Alfred Dreyfus
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Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was a French army officer falsely accused of spying in the late 1800s. The charges, conviction and initial refusal by the government to admit its error had overtones of Anti-Semitism, as Dreyfus was Jewish.[1] In 1895, he was sentenced to spend life imprisoned on Devil's Island off the coast of French Guiana.
The Dreyfuss Affair became a central issue in French politics, with critics like Ãmile Zola --who cired "J'accuse"--insisting it was a miscarriage of justice brought by a conspiracy of Catholic army officers. Dreyfuss was proven innocent and released in 1899.
Further reading
- Bredin, Jean-Denis. The Affair: The Case of Alfred Dreyfus. (1986). 551 pp.
- Griffiths, Richard. The Use of Abuse: The Polemics of the Dreyfus Affair and Its Aftermath. (1991). 207 pp.
- Kleeblatt, Norman L., ed. The Dreyfus Affair: Art, Truth, and Justice. (1987). 315 pp.
- Zola, Emile. The Dreyfus Affair: "J'Accuse" and Other Writings. (1996). 202 pp.