Читать книгу The Secrets of Spies - Weldon Owen - Страница 56

“IT IS A CRIME TO POISON THE MINDS OF

THE MEEK AND THE HUMBLE, TO STOKE

THE PASSIONS OF REACTIONISM AND

INTOLERANCE, BY APPEALING TO THAT

ODIOUS ANTISEMITISM THAT, UNCHECKED,

WILL DESTROY THE FREEDOMLOVING

FRANCE OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN.”

Émile Zola, J’accuse!, an open letter

in defense of Alfred Dreyfus

THE GROWTH OF PROFESSIONAL INTELLIGENCE

57

THE DREYFUS AFFAIR

In 1894, French Army captain Alfred Dreyfus was imprisoned in French Guiana on

espionage charges. Dreyfus’s conviction was based on a single message found by a

spy in the German Embassy in Paris, mentioning delivery of French military secrets.

It was never established that it was written by Dreyfus, who maintained his innocence

throughout. Nationalism and anti-Semitism were both motivating factors behind

the prosecution of Dreyfus, an Alsatian Jew, and he was also linked to rumors of

homosexuality. In 1896, the real traitor, Major Ferdinand Esterhazy, was discovered by

Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart, head of the Deuxième Bureau, who refused to

conceal the truth despite pressure from military officials who simply wanted the whole

matter to go away. Dreyfus was pardoned after several years in prison, but the scandal

was badly divisive to French society, and had repercussions internationally. After covering the

trial, and disgusted by the anti-Semitism that accompanied it, the Austro-Hungarian journalist

Theodore Herzl created the Zionist Congress, with the ultimate goal to establish a Jewish state.

Right: Dreyfuss in

his quarters at the

notorious Devil’s

Island penal colony

in 1898.

Above: This image of Dreyfus’s

degradation appeared on the

cover of Paris newspaper

Le Petit

Journal

, captioned “The Traitor.”

Above: Alfred Dreyfus