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The Antisemitic Riots of 1898 in France

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Stephen Wilson
Stephen Wilson
Affiliation:
University of East Anglia
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Extract

Historians are only just beginning to take the study of what Georges Sorel called ‘la révolution dreyfusienne’ beyond the courtroom and the newspaper, and thus, despite the volume of literature devoted to ‘the Affair’, many of its main features as a socio-historical phenomenon have remained shrouded in the clouds of metaphysical drama. A prime example of diis conspiracy of silence is provided by die antisemitic riots of 1898. The historian Jules Isaac, himself the son of a Jewish army officer like Dreyfus, had reason to remember that year when, he recollected in old age,’ …la France semblait revenue au temps des guerres de religion; la possibilité d'une nouvelle Saint-Barthélémy - contre les Juifs et Protestants, bon gré mal gre associés dans la tourmente - n'était pas exclue’. However, if one turns to general histories of die period and of ‘ die Affair’, one finds litde or no mention of what was the main popular movement of the time in diis direction, indeed die high-point of active popular involvement, in the whole Dreyfus Affair: die riots of January and February 1898. From die administrative and police reports it is possible to redress die balance, and to establish how serious and how widespread diese riots really were, and to place diem in die wider perspective, not only of French antisemitism, but also of popular emeutes in general in nineteendi-century France. First it will be necessary to analyse die riots diemselves in some detail

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , December 1973 , pp. 789 - 806
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

1 This was cogently pointed out a decade ago by Peter, J.-P., ‘Dimensions de l'Affaire Dreyfus’, Annales, 16 (1961).CrossRefGoogle Scholar The only important contribution since then, beyond those referred to below, has been Sorlin, P., Waldeck-Rousseau (Paris, 1966).Google Scholar

2 Isaac, J., Expériences de ma vie (Paris, 1960), I, 131.Google Scholar

3 Chasfenet, J., La République triomphante 1893–1906 (Paris, 1955), p. 119,Google Scholar mentions ‘manifestations antisémites’, but in Paris and Algeria only, and seems not to realize that the worst riots in France occurred before the Zola trial; Kayser, J., L'Affaire Dreyfus (Paris, 1946), pp. 142–4,Google Scholar pays more attention to the riots, but only mentions those in Algeria, Paris, Rennes, Lyon, Grenoble and Saint-Malo; Miquel, P., L'Affaire Dreyfus (Paris, 1968), pp. 50–1,Google Scholar mentions troubles in Algeria, Paris, Bordeaux, Rennes, Lyon, Aix and Toulouse, and says that ‘des bagarres sont signalées dans toutes villes un peu importantes’, going into no further detail; incidentally, the administrative reports do not mention riots at Aix or Rennes in 1898, nor are demonstrations against Protestants reported. Arendt, H., The Origins of Totalitarianism (Cleveland, 1958), pp. 107 and 111, instinctively senses the scope and importance of the riots, but produces no supporting evidence for her conclusions.Google Scholar

4 This study is based mainly on police and prefectoral reports, Archives Nationales, F712460, F712461, F712467 and F712474, but other sources have been used as indicated.

5 Prefects and police occasionally accused the press of exaggerating the importance of the disturbances and particularly the numbers involved. As far as one can tell this applied to some newspapers and not ro others, and while the antisemitic press tended to inflate the importance of the riots, the administration tended at first to play them down. See reports of Prefects of the Seine-Inférieure, and of the Haute-Garonne, 23 Jan. 1898, AN, F712467.

6 Le Journal des Débats reported a crowd of 2,000–3,000 and 120 arrests; other papers reported much higher numbers of demonstrators. AN, F712461.

7 See pp. 803–4 below.

8 Eight riots occurred along the PLM railway line, which may be significant.

9 This area was chosen for a big recruiting campaign by the Ligue Antisémitique Française later in 1898: police report, 30 Aug. 1898, AN, F712460. The general pattern corresponds fairly well with the impressionistic geography of French antisemitism established by Byrnes, R. F., Antisemitism in Modern France (New Brunswick, 1950), pp. 252–61.Google Scholar Outside Paris, he gives the North centred on Lille, the West, the South-West around Bordeaux and Toulouse, the Lyon-Grenoble region, and the East, as the main areas; in the last only does he see antisemitism as a reaction to the actual presence of Jews, a view that the evidence presented below tends to question.

