”
In 1896, the new head of the army’s intelligence unit, Georges Picquart, uncovered evidence pointing to another French military officer, Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, as the real traitor. However, when Picquart told his bosses what he’d discovered he was discouraged from continuing his investigation, transferred to North Africa and later imprisoned.
Nevertheless, word about Esterhazy’s possible guilt began to circulate. In 1898, he was court-martialed but quickly found not guilty; he later fled the country. After Esterhazy’s acquittal, a French newspaper published an open letter titled “J’Accuse…!” by well-known author Emile Zola in which he defended Dreyfus and accused the military of a major cover-up in the case. As a result, Zola was convicted of libel, although he escaped to England and later managed to return to France.
The Dreyfus affair deeply divided France, not just over the fate of the man at its center but also over a range of issues, including politics, religion and national identity.
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- Elizabeth Nix
Aug 4, 2023 · Alfred Dreyfus served his country with honor—yet found himself falsely accused of spying due to antisemitic prejudices. by Jon Guttman 8/4/2023. Alfred Dreyfus is shown imprisoned in 1895. When French authorities learned a double agent was spying for the Germans, Dreyfus became a target for the blame due to bias.
Dec 28, 2023 · September 3, 1898. El Paso Daily Herald (El Paso, TX), Image 1. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. The Dreyfus Affair was a political and criminal justice scandal in France that went from 1894 to 1906. French artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus, of Jewish descent, was convicted of treason in 1894 and sentenced to life in prison.
