• PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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    24 days ago

    Explanation: The Dreyfus Affair was a shameful episode in pre-WW1 France wherein a Jewish officer in the French Army - Alfred Dreyfus - was falsely accused of spying for Germany, dishonorably discharged, and imprisoned for it. This despite the fact that the evidence against Alfred Dreyfus was always flimsy and, notably, the German Embassy itself spoke up to say that he wasn’t their spy, which, while bad tradecraft, is a rare upside to that weird, late 19th century sense of aristocratic honor.

    It took a decade before Dreyfus was finally exonerated and restored to his rank, but the damage had been done, and his career had been ruined. All because he had the sheer gall to serve his country while Jewish.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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      24 days ago

      Imperial Germany: “Holy fucking shit, France, I know we’re turn-of-the-century Europe, but you have to have some limit to your antisemitism, you can’t accuse some random guy of spying for us just because he’s Jewish”

      Anti-Dreyfusards: “Le fuck off”

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      24 days ago

      Fun fact! Julia Louis-Dreyfus is his . . . Um . . .related!

      Edit: fifth cousin four-times removed.

      ¯\_(ツ)_/¯