10 Four deputies belonging to the group sat for Algeria. AN, F712459. 67 deputies and senators signed a proposition de loi in February 1899 to repeal the Crémieux decree. AN, F801688.

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13 Demonstrations by conscripts were usual on the occasion of the ‘tirage’ which took place at this time. Report of Prefect of the Drôme, 31 Jan. 1898, AN, F712467.

14 AN, F712474. More surprisingly, the ‘barreaux’ of at least a dozen towns also sent addresses of support to the army at this time.

15 Report of Prefect of the Côte d'Or, 29 Jan. 1898; report of Commissaire spécial, Lunéville (Meurthe-et-Moselle), 24 Jan. 1898; report of Commissaire spécial, Charmes (Vosges), 19 02. 1898, AN, F712467.Google Scholar

16 Report of Commissaire spécial, Béziers (Hérault), 24 02 1898;Google Scholar report of Commissaire spécial, Veynes (Hautes-Alpes), 28 02 1898, AN, F712474.Google Scholar

17 The parading of Dreyfus and Zola guys, reported from several places, was often an adaptation of traditional customs, as at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne (Savoie) where the traditional burning of the guy assumed a topical antisemitic form. Report of Commissaire spécial, 23 Feb. 1898. AN, F712461.

18 Report of Commissaire spécial, Sainte-Erienne (Loire), 22 01 1898. AN, F712461.Google Scholar

19 Report of Commissaire spécial, Moulins (Allier), 26 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

20 Report of Prefect of the Gard, 24 Jan. 1898; report of Prefect of the Morbihan, ? Jan. 1898; report of Prefect of the Loire, 25 Jan. 1898; report of Prefect of Seine-Inferieure, 21 Jan. 1898; report of Commissaire spécial, Lunéville (Meurthe-et-Moselle), 24 Jan. 1898; AN, F712407.

21 e.g., Police reports, 18 Feb. 1898, AN, F712474. See Wilson, Stephen, ‘The Ligue Anti-sémitique Française, 1897–9’ The Weiner Library Bulletin, 1972, vol. xxv.Google Scholar

22 Report of Prefect of the Vienne, 22 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

23 Morés was the first important antisemitic activist in France. See Byrnes, R. F., op. cit., pp. 225–50.Google Scholar

24 AN, F712459.

25 AN, F712462.

26 AN, F712467; and Boussel, P., L'Affaire Dreyfus et la presse (Paris, 1966), pp. 91–2;Google ScholarSorlin, P., La Croix et les Juifs (1880–1899) Contribution à l'histoire de l'antisémitisme contemporain (Paris 1967), pp. 25–55.Google Scholar

27 Report of Commissaire spécial, Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), 18 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

28 Report of Gendarmerie, Sedan (Ardennes), 26 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

29 Reports of Prefect of the Rhône, 19 and 20 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

30 Report of Prefect of Police, 19 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

31 Report of Commissaire de Police, chef de la 3e Brigade, 15 Jan. 1898. Archives de la Préfecture de Police, Ba 1043.

32 Report on arrests 14–18 Jan. 1898, APP, Ba 1043.

33 Report of Commissaire spécial, Lunéville (Meurthe-et-Moselle), 24 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

34 Marrus, M. R., The Politics of Assimilation. A Study of the French Jewish Community at the time of the Dreyfus affair (London, 1971), pp. 31–2.Google Scholar

35 Report of Prefect of the Ardèche, 1 Feb. 1898; report of Commissaire spécial, Cette (Hérault), 25 Jan. 1898; report of Commissaire spécial, Sedan (Ardennes), 26 Jan. 1898; report of Commissaire spécial, Lunéville (Meurthe-et-Moselle), 24 Jan. 1898; report of Prefect of the Côte d'Or, 29 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

36 Report of Gendarmerie, Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine), 24 Jan. 1898; report of Commissaire spécial, Granville (Manche), 25 Jan. 1898; report of Gendarmerie, Bar-le-Duc (Meuse), 29 Jan. 1898; report of Commissaire spécial, Charmes (Vosges), 10 Feb. 1898. AN, F711467.

