The Dreyfus Affair and J' accuse

• Dreyfus was sent to Devil's Island, he was a French soldier.
• Bismark attempted to unify Germany (the Prussian and German states)
• The French got defeated by Germany but France couldn't handle the defeat so they invented a conspiracy theory. They thought there were French soldiers acting on behalf of the Germans.
• The Germans took over Paris and all the French, rich people fled to the countryside. The only people who remained were the poor people. The poor were so desperate for food that they went to the zoo and ate all the animals apart from the lions.
• The French were made to pay for the damages of the war by the Germans.
• Also, the Germans wanted to have a parade through Paris to celebrate the war victory. Once the Germans left, the rich came back to Paris and demanded rent money from the poor for staying in Paris during their absence.
• The French Commune
• The right wing is the military and the Catholics, also the people who want to bring back the King.
• The left wing was the socialists and intellectuals.
• Drayfus was from Alsace, which was taken over by the Germans. He was also a Jew.
• He was patriotic towards the French because he hated the Germans for taking over Alsace. He went to military school and was very smart and wealthy.
• The information that was found in the waste paper basket was blamed on Dreyfus because he was a Jew and from Alsac, which meant he was considered a German.



Dreyfus

• The information that was found in the waste paper basket was information on the French army that was given to the Germans.
• Dreyfus was innocent, the person who really did it, was a Frenchman who was in the army, but a spy for the Germans. His name was Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.
• After the cba ge of government, Dreyfus was brought back for another trial, but even with all the new evidence, he was still found guilty.
• Before the trial, the barrister was shot by gunmen because he was said to be on Dreyfus' side. The barrister still attended the trial.
• The final irony, was that Dreyfus' granddaughter was killed in Auschwitz.
• At Zola's funeral, Dreyfus was the guest of honour and he was approached by a gunman.
• Zola was the journalist who stood up for Dreyfus and wrote a letter to the President of the republic to accuse the people were currupt in the French Ministry of War. And also Esterhazy. His Article was published on the front page of the Paris Daily.