Intolerance—Édouard Drumont
Antisemitism was on the rise in France before the Affair, in part due to the influence of Edouard Drumont, a French journalist and writer. Drumont published La France Juive (Jewish France) in 1886, vilifying French Jews and arguing for their expulsion from the country. It sold over 150,000 copies within the first year of publication. In 1892, Drumont founded the antisemitic newspaper La Libre Parole (The Free Word), which enjoyed much success during the Affair. The illustrated weekly supplement included fiercely antisemitic caricatures. Between 1898 and 1902, Drumont was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, representing Algiers.
Drumont and other press figures regularly demonized Jewish French citizens as the cause of the country’s economic and political ills, and Drumont in particular seized upon the Dreyfus case as yet another example of Jewish treachery in France. Antisemites conjured up a “Syndicate” of Jewish citizens and sympathizers ready to cover up treason at any cost. Anyone who came to sympathize with Dreyfus publicly was immediately accused of being a co-conspirator.
Scholars continue to debate the reach of antisemitism in France. Senior officers in the French military suspected the loyalty of Jewish officers, which made Dreyfus a target of suspicion in 1894. Figures in the Catholic Church and the Catholic press were also quick to blame Jews for a wide variety of social problems. Some prominent Socialists refused to support Dreyfus because they considered him, and most Jews, to be members of the bourgeousie. At the same time, the mainstream press avoided openly antisemitic rhetoric, and the political influence of antisemitic candidates waned during the 1890s. Christians and Jews joined the newly-founded Ligue des Droits de l’Homme (League for the Rights of Man) in 1898 to support the republic and defend Dreyfus.
What is shocking for audiences today is the graphic and overt nature of the antisemitic imagery that circulated publicly in France during the Dreyfus Affair. Along with those published by Drumont, a series of posters in 1899-1900 called the “Musée des Horreurs” or “Freak Show” featured vicious representations of Jews and Dreyfusards (shown here is the first in the series, caricaturing Dreyfusard editor Joseph Reinach). These images still have the power to offend deeply.