Tuesday, November 18th saw France promote Alfred Dreyfus—a Jewish army captain wrongly convicted of treason in 1894—to the rank of brigadier general, as an act of reparation in a notorious case of antisemitism that has caused outrage for generations.
The law is seen as a symbolic step in the fight against antisemitism in modern France, at a time of growing alarm over hate crimes targeting Jews in the country—in the context of the Gaza war.
President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu signed the promotion into law on November 17th, and it was published in the so-called Official Journal of new legislation on November 18th. Parliament’s lower house unanimously approved the legislation in June, and the Senate backed it earlier this month. The text of the new law states
The French nation posthumously promotes Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general.
Dreyfus, a 36-year-old army captain from the Alsace region of eastern France, was accused in October, 1894 of passing secret information on new artillery equipment to a German military attaché. The accusation, based on a comparison of handwriting on a document found in the German’s wastepaper basket in Paris, kicked off what would become known as the “Dreyfus affair.”
Dreyfus was put on trial amid a virulent antisemitic press campaign. But novelist Émile Zola then penned his famous “J’accuse…!” (“I accuse”) pamphlet in support of the captain. Despite a lack of evidence, Dreyfus was convicted of treason, sentenced to life imprisonment in the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony in French Guiana, and publicly stripped of his rank.
But Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, head of the intelligence services, reinvestigated the case in secret and discovered the handwriting on the incriminating message was that of another officer, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.
In June 1899, Dreyfus was brought back to France for a second trial. He was initially found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison, before being officially pardoned—though not cleared of the charges.
The posthumous ‘promotion’ takes place against the backdrop of increasing levels of antisemitism in France.
