Page 17 - HISTORY ANGKOR

M I L E S T O N E S

“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

confident of an acquittal. With the court- stripped of his rank while an official
martial coming up in December, army ripped off his military insignia and broke
commanders sought to buttress their his sword in two. He was then led back to
case and turned to another officer, Maj. jail amid jeers of “Judas! Coward!” from
Hubert Henry, to find new evidence. the watching crowds.
At the trial, Henry handed the judges Public opinion was strongly against
a secret dossier which, it was later Dreyfus at this point. Most of France
revealed, contained correspondence believed him a traitor, many expressing
crosshairs. First, he was from Alsace, a between the German military attaché outrage that he hadn’t been executed.
German-speaking French province that in Paris and his Italian counterpart. When he was taken to prison in April

had been annexed by Germany after One of these letters supposedly men- 1895, reports circulated of crowds in Paris
the war. Second, Dreyfus was Jewish, a tioned “this scoundrel of D.” Dreyfus’s shouting, “Death to the Jews!” Dreyfus
fact that confirmed his guilt in a society defense lawyer was neither informed was placed in solitary confinement on
pervaded by anti-Semitism. The mili- of nor allowed to see the dossier. The Devil’s Island, but his family stood fast
tary leaked the story to the anti-Semitic judges considered the evidence strong, in maintaining his innocence.
press, which ran a virulent campaign and Dreyfus was found guilty of high As it turned out, the verdict against
against the Jewish officer. Knowing the treason. He was to serve his sentence on Dreyfus did not end the
evidence of Dreyfus’s guilt was weak, du Devil’s Island, a penal colony off French case. About a year
Paty attempted to secure a confession, Guiana in South America. later, the Minis-
but Dreyfus insisted on his innocence. As part of the sentence, he also had to try of War was
face military degradation, a ritual dis- passed another
Contrived Conviction missal from his position. In a ceremony handwritten
Dreyfus’s wife, Lucie, and his broth- in January 1895 in the courtyard of the document,
er, Mathieu, hired a lawyer who felt École Militaire in Paris, Dreyfus was but this time

In April 1895 Dreyfus was placed in solitary

confinement on Devil’s Island, but his family

stood fast in maintaining his innocence.

ALFRED DREYFUS, PHOTOGRAPHED AFTER HIS DECEMBER 1894 CONVICTION OF TREASON
BRIDGEMAN/ACI

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 15