Dreyfus Affair

The Dreyfus Affair (in French: affaire Dreyfus) was a political scandal that polarised France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent. Sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, Dreyfus was sent to the penal colony at Devil's Island in French Guiana and placed in solitary confinement.

Two years later in 1896 evidence came to light identifying French army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy as the culprit. High-ranking military officials suppressed this new evidence and Esterhazy was unanimously acquitted after the second day of his court-martial. Instead of exoneration, Alfred Dreyfus was then accused by the army based on documents fabricated by French counter-intelligence officer Hubert-Joseph Henry who sought to reaffirm Dreyfus's conviction. These counterfeits were uncritically accepted by Henry's superiors.

News of the military court's framing of Alfred Dreyfus and the attendant cover-up began spread, largely due to J'accuse, a vehement open letter by writer Émile Zola published in a Parisian newspaper in January, 1898. The case had to be re-opened and Alfred Dreyfus was brought back from Guiana in 1899 for retrial. The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued polarised French society between those who supported Dreyfus (the Dreyfusards) and those who condemned him (the anti-Dreyfusards), such as Edouard Drumont (director and publisher of the anti-Semitic newspaper La Libre Parole) and Hubert-Joseph Henry.

Eventually all accusations against Alfred Dreyfus were demonstrated to be groundless. Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army in 1906. He later served throughout World War I, ending his service at the rank of lieutenant colonel.