The Dreyfus Affair

I. Alfred Dreyfus A. Who was he? 1. captain in the French army 2. Jewish 3. under suspicion for providing secret information to the German government i. reasons he was suspected: he had access the information ii. he was Jewish, which made him an easy scapegoat 4. He was found guilty and sentence to life at a penal colony located off the coast of South America (Devils Island) i. He was denied the right to examine the evidence against him ii. Convicted mainly by handwriting comparisons Anti- Semitism Role A. Anti-Semitism was rampant in the French army B. Jews were considered people without a fatherland, insufficiently loyal to the country they live in.

II.

III. Political Backlash A. The political right cited Dreyfus alleged espionage as further evidence of the failures of the Republic B. Right Wing newspapers intensified their attacks on the Jews, portraying this incident as further evidence of Jewish treachery. C. the political right and the leadership of the Catholic Church both of which were openly hostile to the Republic declared the Dreyfus case to be a conspiracy

of Jews and Freemasons designed to damage the prestige of the army and thereby destroy France. D. France was spilt into two camps the Dreyfusards and the Anti-Drezfusards 1. anti-Dreyfusards were the anti-Semite douard Drumont; Paul Droulde, who founded a patriotic league; and Maurice Barrs 2. The pro-Dreyfus faction included Georges Clemenceau, Jean Jaurs, Ren Waldeck-Rousseau, Anatole France, Charles Pguy, and Joseph Reinach. i. Some were less personally concerned with Dreyfus, than with discrediting the rightist government. IV. New evidence A. Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart concluded that the guilty officer was a Major named Walsin Esterhazy. B. the army, more concerned about preserving its image than rectifying its error, 1. When Picquart persisted in attempting to reopen the case the army transferred him to Tunisia 2. A military court then acquitted Esterhazy, ignoring the convincing evidence of his guilt. 3. mile Zola, a novelist, published his denunciation (Jaccuse!) of the army cover-up in a daily newspaper. V. Retrial A. Later another military officer discovered that additional documents had been added to the Dreyfus file, and determined that a lieutenant colonel (Hubert Henry) had forged the documents

B.

In 1899 the army conducted a new court-martial which again found Dreyfus guilty and condemned him to 10 years detention, although it observed that there were extenuating circumstances.

VI. Pardon A. In September 1899, the French president pardoned Dreyfus, B. But Dreyfus he had to wait until 1906 twelve years after the case had begun to be exonerated of the charges C. Dreyfus was restored to his former military rank.