History's new verdict on the Dreyfus case
IN 1899, A BROKEN Alfred Dreyfus accepted a presidential pardon -- and its implication that he had committed treason against France. It was a matter of life or death, for Dreyfus feared that he would not survive the notorious penal colony on Devil's Island, where he had been sent after a military court convicted him of betraying his country. Those who believed that he was innocent and had called for his exoneration were deeply disappointed. "We were prepared to die for Dreyfus," said poet Charles Peguy, "but Dreyfus was not."
His decision to accept a pardon is one of the cornerstones of a long-standing French perception that Dreyfus is the model of a submissive victim. But on the eve of the 100th anniversary of his exoneration in 1906 and the official end of the tumultuous affair that convulsed France for a dozen years, that view may be changing. Indeed, some historians see Dreyfus the patriot, not Dreyfus the victim.
In a new biography, Vincent Duclert contends that Dreyfus was not afraid to stand up for himself. Quite the contrary. He was the "model citizen defending his right to justice," Duclert writes, "and he was the model patriot never doubting the capacity of his country to move toward justice and truth."
The historian goes so far as to propose that the French government transfer Dreyfus' remains from Montparnasse Cemetery to the Pantheon, France's temple for the tombs of its great men and women.
Dreyfus adjacent to Voltaire and Marie Curie?
The Dreyfus affair is an extraordinary tale of injustice, deceit and coverup. When a French cleaning lady working at the German Embassy in Paris in 1894 found a traitorous letter, suspicion fell on Dreyfus, the only Jew in the general staff of the French army. Investigators were so sure of Dreyfus' guilt that they dismissed the analysis of a handwriting expert who refused to link the letter's script to Dreyfus. When other evidence against Dreyfus proved flimsy, the army simply manufactured more.
Dreyfus was court-martialed, found guilty, stripped of his rank in a humiliating ceremony -- his sword was symbolically broken -- and hustled away to Devil's Island, off the coast of French Guiana in South America.
Most French generals soon realized they convicted the wrong man. They refused to admit their error out of fear that such an admission would besmirch the French army's honor and undercut its fighting ability. When Lt. Col. Georges Picquart submitted irrefutable evidence of Dreyfus' innocence, he was told, "What does it matter to you that this Jew remains on Devil's Island"?
