The historiography of the Dreyfus Affair has often neglected the crucial role played by Bernard Lazare as the first defender of the wrongly accused French army captain Alfred Dreyfus. Lazare authored three brochures, including the very first published work arguing Dreyfus’s defense, and pursued numerous lines of inquiry and advocacy to keep the Dreyfus case alive in the public sphere. In stark contrast to other Dreyfusards who preferred to consider the case as essentially an “error” of the judicial system, Lazare insisted that there was a potent antisemitism operating beneath the surface of the political stage. It was Lazare who made the “Affair” known to the world as an antisemitic plot. He confronted the leading antisemitic figures of his time, including Édouard Drumont, and solicited the support of charismatic celebrities such as Émile Zola. Lazare also crafted the language of “J’accuse” which moved a nation and became a celebrated page of history, though he was never credited for it. Instead, Lazare became a target for the resentments of both his Christian and Jewish contemporaries and died an untimely death as a pariah. This article aims to restore Lazare’s place at the center of the Dreyfus Affair narrative.

德雷福斯事件的历史编纂经常忽视伯纳德·拉扎尔作为被错误指控的法国陆军上尉阿尔弗雷德·德雷福斯的第一个捍卫者所扮演的关键角色。拉扎尔撰写了三本小册子，包括第一本为德雷福斯辩护的出版作品，并进行了大量调查和宣传，以使德雷福斯案在公共领域保持活力。与其他倾向于认为此案本质上是司法系统“错误”的德雷福斯派形成鲜明对比的是，拉扎尔坚持认为，在政治舞台的表面之下存在着强大的反犹太主义。正是拉扎尔将“婚外情”作为反犹阴谋公诸于世。他与包括爱德华·德鲁蒙（Édouard Drumont）在内的那个时代的主要反犹主义人物对峙，并寻求埃米尔·佐拉（Émile Zola）等魅力名人的支持。拉扎尔还创造了“J'accuse”的语言，它感动了一个国家并成为历史上著名的一页，尽管他从未因此而受到赞誉。相反，拉扎尔成为他同时代的基督教徒和犹太教徒怨恨的目标，并作为贱民英​​年早逝。本文旨在恢复拉扎尔在德雷福斯事件叙事中心的地位。