Key facts
- A statue of Capt Alfred Dreyfus will be permanently installed in central Paris on July 12.
- The statue has been moved multiple times over 40 years.
- The new location is Rue de Harlay on the Île de la Cité, in front of France's highest civil court.
- The cour de cassation exonerated Dreyfus on July 12, 1906.
- French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire will attend the unveiling.
- A national commemoration day for Dreyfus will be held annually on July 12.
The statue of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer wrongly convicted of treason in 1894, is set to be permanently installed in central Paris on July 12. For 40 years, the statue has been moved around the city, struggling to find a permanent and prominent location due to past military and official reluctance. The French army had twice refused its placement at l’École Militaire, where Dreyfus was publicly stripped of his rank. Other proposed sites were also rejected, leading to the statue being temporarily placed in various locations, including the Tuileries garden and Place Pierre Lafue.
Now, 120 years after Dreyfus's exoneration and a year after his posthumous promotion to brigadier general, the 3.5-meter bronze figure will be unveiled in Rue de Harlay on the Île de la Cité, in front of the cour de cassation, France's highest civil court. This court officially exonerated Dreyfus on July 12, 1906. French President Emmanuel Macron and Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire are scheduled to attend the unveiling. Macron has stated that July 12 will become a national commemoration day for Dreyfus, celebrating justice and truth over hatred and antisemitism.
The Dreyfus affair remains one of the most significant political events in French history, highlighting issues of antisemitism, the influence of the military, and the values of the republic. Ariel Weil, mayor of Paris Central and a descendant of the Dreyfus family, has been a key advocate for the statue's prominent placement, noting that previous attitudes were to keep it "out of sight, out of mind." The statue was commissioned by former President François Mitterrand from artist Louis Mitelberg, but Mitterrand did not insist on its placement at the École Militaire when military officers vetoed it. The statue was moved to Place Pierre Lafue in 1994, where it remained until now. Resin copies of the statue are located in Paris and Tel Aviv, and the original was vandalized in 2002.