An 1899 illustration depicts Alfred Dreyfus before his conviction and after release from prison, with his wife Lucie Dreyfus-Hadamard in the background. ARTOKOLORO/PHOTONONSTOP
Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jewish army captain wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, was promoted on Tuesday, November 18, to the rank of brigadier general as an act of reparation in a notorious case of antisemitism that has caused outrage for generations. The law is seen as a symbolic step in the fight against antisemitism in modern France, at a time of growing alarm over hate crimes targeting Jews in the country in the context of the Gaza war.
President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu signed the promotion into law on Monday, and it was published in the Journal Officiel of new legislation on Tuesday. "The French nation posthumously promotes Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general," the law reads.
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'Alfred Dreyfus, a synthesis of the martyr and the just man, deserves to enter the Panthéon'
