The Dreyfus Affair

The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal that divided France in 1890's. Captain Dreyfus was convicted in 1894 and sent to Devils Island after the army held a secret court martial and found him guilty of treason. He was stripped of his military rank and sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris. Evidence of this was found in a waste-paper basket in the German Embassy, and supposedly Dreyfus was guilty because his handwriting 'looked similar'. Dreyfus pleaded "I didn't do this, it's not me, it's not me", he was framed because he was bright, intelligent, Jewish and from Alsace.

Two years on, in 1896 an officer looked into the case and found that the evidence was wrong and the real culprit is Esterhazy. This was covered up and ignored as he was acquitted on his second day of trial.

The famous French Journalist, Emilie Zola, wrote the article J'Accuse (I Accuse) which accuses the government of anti-Semitism and the unlawful jailing of Dreyfus. All the names of those involved in the scandal were exposed. Zola was tried and convicted of Libel, he was also fined and sentenced to prison in 1898, but to avoid this imprisonment he fled to London.

The army recognise a weakness of the case and more documents are created and forged by officer Hubert-Joseph Henry. Once he was discovered, Henry slit his throat in prison. Those on the right* see him as a hero and praise him for his 'Patriotic forgery'.

Right = Anti-Dreyfusards - The Army, Catholic Church and Monarchist
Left = Dreyfusards - Republicans, Socialists and Jews

In 1899, Dreyfus was brought back from the island a broken man. He was found guilty a second time with 'extenuating circumstances'. Eventually all the accusations against Dreyfus were found to be 'baseless' and he was released in 1906, he then served during the whole of World War I.