This episode is brought to you by Shopify.

That's the sound of you making another sale with Shopify.

It's like a command center for all things retail.

Whether you're selling online, in person, or a mix of the two. Shopify is a powerhouse selling

partner that can help you connect with customers, build marketing campaigns, drive

sales and more. Do retail right. Sign up for a one pound per month trial period at shopify.co. UK slash start selling.

Welcome to the History Extra Podcast, Fascinating Historical Conversations from the makers of BBC

History magazine.

The Drafus Affair is one of history's most notorious incidents of anti-Semitism.

In 1894, the French artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus was falsely accused of passing military secrets to Germany.

Maurice Samuels spoke to Danny Bird to explain why the military top brass were so determined

to persecute the Jewish officer and how the conspiracy polarized France.

Maurice, thank you for joining me to discuss your book Alfred Rifus, The man at the center of the affair.

To begin, I'd like to ask, why do you think Dreyfus has often been treated as a bystander

to the case that bears his name?

There's a simple answer to that, which is that he was actually on Devil's Island for the very

years when the affair itself played out.

So that's to say that when his wife and brother led the

campaign to prove his innocence, he was on Devil's Island and didn't really know what was happening in France.

So a lot of historians as a result have tended to say that he was peripheral to his own affair.

And in the book, I try to argue against that

and say that, in fact, his struggle on Devil's Island

...