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JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE
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FRANCE NEWS PAGE
On 12 July, France celebrated the 100th anniversary of the pardoning of Alfred Dreyfus, and the ending of the notorious 'Dreyfus Affair,' probably the most public, prolonged and rancorous episode of anti-Semitism in Europe between Emancipation and the Shoah.
The Dreyfus Affair created political turmoil throughout France and exposed French anti-Semitism. In September 1894, French Army Intelligence interrupted a sensitive letter destined for the German Army attaché in Paris. Within weeks, and without thorough investigation, the French Army concluded that responsibility for the security breach lay with Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jew. Dreyfus was arrested in October and convicted of treason in December 1894. By January 1895, he had been stripped of his army rank and exiled to Devil's Island, off the coast of French Guinea.
Dreyfus and his supporters, including the novelist Emile Zola, fought the accusations with little initial success. However, in 1897, evidence supporting Dreyfus' innocence surfaced and army officials began to question the conviction. After four years in exile, Dreyfus was absolved; he was reinstated nearly twelve years after the initial incident. Dreyfus was later awarded the Legion of Honour, the French state's most prestigious award.
According to the New York Times and the BBC, high-ranking French and Jewish diplomats attended the anniversary celebration, applauding it for addressing France's racist past. President Chirac stated that Dreyfus' absolution signaled a triumph over anti-Semitism and a victory for human rights, while cautioning that much remained to be accomplished in the fight against racism.
Meanwhile, however, Chirac refused to transfer Dreyfus' remains to the Pantheon, a cemetery for French heroes, and a statue of Dreyfus commissioned in the mid-1990s never reached its intended site, the Ecole Militaire. Critics have argued that French officials actually thus failed adequately to honour Dreyfus' life and accomplishments.
Elsewhere in Paris the same week, celebrations were held to mark the naming of Theodor Herzl Square. Herzl (d. 1904), the Austro-Hungarian founder of the Zionist movement, devoted much of his life to the project of a Jewish state. The Dreyfus Affair proved highly significant for Herzl, raising awareness of the strength of anti-Semitism in Europe. As a journalist, Herzl covered the trial of Alfred Dreyfus, and wrote about these experiences in his book The Jewish State.
(24 August 2006)
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