"I have no doubt that demonstrating "real" coursework on Coursework.Info to my students, articulates the [coursework] requirement far better than I can."
To what extent was anti-Semitism the motive force behind the Dreyfus Affair?
- Words:
- 2551
- Submitted:
- Thu Jul 11 2002

... Koulla Christou To what extent was anti-Semitism the motive force behind the Dreyfus Affair? Described as a 'catalyst for tensions in French society' (Kedward), the Dreyfus affair divided France dramatically. On Monday 15 October 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a junior member of the French general staff was arrested and condemned for selling military secrets to the Germans. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island despite being innocent, and if he was guilty of any 'crime' in 1894, it was of being Jewish. The judges in fact, already knew the perpetrator. In 1893, discoveries were made that led to the belief that a traitor was present in the French army. Documents disappeared which concerned the defence of the country, maps, plans of fortresses, copies of secret instructions and much more. In 1894, a letter, which came to be known as the bordereau, and other papers were found in a waste paper basket













