J'Accuse - The Dreyfus Affair

The defeat of France in the Franco –Prussian war in 1871 was still casting a shadow by 1894, due to this France were very concerned about anything which may have questioned France’s greatness. They were a very militaristic country, the army was seen as a symbol of French identity, they were worried about another war with Germany and there had been a large increase in spying in Europe.

Evidence of secret information regarding the French military was found in a wastepaper basket in Germany. The Embassy and the army immediately implicated Captain Dreyfus. This was because he was well educated, from Alsace and primarily because he was Jewish.  Dreyfus denied these claims however the army then held a secret court martial and found him guilty of treason. He was then stripped of his military rank and was sentenced to the “Devils Island” in 1894.

Later an officer looked into the evidence and discovered that it was wrong and the culprit was actually a man called Esterhazy, however this evidence was dismissed by his superiors.  Esterhazy was put on trial in a military court but he was acquitted.

The famous French journalist Emile Zola then decided to get involved and wrote the famous article “J’Accuse”. However Zola was then tried and convicted of libel and was fined and sentenced to prison, but then fled to London. There were anti-Jewish riots all over France at this time, the right wing papers were calling for Jews to lose their citizenship.

The army then began to recognise the weakness of the case against Dreyfus and more documents were discovered to have been forged by an officer called Henry. Dreyfus was brought back to court but was once again found to be guilty, this time with “extenuating circumstances”.