Dreyfus and France Before the Affair 1870-1894

The history of the Dreyfus family illustrates the integration of the Jews of Alsace and Lorraine into the French nation. The industrialist Raphael Dreyfus, his wife, Jeannette and their children, were very attached to France, and were deeply affected by it's defeat by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War (1870).
In order for his family to escape German occupation, Dreyfus opted for French nationality while his wife and eldest son Jacques remained in Mulhouse to safe -guard family interests.

Alfred was born in Mulhouse in 1859.
An ardent patriot and eager to play a part in the reconquest of Alsace-Lorraine, he embarked on a military career, and later was promoted to captain. In 1893 he entered the War Ministry as a trainee. In 1890 he married Lucie Hadamard in the Synagogue de la Victoire and they subsequently had two children, Pierre (1891-1946) and Jeanne (1893-1981).]

The Republic versus Dreyfus 1894-1897

France's defeat had plunged the nation into self-doubt and its army into an obsessive fear of espionage. The country was rife with anti-Semitism and a general distrust of foreigners. A letter stolen at he German Embassy revealed that there was a spy among the officers at the French War Ministry,and Captain Alfred Dreyfus was suspected. As the result of a plot, he was arrested on October 15,1894 and tried and found guilty by a military tribunal, symptomatic of the breakdown of democratic principles. Convicted of high treason, he was stripped of his rank and deported.The manner in which his sentence was carried out —the “spectacle ” of him being stripped of his rank and his narrow escape from lynching during his transfer to prison —exacerbated the violence which threatened the Republic's very foundations. Captain Dreyfus was deported to Devil's Island in French Guyana where he was kept in solitary confinement and increasingly harsh detention conditions. Sustained by the letters from his wife, brothers and sisters, he never gave up hope, and continued to write letters to the highest authorities of the Republic asserting his innocence.

The Fight for Justice 1895-1898

Mathieu Dreyfus,determined to obtain his brother's retrial and exoneration, and aided by the lawyer Edgar Demange, lobbied numerous politicians and journalists.
In 1895, Dreyfus' first supporters joined forces. They were aware that the arrest was motivated by anti-Semitism,and were joined by leading intellectuals, among them Émile Zola. The new chief of the Intelligence Office,Lieutenant-Colonel Marie-Georges
Picquart, discovered that a German officer, Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy, was the guilty one, but his superiors would not hear of it. In 1896, Colonel Hubert Henry wrote a forged letter to further incriminate Dreyfus, but Mathieu Dreyfus denounced Esterhazy as the author of the forgery. After a short court-martial, Esterhazy was acquitted. Outraged, Zola wrote an open letter to the President of the Republic, published under the headline J 'Accuse! As a result, Zola was convicted and forced into exile.

The Affair: A French Passion
1898-1899

Public opinion was split into two camps: the Dreyfusards and the anti-Dreyfusards. In 1898 the French League for the Rights of Man and the Citizen was founded.
The anti-Dreyfusards founded the League for the French Homeland. Zola was defended by intellectuals and artists,including Anatole France, the Halévy family, and the members of La Revue Blanche. The socialist Jean Jaurès turned Dreyfus into a symbol of the suffering of humanity. As a result of the Zola trial,
Picquart was arrested. But in August 1898, Colonel Henry confessed to forgery and committed suicide.
Proof of the plot against Dreyfus accumulated and the Court of Cassation was charged with the case in September 1898.On June 3,1899 the court over-turned the 1894 verdict and brought Dreyfus before a new military tribunal in Rennes.

A Tidal Wave of Anti-semitism

The flood of press, poster and postcard caricatures stigmatizing “the Jewish Republic ” continued through - out the Affair, reaching unequalled heights of virulence,especially in 1898 and 1899. In 1898 anti-Semitic riots broke out with Jews physically threatenedand synagogues and shops destroyed. In Algeria looting and pogroms claimed numerous victims.
The Anti-Jewish League enjoyed huge popularity and the anti-Semitic leader Edouard Drumont was elected a member of Parliament for the province of Algiers.

The Impact of the Rennes Retrial
1898-Late 1899

The conviction of Zola amplified the impact of the Affair abroad. Zola 's courage was widely admired and sparked a wave of protest in Dreyfus ' favor.
The Viennese Jewish journalist Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) had been sent to Paris to cover the trial. In 1896 he published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State)in which he argued that Jews had to have their own state, and in August 1897, he chaired the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.
Following the decision to review his trial, Dreyfus was brought back to France in July 1899.During his retrial in Rennes, despite the quality of the defense, the proceedings again became a parody of justice. The military tribunal's verdict in September —ten years imprisonment and a second dismissal with dishonor — delighted the anti Dreyfusards and scandalized the Dreyfusards. Dreyfus himself, his health now failing, could not survive another long imprisonment.
Aided by a few important men, Mathieu obtained his brother's presidential pardon. Now a free man, Alfred Dreyfus declared: “The government of the Republic has given me back my freedom. It is nothing for me without my honor.”

Rehabilitation
1900-2006
Alfred now joined his family at the home of his sister Henriette in Carpentras.With the loyal Dreyfusards he sought new evidence justifying him a second appeal to the Court of Cassation. Zola 's sudden death in September 1902, and Jaurès ' show of support in Parliament in April 1903 prompted the opening of a War Ministry investigation. The discovery of new plots impelled the government to refer the case to the Court of Cassation on December 26,1903. On July 12,1906 that Court established Dreyfus ' innocence.z

But when he was re-admitted to the army, he was not promoted to the rank he would have had if not arrested. Dreyfus decided to resign, but remained in the reserves and served again in the military during WWI.

The Challenge of Commemoration

After July 1906,the Dreyfus Affair seemed to have come to a happy end. But the victory was very fragile. Action Française saw Dreyfus' rehabilitation as the death knell of an ancestral France —of its “race ” and grandeur.

In the 20th century,the Dreyfus Affair became a recurring theme in political and humanitarian struggles. But paradoxically, Alfred Dreyfus disappeared from history and public memory.
Compared to the national struggles of Zola, Jaurès, Picquart and even his brother Mathieu, Dreyfus was not considered to have played an important role in the struggle for his rehabilitation.

Public Programs

• From the Depths of My Heart:
The Letters of Alfred and Lucie Dreyfus
Organized with Stern College for Women and Yeshiva College, Yeshiva University
An evening of dramatic readings and discussion.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
6:00 pm exhibition viewing
7:00 pm readings

•The Dreyfus Affair
A Century Later: Legacy and Lessons
Organized with Benjamin N. ardozo School of Law
•The Lessons of the Dreyfus Affair for France and the US
• Discrimination in the Age of International Human Rights
International conference February 5, 2008