37 Police report, 14 Jan. 1898. APP, Ba 1043.

38 Reports of Commissaire spécial, Nantes (Loire-Inférieure), 22 Dec. 1897 an^ 25 Jan- 1898. AN, F712460.

39 AN, F712461 (Vienne).

40 Report of Prefect of the Marne, 22 June 1896. AN, F712460.

41 Remond, R., Les Deux Congrès ecclésiastiques de Reims et de Bourges 1896–1900. Un témoignage sur l'Eglise de France (Paris, 1964), p. 72.Google Scholar

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43 Report of Commissaire spécial, Epinal (Vosges), 19 Feb. 1898. AN, F712474.

44 Report of Commissaire spécial, Montpellier (Hérault), 26 Jan. 1898. AN, F712460.

45 Affiche, 24 June 1899; and items AN, F712463.

46 Police report, Aug. 1899. AN, F712462.

47 Report of Commissaire spécial, Nantes (Loire-Inférieure), 13 Dec. 1898. AN, F712460. The campaign against Jewish shops reached an intensity unknown in France during the reign of Max Régis as maire in Algiers; Jewish shopkeepers had legal difficulties put in their way; and vigilante brigades were organized to photograph and denounce Europeans who patronized Jewish shops. See press and other reports, ‘Vexations municipales contre les Juifs’, 1898–9, AN, F801688.

48 Administrative report, 17 Feb. 1898; report of police agent, 17 Feb. 1898; report of police agent, 23 Feb. 1898, AN, F712474.

49 Report of Commissaire spécial, Besançon (Doubs), 24 Feb. 1898; report of Commissaire spécial, Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), 27 Feb. 1898. AN, F712474.

50 The Jewish plot has always of course been a favourite theme of antisemitic propaganda. A pamphlet called ‘Le Complôt Juif’ was distributed in Perpignan, Avignon, Laval and Amiens by La Croix in April 1898. AN, F712463.

51 Report by police agent, ‘Boulangisme et Antisémitisme’, no date. AN, F712459.

52 Gyp, Le Manage de Chiffon (Nelson edition, no date), p.110.

53 Report of Prefect of Seine-Inférieure, 20 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

54 Report of Commissaire spécial, Epinal (Vosges), 2 Mar. 1898. AN, F712474.

55 AN, F712463.

56 Report of Commissaire spécial, Delle (Belfort), 23 Feb. 1898. AN, F712474.

57 Le Peuple, 19 Jan. 1898. AN, F712474 (Rhône).

58 L'Indépendent des Pyrenées-Orientales, 20 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

59 Léon Blum, Souvenirs sur l'Affaire (Paris, 1935), pp. 62–3.Google Scholar

60 Circular, Minister of Inferior to Prefects, 22 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467.

61 The expression was used by a Le Temps correspondent of the demonstrations at Rodez (Aveyron), 27 Jan. 1898. AN, F712460.

62 See La Croix Meusienne, 13 Feb. 1898. AN, F712461; report of Commissaire spécial, Senones (Vosges), 9 Feb. 1898. AN, F712467; report of Commissaire spécial, Vesoul (Haute Saône), 15 Aug. 1898. AN, F712461.

63 e.g. Le Journal de Rouen, 21 Jan. 1898, and report of Prefect of Seine-Inférieure, 22 Jan. 1898. AN, F712467; report of Prefect of Calvados, 15 Nov. 1898. AN, F712460; see also Rapports quotidiens of the Prefect of Police, 1 Jan.-30 June 1898. APP, Ba 106.

64 Report of the Procureur-Général of Algiers, n Feb. 1898. AN, F801688–1689; see also Ageron, C.-R., Les Algériens musulmanes et la France (1871–1919) (Paris, 1968), 1, 584–608.Google Scholar

65 Anti-Dreyfus leanings are occasionally detectable in provincial police reporting, antisemitic leanings almost never; and the firm line taken by the civil authorities seems to have prevailed throughout the metropolitan police administration; a Reims commissaire who placed a ‘La France aux Français’ sticker on his voiturc was immediately reprimanded as early as 1896. Report of Prefect of the Marnc, 20 Jan. 1896. AN, F712460. H. Arendt's assertion (op. cit. p. III) that ‘The complicity of the police was everywhere patent’ is unsubstantiated and seems to be quite untrue.

66 Report of police agent, 12 Feb. 1898. AN, F712474.

67 Letter from Dufour to Prefect of Police, no date. APP, Jules Guérin, Affaires judiciaires, Ba. 1103.

69 Peter, J.-P., op. cit., pp. 1163–4.Google Scholar