Alfred Dreyfus

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Alfred Dreyfus
Dreyfus c. 1894
Personal details
Born	(1859-10-09)9 October 1859[1] Mulhouse, French Empire
Died	12 July 1935(1935-07-12) (aged 75) Paris, French Republic
Resting place	Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris 48°50′17″N 2°19′37″E / 48.83806°N 2.32694°E / 48.83806; 2.32694
Nationality	French[1]
Spouse	Lucie Eugénie Hadamard ​ ​ (m. 1890)​
Children	Pierre Dreyfus Jeanne Dreyfus Levy
Parents	Raphaël Dreyfus (father) Jeannette Libmann (mother)
Alma mater	École Polytechnique École Supérieure de Guerre
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	French Third Republic
Branch/service	French Army Artillery
Years of service	1880–1918
Rank	Lieutenant-colonel
Unit	31st Artillery Regiment 1st Cavalry Division
Battles/wars	World War I Battle of Verdun Second Battle of the Aisne

Alfred Dreyfus (French: [alfʁɛd dʁɛfys], German: [ˈalfʁeːt ˈdʁaɪfuːs]; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French artillery officer of Alsatian origin and Jewish ethnicity and faith. In 1894, he fell victim to a judicial conspiracy that sparked a major political crisis during the Third Republic, known as the Dreyfus Affair (1894–1906), when he was wrongfully accused and convicted, due to antisemitism, of being a spy for the German Empire. Upon his arrest, he was sentenced to degradation and deported to the penal colony on Devil's Island to be imprisoned until his death. However, evidence emerged showing that Dreyfus was innocent and that the true culprit was a Catholic officer named Esterhazy. Gradual revelations indicated that the internal investigation conducted by the army was biased; Dreyfus was an ideal scapegoat because he was Jewish, and the army's high command was aware of his innocence but preferred to cover up the affair and leave him in the penal colony rather than lose face.

The scandal erupted, shaking French political life; it highlighted the connections between the French army and the political circles of the time with antisemitism. After numerous judicial and political twists, the publication of Émile Zola's manifesto, J'accuse... !, in 1898 brought new momentum to Dreyfus's cause. Zola accused the army and French political leaders of covering up the affair. Dreyfus was eventually exonerated, rehabilitated, and reinstated in the French army, although at a lower rank than his seniority would have warranted.

The anti-Dreyfusard and antisemitic factions, however, viewed this rehabilitation unfavorably, and while attending the transfer of Émile Zola's remains to the Panthéon, Dreyfus was targeted in an attack by an antisemitic militarist activist, who was later acquitted in trial, but Dreyfus survived.

He fought in World War I, notably at Verdun and the Chemin des Dames, then retired and led a quiet life. He died in 1935 in Paris and was buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery.

Alfred Dreyfus's life and the persecutions he endured because he was Jewish left a significant mark on French political consciousness; the true culprit, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, remained unpunished. Among his defenders were writers such as Émile Zola, Charles Péguy, and Anatole France, politicians like Georges Clemenceau and Jean Jaurès, and the founders of the Human Rights League (LDH) Francis de Pressensé and Pierre Quillard.