Illustre du Petit Journal Le Petit Journal (Paris France) [Magazine]

Illustrated supplement to the French magazine, Le Petit Journal, published in France from 1890-1920. The cover illustration is captioned: "L'Affaire Dreyfus: La prison militaire de Rennes." The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal revolving around antisemitism that inflamed late 19th century France. Alfred Dreyfus was an army captain found guilty of treason in 1894 for selling military secrets. Antisemitic publications used Dreyfus as a symbol of the disloyalty of all French Jews. Emile Zola wrote a letter to protest the verdict, titled J'Accuse, in which he accused the French Army of covering up its unjust conviction of Dreyfus. Zola was charged with libel and the Dreyfus Affair grew into a national political crisis. An Army intelligence officer was found to have forged the document proving Dreyfus's guilt. But in a second trial, the Army again convicted Dreyfus, who was then pardoned by the president to end the crisis. The magazine is one of the more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic artifacts and visual materials.