310
DREYFUS IS INNOCENT.
I SWEAR IT! I STAKE
MY LIFE ON IT – MY
HONOUR!
THE DREYFUS AFFAIR, 1894
I
n 1894, Alfred Dreyfus was
a captain in the French army.
Born in Alsace, a German-
speaking area of France, he was
Jewish by descent. What became
known as the “Dreyfus Affair”
began when a French spy at the
German embassy in Paris
discovered a large torn-up note
written on tissue paper. This was a
bordereau – a detailed statement in
which an anonymous French officer
offered to sell military secrets.
Suspicion immediately fell on
Captain Dreyfus, who often visited
his family in German-held
Mulhouse. The French army’s
intelligence service, the Section de
Statistique, called in a graphologist
to examine the handwriting in the
note. He pronounced that the
writing was so unlike that of
Dreyfus that it must amount to a
“self-forgery” – that is, a deliberate
attempt by Dreyfus to disguise his
own hand. In spite of this distinctly
dubious claim, Dreyfus was
arrested. The case set off a wave of
acute anti-semitism, both among
the public and in the press.
Dreyfus was court-martialled
and found guilty of passing secrets
to the Germans, but was never
allowed to see the evidence againsthim. The government made sure
that the people of France witnessed
his humiliation. Dreyfus was
paraded in front of a crowd that
shouted, “Death to Judas, death to
the Jew,” before he was sentenced
to life in prison at the infamous
Devil’s Island, off French Guiana.Inconclusive evidence
From the start of the affair, people
were divided into those convinced
that Dreyfus was a spy, and those
who thought there had been a rush
to judge him because he was
Jewish. Two years after Dreyfus
was convicted, the new head of the
army’s intelligence unit, GeorgesIN CONTEXT
LOCATION
Paris, FranceTHEME
False accusationsBEFORE
1431 Joan of Arc is tried for
witchcraft and heresy and
burned at the stake by the
English. The charges against
her are later debunked and she
is canonized by the French.AFTER
1974 Gerry Conlon and three
other men are falsely convicted
by the British courts for the
IRA Guildford pub bombing in
England. They are freed in 1989.1984 Darryl Hunt is twice
wrongfully convicted of the
murder of Deborah Sykes in
North Carolina. He is freed
after nearly 20 years in prison.1999 Former nun Nora Wall is
wrongfully convicted of rape
in Ireland and serves four days
of a life sentence before her
conviction is quashed.Show me at least the
proofs of the infamous
act you pretend
I have committed.
Alfred Dreyfus310-311_Dreyfus_Affair.indd 310 13/01/2017 15:20
311
Captain Alfred Dreyfus is escorted
to prison after his wrongful conviction
for treason, Paris, 1895. His humiliation
included the tearing of his military
decorations from his uniform.See also: Jean Calas 203 ■ Lizzie Borden 208–11ASSASSINATIONS AND POLITICAL PLOTS
Picquart, uncovered evidence
implicating another French military
officer, Major Ferdinand Walsin
Esterhazy, as the real traitor.
Picquart was silenced, quickly
moved overseas, and imprisoned
on trumped-up charges. However,
the rumblings about Esterhazy’s
possible guilt grew louder, and in
1898 he was court-martialed in
secret, quickly found not guilty,
and allowed to flee the country.
At this point, author Émile Zola
took up the cause of Alfred Dreyfus.
He wrote an open letter to the
President of France, detailing
Dreyfus’s innocence and boldly
accusing the Army of both a
cover-up and anti-semitism.Second court martial
The Paris newspaper L’A u r o r e
published Zola’s piece on its front
page, with a banner headlinereading “J’Accuse...!” (“I accuse”).
Zola wanted the government to
arrest and prosecute him, so that
the facts of the Dreyfus case could
come out. He got his wish: Zola
was arrested and convicted of libel,
but he escaped to England – where
he continued to defend Dreyfus- before he could be sent to prison.
In 1899, under pressure from Zola
and other intellectuals, Dreyfus
was given a second court martial.
He was once again found guilty
by the court, but this time with
“extenuating circumstances”.
To save face, the new French
President Émile Loubet offered
Dreyfus a pardon: he would be
freed, on the proviso that he did not
speak about his innocence, but he
would not be reinstated in the army.
Unwilling to return to Devil’s Island,
Dreyfus went home to his family.
Dreyfus was still officially guilty,
but the threads of injustice began
to unravel. Finally, in July 1906, a
civilian court annulled the Dreyfus
verdict and fully cleared the officer.
He was never acquitted by his
fellow officers in a military court.
However, on the exact spot where
he had been stripped of his uniform
and sword, Dreyfus was reinstated
into the Army and in 1918 was
promoted to become an officer
of the Légion d’honneur. ■Courts martial
Courts martial are military
courts that dispense justice and
discipline. They date back to
ancient Rome, where some of
the earliest military trials took
place to instil discipline within
the Roman army. In the US, the
court martial is the oldest court
of law, dating back to before the
American Revolution. Congress
adopted the Articles of War,
based on Britain’s military code,
in 1775. In Britain, military
conduct was regulated for
centuries via individuallyconvened cases in the Court of
the High Constable and Earl
Marshal; the “Court Martial”
only became a permanent
standing court in 2009.
Courts martial are more
common during times of war,
when they are used to try
soldiers for actions in the field.
General Charles Lee was
court-martialled for cowardice in
the 1778 Battle of Monmouth.
During the Vietnam War,
Lieutenant William Calley was
court-martialled for presiding
over the massacre of innocent
Vietnamese civilians at My Lai.310-311_Dreyfus_Affair.indd 311 13/01/2017 15:20