Captain Alfred Dreyfus
| Alfred Dreyfus | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
9 October 1859 Mulhouse, Alsace, Second French Empire |
| Died | 12 July 1935 (aged 75) Paris, French Third Republic |
| Buried at | Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris (48°50′17″N 2°19′37″E / 48.83806°N 2.32694°ECoordinates: 48°50′17″N 2°19′37″E / 48.83806°N 2.32694°E) |
| Allegiance |
 France
|
| Service/branch | French Army |
| Years of service | 1880–1918 |
| Rank | Lieutenant-colonel |
| Unit | Artillery |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (1906) Officier de la Légion d'honneur (1918) |
| Relations | Raphael Dreyfus (father) Jeannette Libmann (mother) Lucie Eugénie Hadamard (wife) Pierre Dreyfus (son) Jeanne Dreyfus (daughter) |
| Signature |  |
Alfred Dreyfus (French: [al.fʁɛd dʁɛ.fys]; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French Jewish artillery officer whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French history with a wide echo in all Europe. Known today as the Dreyfus affair, the incident eventually ended with Dreyfus' complete exoneration.
Captain Alfred Dreyfus' grandchildren donated over three thousand documents to the Musée d'art et d'histoire du judaïsme (Museum of Jewish art and history), including personal letters, photographs of the trial, legal documents, writings by Dreyfus during his time in prison, personal family photographs, and his officer stripes that were ripped out as a symbol of treason. The museum created an online platform in 2006 dedicated to the Dreyfus Affair, giving the public access to these exceptional documents.
Born in Mulhouse (Mìlhüsa), Alsace in 1859, Dreyfus was the youngest of nine children born to Raphaël and Jeannette Dreyfus (née Libmann). Raphaël Dreyfus was a prosperous, self-made, Jewish textile manufacturer who had started as a peddler. Alfred was 10 years old when the Franco-Prussian War broke out in the summer of 1870, and his family moved to Paris following the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine by Germany after the war.
The childhood experience of seeing his family uprooted by the war with Germany prompted Dreyfus to decide on a career in the military. Following his 18th birthday in October 1877, he enrolled in the elite École Polytechnique military school in Paris, where he received military training and an education in the sciences. In 1880, he graduated and was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the French army. From 1880 to 1882, he attended the artillery school at Fontainebleau to receive more specialized training as an artillery officer. On graduation he was assigned to the Thirty-first Artillery Regiment, which was in garrison at Le Mans. Dreyfus was subsequently transferred to a mounted artillery battery attached to the First Cavalry Division (Paris), and promoted to lieutenant in 1885. In 1889, he was made adjutant to the director of the Établissement de Bourges, a government arsenal, and promoted to captain.
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