Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Dreyfus Affair

Starting point is 00:00:00 In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, France was shaken by a crisis that shook their entire society. An army officer was wrongly convicted in a sham trial. Then over the next several years, the French military doubled down, refusing to acknowledge what they had done, and even punished everyone who attempted to prove them wrong, and went so far as to let the guilty party go free. The longstanding result of this controversy changed France in ways that can still be felt today. Learn more about the Dreyfus affair, why it happened and how it affected French society on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

Starting point is 00:01:00 It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us. Every week on the ThruLine podcast. from NPR. The Dreyfus Affair is one of the most significant political and social crises in French history. It's little known today, almost 130 years after the events, especially if you don't live in France. However, at the time, especially in France, it was the political story of the era. And it wasn't just a big news story. It completely divided French society and left a legacy that permanently

Starting point is 00:01:38 changed French culture. On the eve of the Dreyfus affair in the early 1890s, France was a deeply divided and unsettled nation, marked by political instability, social fragmentation, and ideological conflict. The Third Republic, which was established in 1870 following the collapse of the Second Empire during the Franco-Prussian War, had endured over two decades, but remained fragile and contested. Over the last century, France had whipsawed between Republic to Monarchy to Republic to Monarchy and back to Republic. Many monarchists, bonapartists, and conservative Catholics still viewed the Republic as illegitimate or temporary, hoping for a return to traditional rule. Meanwhile, Republicans and secularists were struggling to define the nation along democratic, rational, and civic lines, often in opposition to the influence of the Catholic Church and the old aristocracy.

Starting point is 00:02:33 The trauma of the Franco-Prussian war and the humiliating loss of the region of Alsace-Lorraine had left a deep scar in the French psyche. Nationalism was on the rise fueled by a desire for revenge against Germany, and the army was venerated as both the guardian of national honor and a possible instrument of future redemption. In this context, the military occupied a privileged position in society and criticisms of it were often equated with treason. Perhaps most consequential was the surge in xenophobia and anti-Semitism which had been building in the 19th century. The influx of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, combined with the visibility, and success of assimilated French Jews in finance, the press, and the professions, stirred resentment among traditionalists. The publication of Edward Drumant's La France Juive in 1886,

Starting point is 00:03:23 a best-selling anti-Semitic diatribe, gave ideological coherence to these prejudices, and found an eager audience amongst the far French right. Anti-Semitism became a potent political force, especially among those who saw Jews as symbols of modernity, liberalism, and the alleged decadence of the Republic. What became known as the Dreyfus affair started simply enough. It began in 1894 when French military intelligence discovered that somebody was leaking classified information to the Germans. Suspicion quickly fell on Captain Alfred Dreyfus, one of the few Jewish officers on the general staff. Alfred Dreyfus was a captain in the French artillery and a graduate of the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique. Crucially, in addition to being Jewish,

Starting point is 00:04:09 he was also from Alsace, the territory which was taken by Germany after the Franco-Prussian war, making him doubly suspect in the eyes of many of his contemporaries in the army. And just as an aside, if any of you are curious, Alfred Dreyfus is actually distantly related to the actress Julia Louis Dreyfus. She is the fifth cousin, four times removed, of Alfred Dreyfus. When French intelligence discovered that military secrets were being passed of the German embassy in Paris, they found a document known as the Bordeaux, which was a handwritten memorandum listing French military information. The handwriting was compared to that

Starting point is 00:04:50 of various officers, and military investigators concluded it matched Dreyfus's writing, though this analysis was deeply flawed. It was based on just a few elements of the writing, and no handwriting expert ever examined it. Rather than conducting a thorough and impartial inquiry, the military tribunal proceeded with what can only be described as a predetermined outcome. Dreyfus was court-martialed in a secret military trial where he was denied access to the evidence against him. The proceedings were heavily influenced by anti-Semitic assumptions and the desire to find a scapegoat for such an intelligence blunder. Dreyfus was found guilty of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in the notorious penal colony on Devil's Island in French Guiana. The death penalty for

Starting point is 00:05:38 such cases had been abolished in France in 1848. In addition to a sentence, he was subject to a public degradation ceremony. The ceremony took place on July 5, 1895, in the courtyard of the Acole Militaire in Paris. Before a formation of thousands of troops and a large public crowd, Dreyfus dressed in a full military uniform was formally stripped of his rank. An officer tore the insignia from his uniform, broke his sword in half, and declared him dishonored. Throughout the ceremony, Dreyfus loudly protested his innocence, crying out, quote, I swear that I am innocent, I remain worthy of serving in the army, long live France. The public display was intended to demonstrate the army's resolve against treason.

