Alfred Dreyfus(1859-1935)
Alfred Dreyfus is known, and earned his place in history, for being
unwillingly at the center of a scandal that rocked France from 1894
until 1906. Dreyfus, a captain on the General Staff, had been accused
of passing sensitive artillery information to Germany (it was soon
discovered that another officer had actually been the spy, but the
information was ignored). After a secret court-martial, Dreyfus was
stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Devil's
Island prison in French Guiana. However, his conviction had sharply
divided the French populace, with many rallying to his defense. Among
them was Emile Zola, whose incendiary article "J'Accuse" and the
resulting trial for libel brought the facts of the case for the first
time into the public domain. By the early 1900s, it was obvious that
Dreyfus had been a victim of anti-Semitism (Dreyfus was Jewish) and
that the trial was fatally flawed. On July 12, 1906, Dreyfus was fully
and publicly exonerated and returned to his old rank before almost
immediately being promoted. Dreyfus served in the inactive
reserves until World War One where as a 55-year-old man, he served with
distinction at Verdun and other battlefronts, earning the Croix de
Guerre and the title of Officer of the Legion of Honor. Dreyfus died
on June 12, 1935, exactly 29 years to the day after his exoneration.