HCJ2 - The Dreyfus Affair and J'Accuse.

First of all, I'll go into some of the background to the Dreyfus Affair.

The Franco-Prussian war

Growing power and influence of Prussia under Bismarck and the attempts to unify Germany. Napoleon III was captured at Sedan in 1871 (after very stupidly starting a war without any allies!)

The French had to pay compensation to the Germans for the war that the French lost and that the Germans actually led the French into! France also had to give up the region Alsace Lorraine. The French people then took over Paris but were surrounded by Germans.

Paris Commune

During the time of the Parisian people taking over their fine city, there was communist-like state. Lenin called it 'the festival of the oppressed' and like all festivals, it didn't last very long.

The Commune contained a mixture of 'Jacobins', anarchists, socialists and far left activists. Women were important in the PC and some important ideas e.g. women should have the vote, nurseries and that there should be better working conditions.

The PC was destroyed and 20,000 - 30,000 were executed and although it was short lived, it had huge impact on politics.


The Dreyfus Affair

The army was fragile in France and needed a victory after being humiliated by the Germans.

The Dreyfus Affair started because evidence of miltary information was found in a bin in the German embassy. The army implicated Captain Dreyfus - an intelligent man from Alsace (the region that the Germans took from the French). The French army held a secret court martial and found Dreyfus guilty of treason, he was then sent to the prison on 'Devil's Island'.

The evidence was looked at later on and a man called Esterhazy was tried but found not guilty.

Dreyfus was tried for a second time and was found guilty again although there was no evidence, however there were 'extenuating circumstances'. He was released after a pardon, but his release was kept quiet and Dreyfus even fought in WW1.

Dreyfus was involved in a group called Action Francoise, a far right group who were arguably worse han the Nazis. Ironically, Dreyfus' granddaughter was killed in Auschwitz.

French journalist Emile Zola got involved and wrote 'J'Accuse' - an open letter detailing why Dreyfus was innocent and how the whole thing was just a conspiracy and accuses  Major du Paty de Clam of basically setting up Dreyfus. Of course, this lands Zola in a heap of poo and he is convicted of libel and sentenced to prison, however he flees to London.

Anti-Jewish riots took place all over France and right wing newspapers had a field day and call for all Jewish people to lose their citizenship.


TB 2012