Starting point is 00:06:24 However, in many ways, it backfired. Many of the observers thought it was just a performance to justify the lack of evidence in the trial. When he arrived on Devil's Island on April 14, 1895, he was the only one. prisoner on the island. And despite being the only prisoner, the prison's commandant treated him harshly. He was given spoiled food and often suffered from tropical diseases. He was restricted to a stone hut that was four meters by four meters in area. On September 6, 1896th, in response to a false article in a British newspaper reporting his escape, he was shackled to his bed for weeks and unable to move. The sentencing of Alfred Dreyfus was not the end of the story. Actually, it was four. It was four

Starting point is 00:07:08 bar from it. Initially, most of French society accepted the verdict. The military's authority was rarely questioned, and anti-Semitic sentiment made many people readily believe in Dreyfus's guilt. However, cracks in the case began to appear in 1896 when Lieutenant Colonel Georges Piccar, the new head of military intelligence, began looking into the case. Picar had been reviewing the Dreyfus file, and upon seeing new intercepted documents from the German military attache, realized that the real spy was still active. He discovered evidence suggesting that the real traitor was Major Ferdinand Walson Esther Hasey. Esther Hasey had a motive. He was heavily in debt and had a history of dubious financial dealings, and he had access to the kind of military

Starting point is 00:07:57 information mentioned in the Bordeaux document. And moreover, his handwriting was was a perfect match for that in the Bordeaux document. Picar, for his part, thought that he had done something good by finding the actual traitor, who had been continuing to pass information to the Germans. However, the army was more concerned at this point about protecting itself and didn't want to admit that it had made a mistake. And this was really when the entire affair changed from just a travesty of justice to a full-blown scandal. In response to bringing these allegations forward, Colonel Picard was sent to Tunisia,

Starting point is 00:08:37 so he couldn't continue his investigation. Early in 1898, Esther Hasey was subject to a quick and secret trial where he was acquitted on all charges. As with so many scandals in history, the cover-up ended becoming a bigger scandal than the initial one that started it. The case might have remained buried, if not for Dreyfus's family, particularly his brother Matthew, who refused to accept the verdict. They gradually built a network of supporters, including prominent politicians, intellectuals, and journalists, who began to question the evidence and the fairness of the trial. The transformation of the Dreyfus case from a military matter into a national crisis culminated with the novelist and journalist Emil Zola's famous open letter titled Jekuze, published on January 13, 1898.

Starting point is 00:09:28 His article directly accused military officials and government ministers of covering up the truth and perpetrating a judicial error. Zola's intervention was crucial because it reframed the issue from a question of military justice to one of fundamental human rights and the integrity of French institutions. It transformed what had been whispered suspicions into public accusations that demanded a response. The letter's publication forced French society to confront uncomfortable truths about anti-Semitism, military incompetence, and the fallibility of institutions that they had long trusted. The affair split French society into two camps, the Dreyfussards who believed in Dreyfus'

Starting point is 00:10:11 innocence and demanded justice, and the anti-dryfussards, who supported the military's verdict and viewed challenges to it as attacks on French honor and stability. This division cut across traditional political lines, creating strange alliances and bitter enemies. The Dreyfussards included intellectuals like Zola, political figures like George Clemenceau, and eventually much of the political left. They argued that individual justice and truth were more important than institutional loyalty. The anti-Dreyfussards, meanwhile, included many conservatives, military officers, Catholic leaders, and those who saw the campaign for Dreyfus as a Jewish and foreign conspiracy against France.

Starting point is 00:10:52 The intensity of this division is difficult to overstate. Families were torn apart. friendships destroyed, and French society polarized in ways not seen since the French Revolution. The affair became a proxy war for competing visions of what France should be, a republic based on individual rights and rational justice, or a nation rooted in tradition, military honor, and the Catholic Church. The truth gradually emerged through a series of revelations and investigations. Major Ubert Joseph Henri, one of the key figures in maintaining the cover-up, was exposed as having forged evidence to support the case against Dreyfus.

Starting point is 00:11:32 When confronted with proof of his forgery, Henri committed suicide in 1898. Esther Hossie, the likely real culprit, fled to England and lived there the rest of his life. These developments made Dreyfus's innocence increasingly apparent to everyone. In 1890, Alfred Dreyfus was brought back from Devil's Island for a new trial. And remarkably, even with the evidence of forgery and a cover-up, the military court still found him guilty, although they reduced his sentence to 10 years and recommended a presidential pardon. This verdict shocked even some of the anti-Dreyfussars, and demonstrated how deeply institutional prejudice and corruption had run. President E. Neil Lubay pardoned Dreyfus in September 1890, but full exoneration didn't come until 1906.

Starting point is 00:12:24 when the Court of Cassation, the French Supreme Court finally overturned his conviction entirely. Dreyfus was reinstated in the Army with the rank of major, and later served with distinction in World War I. The Dreyfus affair fundamentally transformed France in several profound ways. First, it led to a decisive shift in the balance of power between civil and military authority. The military's credibility was severely damaged, and civilian oversight of military affairs was strength, This represented a crucial step in the development of democratic governance in France. The affair also accelerated the separation of church and state. Many Catholic leaders had supported the anti-Dryfussard position,

Starting point is 00:13:08 associating the church with anti-Semitism and reactionary politics in the public's mind. This contributed to the passage of the 1905 law separating church and state in France, fundamentally altering the relationship between religious and secular authority. and whatever forces in French society wished for a return to a monarchy, they never found any success after the Dreyfus affair. Perhaps most significantly, the affair marked a turning point in the fight against French antisemitism. The affair exposed the depth of anti-Semitic sentiment in French society and also mobilized opposition to such prejudice. In the end, the Dreyfus affair not only vindicated an innocent man, but also forced France to confront its contradiction. It reshaped the nation's legal and political landscape, giving rise to modern concepts of civil rights, and the limits of government and military power in a republic.

Starting point is 00:14:03 The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. That's where everything happens that's outside the podcast. and links to those are available in the show notes. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app

Starting point is 00:14:31 or in the above community groups, you too can have it read in the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Dreyfus Affair

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