National Geographic History - USA (2022-03 & 2022-04)

14 MARCH/APRIL 2022

his behalf—a ploy to obtain a sample of

Dreyfus’s handwriting without arous-

ing any suspicion. After examining the

note, du Paty, an amateur graphologist,

concluded that Dreyfus’s handwriting

matched that on a bordereau, or memo,

that had recently been recovered from

the wastebasket of the German Embas-

sy in Paris.

In 1894 the French military believed

a spy was in their midst. France was still

reeling from its humiliating defeat by

German forces in the Franco-Prussian

W

hen Alfred Dreyfus

was summoned to

the French Ministry

of War on October 15,

1894, he had no in-

kling that his life, and French society as

a whole, was about to be turned upside

down.

Dreyfus was a promising officer who

believed he had a bright career ahead

of him. Gen. Armand du Paty de Clam

greeted him and, due to a bandaged right

hand, asked Dreyfus to write a note on

War of 1870-71. Suspicions that someone

in their ranks was still passing secrets

to the Germans hardened into certain-

ty when the bordereau came to light;

whoever had written it was offering to

sell reports on French artillery to the

Germans. On the basis of his so-called

expertise in handwriting analysis, du Paty

accused Dreyfus of betraying France and

arrested him for high treason.

The unsigned bordereau was the on-

ly evidence against Dreyfus, but two

other factors put him squarely in the

The Dreyfus Affair:

France’s Battle for the Truth

Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer, was wrongly convicted of selling military secrets to France’s

enemies. The controversial case caused a devastating split in France that lingers today.

BIANCHETT/LEEMAGE/PRISM ARCHIVO

DEGRADATION

Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason,

is stripped of his rank and military

insignia before soldiers at the École

Militaire in Paris in January 1895.