July 12 will now be a national day of commemoration for Captain Alfred Dreyfus, as part of honouring the victory of "justice and truth against hatred and antisemitism," French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Saturday.
The date was chosen to mark the day that Dreyfus was cleared of charges against him on July 12, 1906, a full twelve years after the so-called Dreyfus Affair began.
In the fall of 1894, a secret military document was discovered which had allegedly been sent from a French officer to a German military attaché. Despite there being no evidence of him having written the document, French Jewish artillery officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus was arrested on October 15, 1894, and later court-martialed.
Dreyfus was accused of treason, arrested, and imprisoned in what was to become one of the most significant political scandals in modern French history.
Dreyfus Affair divides France
The Dreyfus Affair split French society into pro-Dreyfus and anti-Dreyfus camps, and served to highlight the prevalence and impact of antisemitism and its role in the miscarriage of justice.
He was later cleared of charges on July 12 1906 and reinstated the next day.
This is the second commemorative move by France in the last few months: at the end of May France’s National Assembly’s Defense Committee unanimously approved a bill to posthumously promote Dreyfus to the rank of Brigadier-General. The French National Assembly unanimously approved it in June, however it still needs to be approved by the Senate, the upper house of parliament.
Macron said in his statement that until "the end of his life, in 1935, Alfred Dreyfus considered the conditions of his reinstatement to be unfair."
"Yet despite this, he remained loyal both to the spirit and to the reality of the Republic. Just as he had stoically endured the horrific ordeals of imprisonment on Devil’s Island, where his life was in danger, he never gave up hope in the Republic, the Nation, or the Army. Though he left the army in 1907, he returned without hesitation when the Great War broke out in 1914. He ended his military career in 1918 as a lieutenant colonel and officer of the Legion of Honor. Still, until his final day, he waited and hoped to recover the rank he felt he had lost in 1906. In vain."
Macron added that no one today can claim the right to resolve the debate that once divided Dreyfus’s defenders, but that "what matters now is the Nation’s recognition of the work of justice achieved by these men of good will."
He stressed the importance of recognizing, preserving and nurturing the "vital spirit of Dreyfusism."
"The family is unanimously happy about it," Dreyfus' great-granddaughter Yael Perl Ruiz told the Post on Sunday. Perl Ruiz had an appointment at the Elysée last week with Macron's advisor, but the news of the memorial day was kept secret as the president wanted it to be announced on the 119th anniversary of the court ruling of Dreyfus's innocence.
She noted that the unanimous vote in favour of Dreyfus's posthumous promotion was "very touching."
"It received a standing ovation. I was there with a few other people from my family."
"But the process now has to be ratified at the French Senate. I hope it will be soon and then it will be a true reparation."
She added that in the "troubled times we live in, where the inversion of values is becoming the norm, and where antisemitism is rising all over the world, I'd like to reiterate the importance of commemorating this affair."