Born in 1859 of a wealthy Jewish family, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, originately joined the French Army as an engineer.
When, during Fall 1894 some secret documents were given to the German, all evidence pointed out an Hungarian soldier, Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.
As this just couldn't be admitted by the French military establishment, represented by Major Hubert Henry, they prefered to make Dreyfus a scapegoat because he was the only Jew in the general staff.
Dreyfus was demoted and exiled to the Devil's Island (off the coast of South America) while his family kept fighting to prove his innocence.
They managed to get a certain Lieutenant-Colonel Georges Picquart's help to prove Esterhazy's guilt but admitting the mistake would be too embarrassing, so Major Henry managed to forge some fake evidence to prove Dreyfus was guilty and shipped Picquart off to duty in Africa after 60 days in jail.
On January 13th 1898, Emile Zola, though not known to be the Jews' friend, published his famous letter "J'accuse" in his newspaper "L'aurore" which sold up to 200,000 copies in Paris until Zola was accused of a libel and asked to shut up.
The public kept complaining about this case and finally got Dreyfus' case to be re-examinated, first in 1899, when verdict was again treason, but the sentence reduced to ten years because of "extenuating circumstances," and then again from 1904 to 1906 when Dreyfus finally had his innocence proved once and for all, was able to re-enlist for World War I, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.
Dreyfus died in 1935.