Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
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The Dreyfus Affair...
On January 13, 1898, the French newspaper "l’Aurore" appears with the famous article "J’Accuse!" ("I accuse!") on the front page ...:
Its author, the no less famous author Emile Zola ...
... denounces in an open letter to President Félix Faure ...
... the procedure against Capitaine Alfred Dreyfus, which scorns every rule of law...:
Dreyfus was convicted in 1894 as an alleged German spy...
... on the basis of fabricated evidence and was banished for life to the "dry guillotine", the "Devil's Island" Cayenne in French Guiana - above all because he was a thorn in the side of Jews and his Catholic comrades and the general staff!
The real spy, on the other hand, was very likely (even if that could never be completely clarified!) the French captaine Marie Charles Ferdinand Walsin-Esterházy ...:
Esterhazy became - because Dreyfus was still needed as the guilty party! - Covered by the highest military circles, acquitted in 1989 despite serious evidence - reason for Zola to write his article!
Here is the handwritten original ...:
Zola himself was sued by the Minister of War and some private individuals in 1898 and sentenced to a fine and (short) prison term for defamation in political trials. He escaped punishment by fleeing to London, where he stayed for almost a year.
With his open letter, Zola achieved that the Dreyfus case was resumed - despite bitter resistance, especially from anti-Semitic military and politicians.
In the retrial, Dreyfus was first sentenced again in 1899 (ten years in prison for treason), but then by President Loubet on the advice of General Joseph Gallieni ...
... pardoned.
In 1906 Dreyfus was finally rehabilitated, returned to the army and promoted to major.
He was also made a Knight of the Legion of Honor ...:
Dreyfus died in Paris in 1935 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, which he had earned as an active troop officer in the First World War...:
In fact, it took the French army almost a hundred years to bring about making Dreyfus ‘innocence public - in 1995!
On January 13, 1898, the French newspaper "l’Aurore" appears with the famous article "J’Accuse!" ("I accuse!") on the front page ...:
Its author, the no less famous author Emile Zola ...
... denounces in an open letter to President Félix Faure ...
... the procedure against Capitaine Alfred Dreyfus, which scorns every rule of law...:
Dreyfus was convicted in 1894 as an alleged German spy...
... on the basis of fabricated evidence and was banished for life to the "dry guillotine", the "Devil's Island" Cayenne in French Guiana - above all because he was a thorn in the side of Jews and his Catholic comrades and the general staff!
The real spy, on the other hand, was very likely (even if that could never be completely clarified!) the French captaine Marie Charles Ferdinand Walsin-Esterházy ...:
Esterhazy became - because Dreyfus was still needed as the guilty party! - Covered by the highest military circles, acquitted in 1989 despite serious evidence - reason for Zola to write his article!
Here is the handwritten original ...:
Zola himself was sued by the Minister of War and some private individuals in 1898 and sentenced to a fine and (short) prison term for defamation in political trials. He escaped punishment by fleeing to London, where he stayed for almost a year.
With his open letter, Zola achieved that the Dreyfus case was resumed - despite bitter resistance, especially from anti-Semitic military and politicians.
In the retrial, Dreyfus was first sentenced again in 1899 (ten years in prison for treason), but then by President Loubet on the advice of General Joseph Gallieni ...
... pardoned.
In 1906 Dreyfus was finally rehabilitated, returned to the army and promoted to major.
He was also made a Knight of the Legion of Honor ...:
Dreyfus died in Paris in 1935 with the rank of lieutenant colonel, which he had earned as an active troop officer in the First World War...:
In fact, it took the French army almost a hundred years to bring about making Dreyfus ‘innocence public - in 1995!
