Dreyfus affair

The Dreyfus affair (French: l’affaire Dreyfus, pronounced: [la.fɛʁ dʁɛ.fys]) was a political scandal that divided France from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. The affair is often seen as a modern and universal symbol of injustice, and remains one of the most striking examples of a complex miscarriage of justice, where a major role was played by the press and public opinion.

The scandal began in December 1894, with the treason conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian and Jewish descent. Sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, Dreyfus was imprisoned on Devil’s Island in French Guiana, where he spent nearly five years.

Evidence came to light in 1896—primarily through an investigation instigated by Georges Picquart, head of counter-espionage—identifying a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy as the real culprit. After high-ranking military officials suppressed the new evidence, a military court unanimously acquitted Esterhazy after a trial lasting only two days. The Army then accused Dreyfus of additional charges based on falsified documents. Word of the military court’s framing of Dreyfus and of an attempted cover-up began to spread, chiefly owing to J'accuse, a vehement open letter published in a Paris newspaper in January 1898 by famed writer Émile Zola. Activists put pressure on the government to reopen the case.

To continue reading this Bible article, click here.

Author: Wikipedia

Keywords: Dreyfus affair, Dreyfus, Dreyfuss, Alfred Dreyfus, Alfred Dreyfuss, Devil's Island, Dreyfus sent to Devil's Island, Theodor Herzl, Theodore Herzl, Herzl, Herzle, Herzel, Anti Israeli, Israel's enemies, Enemies of the Jews, Jewish enemies, Anti semetic, antisemitic, Jew hater, anti semitism, antisemitism, Anti semitic, Anti Jewish, Anti Jew, Anti Judaic, Against the Jews, Hatred of the Jews, France, French scandal, Esterhazy, Estherhazy, J'accuse, Zola, Emile Zola

Source: This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Dreyfus affair,” which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.

Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.