A new museum shining light on a dark time in France’s history was opened this week by President Macron, bringing new attention to the so-called Dreyfus Affair of the 1890s, an affair that has again become a hot topic because of claims by a right-wing possible presidential candidate.
Dreyfus, a general staff officer of Jewish ancestry, was accused in 1894 of spying for Germany, convicted and sentenced to imprisonment on Devil’s Island by a secret court-martial. Many at the time believed the charges were based on anti-semitism and were covering up for the actual guilty officer. Dreyfus was eventually exonerated after campaigns touched off by the novelist Emile Zola.
The new Dreyfus Museum/Maison Zola is housed in Zola’s former home near Paris. Zola ignited the campaign with a front-page open letter in the newspaper L’Aurore, headlined “J’Accuse” or “I Accuse,” calling the conviction and charges fraudulent. Zola was convicted of libel, but the campaign took root, and the guilty officer, a Major Esterhazy, eventually confessed.
But even today, there are many on the right who are convinced that Dreyfus was guilty and that supporting his cause is an affront to France. That theme has recently kicked up again in comments by Eric Zemmour, a right-wing radio personality who is widely believed to be a candidate for president. He has said that he doubts both Dreyfus’s innocence, and the idea that the charges were anti-semitic, saying that Dreyfus, from Alsace, was German, not French.
