![]() Still protesting his innocence, Dreyfus was unaware that he had been convicted with the aid of a secret dossier prepared by Army Intelligence. He was sent to the infamous Devil's Island, where he was to spend almost 5 years under the most inhumane conditions. A unanimous court found him guilty and imposed the highest legal penalty: perpetual imprisonment, loss of rank, and degradation. He was arrested, however, on October 15.ĭreyfus's court-martial was held behind closed doors during December 19-21. Apart from a certain resemblance between his handwriting and that of the bordereau, no very convincing evidence against Dreyfus could be discovered. A hasty and inadequate investigation convinced the anti-Semitic Intelligence chief, Col. The Dreyfus case began in September 1894, when French Army Intelligence found among some papers takenįrom the office of the German military attaché in Paris, a list (bordereau) of secret documents given to the Germans by someone in the French army. His ordeal was to prove that he was a man of great courage but limited vision: his whole life was devoted to the army, and he never lost confidence that it would recognize and remedy the wrong done him. Dreyfus was a competent and hardworking, though not brilliant or popular, young officer. After further study, during which he attained the rank of captain in 1889, he was assigned as a trainee to the general staff. Choosing a military career, Dreyfus entered the École Polytechnique in 1878. After the Franco-Prussian War his family left Alsace in order to remain French citizens. 9, 1859, into a Jewish textile-manufacturing family. The effort, eventually successful, to clear his name divided French society and had important political repercussions.Īlfred Dreyfus was born at Mulhouse on Oct. The French army officer Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was unjustly convicted of treason.
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