A French parliamentary committee unanimously approved a bill this week to posthumously promote Alfred Dreyfus, more than 130 years after he was framed for treason in one of the defining antisemitic incidents of the 19th century.
In what became known as the Dreyfus affair, Dreyfus, a Jewish French army captain, was falsely accused of espionage and convicted of treason in 1894, decades after the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war. The trial — playing out in a Western European republic purportedly committed to equal rights — became an international scandal and symbol of enduring antisemitism on the continent.
French writer Émile Zola published a famous open letter titled “J’accuse!” charging the government and army of “treason against humanity” by playing to the public’s antisemitism. The trial also reportedly persuaded Theodor Herzl, who covered it as a journalist, to turn to Zionism. He is now considered the chief ideological influence behind Israel’s establishment.
Dreyfus was eventually exonerated, returned to the military and died in 1935, but the incident is seen as a stain on French history. This week, more than a century later, the French parliament’s National Defence and Armed Forces Committee unanimously voted to promote him to the rank of brigadier general.
The measure will be voted on by the full National Assembly on Monday.
“Accused, humiliated and condemned because he was Jewish, Alfred Dreyfus was dismissed from the army, imprisoned and exiled to Devil’s Island,” wrote former French prime minister Gabriel Attal, who has Jewish ancestry, in a post on X. “I hope that on June 2, the national representation can, unanimously, work to repair the indignity and bring honor to the Republic.”
The French embassy in Israel also praised the vote in a statement on X.
“The French Nation is just and does not forget,” the statement said. “This rights an injustice, honors a warrior, and clarifies that antisemitism, from history to today, will never have a place in the Republic.”
This isn’t the first time in recent years that France has revisited the scandal. In 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron inaugurated what is believed to be the world’s first museum about the Dreyfus affair in a Paris suburb.
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