Alfred Dreyfus, the French Jewish military officer who was falsely accused of treason in 1894 in France, has been posthumously promoted to the rank of brigadier general, AFP reported on Tuesday.
French President Emmanuel Macron and French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu signed the promotion into law on Monday, and it was published in the Journal Officiel de La République Française, the government gazette of the French Republic, the next day.
The law is seen as an act of reparation for the notorious case that highlighted the rampant antisemitism of 19th-century Europe and a “symbolic step” in France’s fight against modern-day antisemitism in the country.
“Though symbolic and significantly late, the posthumous promotion of Alfred Dreyfus is a welcome gesture,” Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS.
“That said, with the dramatic rise in antisemitism in France, which seems to grow by the day, it is vitally important that the same officials who have addressed themselves to the historic wrongs against Alfred Dreyfus should now—with the same energy and conviction—address the mounting antisemitism which has deeply impacted the French Jewish community,” he said.
The Dreyfus affair exposed deep-seated antisemitism in French society and caused a public storm that led to a long legal battle to exonerate his name. It is also seen as a major catalyst for modern Zionism.
The lower house of the French Parliament unanimously approved the legislation in June, and the Senate backed it earlier this month.
The Dreyfus case is one of France’s most infamous miscarriages of justice. Accused of passing military secrets to Germany, he was convicted amid a wave of anti-Jewish fervor and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island.
His innocence was later championed by figures such as the novelist Émile Zola, who famously wrote J’accuse!, as well as by intelligence officer Georges Picquart, who exposed the real culprit.
Eventually exonerated in 1906 and reinstated as a major, Dreyfus died in Paris at the age of 75 on July 12, 1935.
