French MPs plan 'reparation' to bring Dreyfus affair to a close

More than a century ago he was wrongly convicted of treason in a case that convulsed France and laid bare a rising tide of antisemitism.

- Ashifa Kassam

Yesterday, French politicians took a step towards remedying the injustice by unanimously backing a symbolic effort to promote Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French army captain, to brigadier general.

It was the beginning of bringing Dreyfus a step closer to the rank he had been denied, said Gabriel Attal, the former prime minister who put forward the bill.

"Accused, humiliated and condemned because he was Jewish, Alfred Dreyfus was dismissed from the army, imprisoned and exiled to Devil's Island," Attal wrote on social media last month, referring to the infamous penal colony in French Guiana.

"Promoting Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier general would constitute an act of reparation, a recognition of his merits, and a tribute to his commitment to the republic."