Alfred Dreyfus statue given permanent home in Paris

A statue honouring Alfred Dreyfus has been given a permanent home outside the French court that finally cleared the Jewish army officer of treason, marking a symbolic new chapter in one of history’s most notorious antisemitic miscarriages of justice.

The 3.5-metre bronze memorial was unveiled on Saturday outside the Cour de cassation in central Paris – France’s highest court – which overturned Dreyfus’s wrongful conviction in 1906.

The ceremony took place on 12 July, France’s national day of remembrance for Dreyfus, introduced by President Emmanuel Macron last year to commemorate the Jewish officer and the values of justice and equality.

Macron said: “From now on, every 12 July, a commemorative ceremony will be held for Dreyfus celebrating the victory of justice and truth over hatred and antisemitism.

“Thus, Alfred Dreyfus and those who fought through him for liberty, equality and fraternity will continue to serve as the example that must inspire our conduct.”

The sculpture, created by French artist Louis Mitelberg in 1985, had spent decades without a permanent home despite the enduring significance of the Dreyfus Affair to both French history and the fight against antisemitism.

Originally commissioned during François Mitterrand’s presidency, it was intended to stand at the École Militaire, where Dreyfus was publicly stripped of his rank after being falsely convicted of treason in 1894. The proposal was rejected by the French army, while several other suggested locations were also turned down.

Ariel Weil, the mayor of Paris Centre and a descendant of the Dreyfus family, has long campaigned for the monument to be moved to a more prominent location.

“It’s been wandering around Paris for years,” Weil said. “The general idea seemed to be: we’ll put it in a corner of Paris where it won’t embarrass anyone and won’t be seen, and we can forget about it. It was in a place nobody wanted, not historians, not the Dreyfus family, not the artist.”

He described its new position outside the court as “an incredibly powerful spot in the very centre of Paris”, adding: “This puts right a final injustice.”

The Dreyfus Affair remains one of the defining episodes of antisemitism in modern Europe.

In 1894, Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery captain, was falsely accused of passing military secrets to Germany. He was convicted by a secret military court, publicly humiliated in Paris and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island in French Guiana.

Although investigators later established that another officer, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, was responsible, the evidence was initially suppressed, deepening a scandal that divided France for years.

The case became a global cause célèbre after novelist Émile Zola published his famous open letter, J’accuse…!, accusing the authorities of a miscarriage of justice.

Dreyfus was eventually exonerated, reinstated into the French army and awarded the Légion d’honneur. He later served during the First World War before retiring from military service. He died in Paris in 1935.

The statue bears an inscription from a letter Dreyfus wrote to his wife, Lucie: “If you want me to live, help me regain my honour.”