The Dreyfus Affair was blatant anti-semitism. An innocent French soldier was convicted for a dreadful crime, just because he was Jewish. It is clear he was only imprisoned as a result of anti-semitism for countless reasons. Firstly, Dreyfus was the only Jew in the French Army. Secondly, there was a lot of anti-semitic statements coming out at this time, displaying that there was influx of anti-semitism in France at this time. Thirdly, another letter was found in the same handwriting as the one that was supposedly Dreyfus’, showing it was not him since he was in jail at the time. Fourthly, Emilie Zola stands up for him and is accused of saying a false statement and ruining reputations. Lastly, Dreyfus is called back into court and had all the evidence proving he was innocent, yet he was convicted and incarcerated for another ten years. Alfred Dreyfus was born to a wealthy, Jewish family on October 9, 1859 in Alsace, which was the border between Germany and France. At that point in time, Alsace was part of France. In 1870, post Franco-Prussian war, Alsace was returned to Germany, causing Alfred and his family to leave Alsace. They moved to Paris, France. One of the reasons why Dreyfus was convicted was because …show more content…
After the ceremony, the press called out to him, “You know well that you are not innocent. Vive la France! Dirty Jew!”. It is clear that throughout France, anti-semitism was becoming more common. Many people thought that Jews were not “normal” and therefore called them cruel names, such as “dirty Jew”. It would not be a surprise to the French if the Jew was the one that was passing France’s military secrets to Germany, which is why Dreyfus was framed for this crime. Convicting Dreyfus was an obvious act of