France's Dreyfus exonerated with promotion

France yesterday promoted Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army captain wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, to the rank of brigadier-general as an act of reparation in a notorious case of anti-Semitism that has caused outrage for generations.

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WRONGED. Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish French army officer in 1899.

(Getty Images)

The law is seen as a symbolic step in the fight against anti-Semitism 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 Sebastien Lecornu signed the promotion into law on Monday and it was published in the so-called Official Journal of new legislation yesterday.

"The French nation posthumously promotes Alfred Dreyfus to the rank of brigadier-general," the law reads.

Parliament's lower house unanimously approved the legislation in June and the Senate backed it earlier this month.