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France\u2019s National Assembly Defense Committee has unanimously approved a bill to posthumously promote Captain Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general, marking a historic correction of the antisemitic injustice he endured. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The bill comes 90 years after Dreyfus\u2019 death\u00a0and has been described as\u00a0\u201can important step in the history of Alfred Dreyfus and in the history of the Republic,\u201d according to Charles Sitzenstuhl, the Ensemble pour la r\u00e9publique (EPR) MP for Bas-Rhin and the rapporteur for the bill. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe anti-Semitism that struck Alfred Dreyfus is not a thing of the past. Today’s acts of hatred are a reminder that this fight is still relevant today,\u201d pointed out former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who tabled the bill on 7 May. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The text also states that \u201cfive years of deportation and humiliation irreparably hampered (Dreyfus\u2019)\u00a0military career\u201d and it is \u201cindisputable that without this injustice, Alfred Dreyfus would naturally have risen to the highest ranks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a statement, the French Embassy in Israel said: \u201cThe French nation is committed to justice and does not forget. It is posthumously promoting Alfred Dreyfus to brigadier general \u2014 to correct a wrong, to honor a soldier, and to affirm that antisemitism, past or present, has no place in the Republic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For those in need of a refresher on the Dreyfus Affair, French intelligence intercepted a memo from a French officer to a German embassy official in Paris in 1894. Suspicion fell on Dreyfus, who was tried by a military tribunal and convicted of treason. In January 1895, was stripped of his rank in a public degradation ceremony and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil\u2019s Island in French Guiana.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The trial was fueled by widespread antisemitism within the military and French society. A public campaign to clear Dreyfus\u2019 name soon emerged, led by journalist Bernard Lazare. <\/p>\n
In 1896, new intelligence chief Lt. Col. Georges Picquart discovered that the real traitor was another officer, Maj. Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Respected French novelist \u00c9mile Zola published his famous open letter, \u201cJ\u2019accuse\u201d (\u201cI Accuse\u201d), in January 1898, denouncing the military\u2019s role in the miscarriage of justice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 1906, France\u2019s highest court overturned the conviction, fully exonerating Dreyfus. He was reinstated in the army as a major and went on to serve during World War I. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Dreyfus\u00a0died on 12 July\u00a01935 at the age of 76, and the Dreyfus Affair became synonymous with the wrongful conviction of the innocent. It also remains one of France\u2019s – and history\u2019s – most enduring examples of institutional antisemitism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The bill\u00a0will be further debated on 2 June and if it\u00a0is adopted, \u201cit does not close the door on the strong symbol that would be the pantheonisation of Dreyfus,\u201d according to\u00a0historian Philippe Oriol, a specialist in the Dreyfus Affair \u2013 who refers to the Panth\u00e9on,\u00a0the national necropolis reserved for the worship of illustrious men.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is not to include a moment in history\u201d in the Pantheon, but \u201cto include a man\u201d, added Oriol.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only regret that this promotion did not take place during his lifetime,\u201d said Charles Dreyfus, grandson of Alfred Dreyfus. He told France Inter: \u201cMost of the tributes paid to him were posthumous,\u201d and how this gesture of reparation initiated by the parliamentarians remains a powerful symbol. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to show what antisemitism can do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Additional sources \u2022 France Inter<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ADVERTISEMENT France\u2019s National Assembly Defense Committee has unanimously approved a bill to posthumously promote Captain Alfred Dreyfus to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[26388,2000,299,36,61154,2348],"class_list":{"0":"post-141188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-french-army","13":"tag-history"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114590719927510091","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}