31 Facts About Alfred Dreyfus

Alfred Dreyfus was a French Army officer commonly known for his central role in the Dreyfus affair.

In 1894, Dreyfus fell victim to a judicial conspiracy that eventually sparked a major political crisis in the French Third Republic when he was wrongfully accused and convicted of being a German spy due to antisemitism.

Alfred Dreyfus was arrested, cashiered from the French army and imprisoned on Devil's Island in French Guiana.

Gradual revelations indicated that the internal investigation conducted by the French army was biased; Alfred Dreyfus was an ideal scapegoat due to being a Jew, and military authorities were aware of his innocence but preferred to cover up the affair and leave him imprisoned rather than lose face.

Alfred Dreyfus was eventually exonerated, rehabilitated and reinstated in the French army, although at a lower rank than his seniority would have warranted.

Alfred Dreyfus later fought in World War I, notably at the battles of Verdun and the Aisne, before retiring and leading a quiet life.

Alfred Dreyfus died in 1935 in Paris and was buried in the Montparnasse Cemetery.

Alfred Dreyfus's grandfather was a merchant from a long established Alsatian Jewish family in Rixheim, not far from Mulhouse.

Alfred Dreyfus's father became a prosperous industrialist who started a cotton mill, then expanded the business with a weaving factory.

Alfred Dreyfus spent his first years in a house on Rue du Sauvage, then later in a mansion on Rue de la Sinne, both in Mulhouse.

Alfred Dreyfus was 10 years old when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in the summer of 1870, and following the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by Germany after the war, he and his family moved to Basel, Switzerland, where he attended high school.

The childhood experience of seeing his family uprooted by the war with Germany prompted Alfred Dreyfus to decide on a career in the military.

Alfred Dreyfus was transferred to a mounted artillery battery attached to the First Cavalry Division, and promoted to lieutenant in 1885.

On 18 April 1891, the 31-year-old Alfred Dreyfus married 20-year-old Lucie Eugenie Hadamard.

Three days after the wedding, Alfred Dreyfus learned that he had been admitted to the Ecole Superieure de Guerre or War College.

Suspicion quickly fell upon Alfred Dreyfus, who was arrested for treason on 15 October 1894.

On 5 January 1895, Alfred Dreyfus was summarily convicted in a secret court martial, publicly stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island in French Guiana.

Alfred Dreyfus confessed to writing the bordereau under orders from Sandherr in an attempt to frame Dreyfus.

Alfred Dreyfus wrote about her interviews in September 1898, reporting his confession and writing a leader column accusing the French military of antisemitism and calling for a retrial for Dreyfus.

In France there was a passionate campaign by Alfred Dreyfus' supporters, including leading artists and intellectuals such as Emile Zola, following which he was given a second trial in 1899, but again declared guilty of treason despite the evidence of his innocence.

However, due to public opinion, Alfred Dreyfus was offered and accepted a pardon by President Emile Loubet in 1899 and released from prison; this was a compromise that saved face for the military's mistake.

On 12 July 1906, Alfred Dreyfus was officially exonerated by a military commission.

Gregori was acquitted by the Parisian court, which accepted his defence that he had not meant to kill Alfred Dreyfus, meaning merely to graze him.

Alfred Dreyfus started corresponding with the marquise Marie-Louise Arconati-Visconti in 1899 and began attending her Thursday salons after his release.

Alfred Dreyfus said that nothing could repair the humiliations and injustices Dreyfus had suffered, and "let us not aggravate it by forgetting, deepening, or repeating them".

An army colonel was cashiered in 1994 for publishing an article suggesting that Alfred Dreyfus was guilty; far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen's lawyer responded that Alfred Dreyfus' exoneration was "contrary to all known jurisprudence".

Eric Zemmour, a far-right political opponent of Macron, said repeatedly in 2021 that the truth about Alfred Dreyfus was not clear; his innocence was "not obvious".

Alfred Dreyfus was granted retirement from the army in October 1907 at the age of 48.

Alfred Dreyfus was promoted to Officer of the Legion of Honour in November 1918.

Alfred Dreyfus was interred in the Cimetiere du Montparnasse, Paris.

Alfred Dreyfus' grandchildren donated over three thousand documents to the Musee d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaisme, including personal letters, photographs of the trial, legal documents, writings by Alfred Dreyfus during his time in prison, personal family photographs, and his officer stripes that had been ripped off as a symbol of treason.