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June 6, 2025

The End of the Dreyfus Affair

A unanimous vote for a posthumous promotion.

On the subject of France, the country made an important, if symbolic, move on Monday: its National Assembly voted unanimously to confer posthumously the rank of brigadier general on Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish officer framed for treason and convicted in 1895. After his exoneration in 1906, Dreyfus requested this promotion, which he would have attained had he not spent five years in prison. The measure won the votes of both National Rally—a party founded by the heirs of the anti-Dreyfusards that has since rejected its anti-Semitic roots—and of the currently anti-Semitic party of the hard left. David A. Bell looks back on the history of the Dreyfus Affair, and wonders if this is its final chapter:

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