Dreyfus: A Very Modern Affair

This is an October 7th story, but one that begins not in 2023, but in October of 1894 with the arrest of French military officer Alfred Dreyfus, who also happened to be a Jew. The implications of his framing, arrest, incarceration and the fallout of his eventual exoneration reverberate today. Over this five-episode series, we examine how these events unfolded, and how they connect to the antisemitism that exists today.

In this first episode, we begin with the fraught political climate in France, a secretly gay general, and an illiterate cleaning lady-turned-spy had to do with it all.

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An ambitious soldier with a fraudulent smoking gun sets off a chain of events that leads to the embarrassment and punishment of an innocent Jew.

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As Dreyfus wastes away on Devil’s Island, his wife and brother back in France fight for his freedom and exoneration. Dreyfus struggles to survive. We speak to Dreyfus's great-great granddaughter about his legacy. 

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France's most influential writer of its time, Emile Zola , becomes the champion of the victim, even at his own, perhaps fatal expense. We’re joined by his great granddaughter, who speaks of the cost Zola paid in fighting for freedom.

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But what about France today, and the world for jews? French activist Carloline Fourest connects the affair to antisemitism today.

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