Dreyfus

Then in 1894, an incident occurred which created a profound effect on the life and career of Dreyfus. A French spy in the German embassy discovered a handwritten schedule, received by a German military attache in Paris, which listed secret French documents.

The French army attempted to ferret out the traitor. Dreyfus came under suspicion, probably because he was a Jew and also because he had access to the type of information that had been supplied to the German agent. The army authorities declared that Dreyfus' handwriting was similar to that on the papers. Despite his protestations of innocence he was found guilty of treason in a secret military court-martial, during which he was denied the right to examine the evidence against him. The army stripped him of his rank in a humiliating ceremony and shipped him off to Devil's Island, a penal colony located off the coast of South America.

Dreyfus seemed destined to die in disgrace. He had only a few defenders. However, an unlikely defender came to his rescue, motivated by the evidence that the officer who had actually committed espionage remained in position to do further damage. Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, an unapologetic anti-Semite, was appointed chief of army intelligence two years after Dreyfus was convicted.

Picquart, after examining the evidence and investigating the affair in greater detail, concluded that the guilty officer was a Major named Walsin Esterhazyl. Picquart soon discovered, however, that the army was more concerned about preserving its image than rectifying its error, and when he persisted in attempting to reopen the case the army transferred him to Tunisia.

In 1897 Dreyfus's brother, Mathieu, made the same discovery and increased pressure to reopen the case. Esterhazy was tried in January 1898 by a court-martial and acquitted in a matter of minutes.