NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 15MILESTONEScrosshairs. First, he was from Alsace, a
German-speaking French province that
had been annexed by Germany after
the war. Second, Dreyfus was Jewish, a
fact that confirmed his guilt in a society
pervaded by anti-Semitism. The mili-
tary leaked the story to the anti-Semitic
press, which ran a virulent campaign
against the Jewish officer. Knowing the
evidence of Dreyfus’s guilt was weak, du
Paty attempted to secure a confession,
but Dreyfus insisted on his innocence.
Contrived Conviction
Dreyfus’s wife, Lucie, and his broth-
er, Mathieu, hired a lawyer who felt
confident of an acquittal. With the court-
martial coming up in December, army
commanders sought to buttress their
case and turned to another officer, Maj.
Hubert Henry, to find new evidence.
At the trial, Henry handed the judges
a secret dossier which, it was later
revealed, contained correspondence
between the German military attaché
in Paris and his Italian counterpart.
One of these letters supposedly men-
tioned “this scoundrel of D.” Dreyfus’s
defense lawyer was neither informed
of nor allowed to see the dossier. The
judges considered the evidence strong,
and Dreyfus was found guilty of high
treason. He was to serve his sentence on
Devil’s Island, a penal colony off French
Guiana in South America.
As part of the sentence, he also had to
face military degradation, a ritual dis-
missal from his position. In a ceremony
in January 1895 in the courtyard of the
École Militaire in Paris, Dreyfus wasstripped of his rank while an official
ripped off his military insignia and broke
his sword in two. He was then led back to
jail amid jeers of “Judas! Coward!” from
the watching crowds.
Public opinion was strongly against
Dreyfus at this point. Most of France
believed him a traitor, many expressing
outrage that he hadn’t been executed.
When he was taken to prison in April
1895, reports circulated of crowds in Paris
shouting, “Death to the Jews!” Dreyfus
was placed in solitary confinement on
Devil’s Island, but his family stood fast
in maintaining his innocence.
As it turned out, the verdict against
Dreyfus did not end the
case. About a year
later, the Minis-
try of War was
passed another
handwritten
document,
but this timeALFRED DREYFUS, PHOTOGRAPHED AFTER HIS DECEMBER 1894 CONVICTION OF TREASON
In April 1895 Dreyfus was placed in solitary
confinement on Devil’s Island, but his family
stood fast in maintaining his innocence.
BRIDGEMAN/ACI
“THE PERIL OF FRANCE.” AMERICAN CARTOONIST LOUIS DALRYMPLE DEPICTED MILITARISM AS AN OCTOPUS WHOSE TENTACLES
OF DISHONOR, DECEPTION, FORGERY, ASSASSINATION, CORRUPTION, FALSEHOOD, AND BLACKMAIL WERE STRANGLING FRANCE.
WORLD HISTORY ARCHIVE/ALAMY