Zola, Emil. “J’Accuse…!” L’Aurore of January 13, 1898

“L’Affaire” as it was known, engaged the consciousness of the entire French nation, and indeed most of Europe, for over a decade from 1894, when Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army, falsely accused of treason, until he was finally rehabilitated in 1906. This open letter by French novelist Emil Zola (1840-1902), addressed to the President of the Republic, accuses the Army General Staff of crimes and complicity in a plot against Dreyfus. “J’Accuse” was instrumental in awaking the world to the injustice which had been committed, however Zola paid dearly for such outspokenness. He was found guilty of libel and was forced to flee to England to avoid imprisonment. With Dreyfus’ eventual exoneration, Zola’s sentence was overturned and he returned to Paris, dying there shortly thereafter in 1902. His public funeral was attended by Alfred Dreyfus - by then a free man. See Norman L. Kleeblatt, The Dreyfus Affair: Art, Truth and Justice (1987) p.xix and p. 165 (plate 22)