The French president, Emmanuel
Macron, goes tomorrow to Médan
, in the French department of Yvelines, not far from Paris, to inaugurate the first museum dedicated to the Dreyfus affair, located in the house museum of the writer Emile Zola, defender of Alfred Dreyfus and father of the famous 'J'accuse!'
published in the newspaper L'Aurore.
This place of remembrance that opens its doors to the public on Thursday has the ambition to
perpetuate the memory of Zola and Alfred Dreyfus
, the victim of a hateful judicial and anti-Semitic machination dating back to 1894. After the indecent accusations of treason and espionage in favor of Germany moved towards the Alsatian captain of Jewish origin, Dreyfus was finally rehabilitated in 1906. The museum has over 500 documents (objects, manuscripts, photographs, songs, posters, flyers ...) that trace what was the greatest political conflict and social policy of the French Third Republic.
Also on Thursday, the
Maison Zola
will reopen
, the majestic Villa restored after ten years of work purchased by the writer of a Venetian father in 1878 and where he wrote many of his works. The creation of the museum and the restoration of Zola's mansion were financed by the businessman Pierre Bergé, companion of Yves Saint Laurent, as well as by the Foundation for the memory of the Shoah and the Interministerial Delegation for the fight against racism, the anti-Semitism and anti-LGBT hatred (Dilcrah).
The museum will be the destination of
many school visits
to address issues related to "anti-Semitism, racism, marginalization, the functioning of justice, the role of the media and social networks and the role of intellectuals in democracy", he explains to the newspaper Le Parisien, Louis Gautier, president of the Maison Zola-Musée Dreyfus association.