'History of a traitor'

'Histoire d'un traître'

In 1894, a document was found offering to sell French military secrets to Germany. The crime could not go unpunished. A case was hastily built against Alfred Dreyfus, the only Jewish officer on the French Army’s General Staff. On the basis of forged documents, a ‘secret dossier’ and far-fetched ‘expert opinions’, Dreyfus was convicted of treason and condemned to military degradation and permanent deportation. The Dreyfus affair divided France, fanned the flames of antisemitism and exposed the exploitable biases of the judicial system. Renowned writer Emile Zola brought the Dreyfus affair back to the public’s attention in 1898 with an explosive open letter entitled ‘J’accuse’, in which he directly accused high-ranking French officers of falsifying evidence. Following Zola’s letter, the Dreyfus affair became a hotly debated and widely publicised subject in France and abroad.