1859-1935. French army officer, victim of
miscarriage of justice, anti-Semitism, and
cover-up. Employed in the War Ministry, in
1894 he was accused of betraying military
secrets to Germany, court-martialled, and
sent to the penal colony on Devil's Island.
When his innocence was discovered 1896 the
military establishment tried to conceal it,
and the implications of the Dreyfus affair
were passionately discussed in the press
until in 1906 he was exonerated. Dreyfus was
born in Mulhouse, E France, of a Jewish
family. He had been a prisoner in the French
Guiana penal colony for two years when it
emerged that the real criminal was a Maj
Esterhazy; the high command nevertheless
attempted to suppress the facts, and used
forged documents to strengthen their case.
After a violent controversy, in which the
future prime minister Clemenceau and the
novelist Zola championed Dreyfus, he was
brought back for a retrial 1899, found guilty
with extenuating circumstances, and received
a pardon. In 1906 the court of appeal
declared him innocent, and he was reinstated
in his military rank.