The text of the comic strip is in French and the images depict the events of the Dreyfus Affair. The comic strip starts showing Dreyfus being framed by two fellow military men. Subsequent frames illustrate his trial and imprisonment and end with his imagined acquittal. This depiction was published by the Dreyfusards who fought to prove Dreyfus’ innocence.
The images include drawings of the relevant characters but also elements common to comic strips such as: the word “Berlin” on the suitcase being held by Estherhazy, the real culprit; speech bubbles with Dreyfus’ cry of “I am innocent”; and the image of an angel representing justice at the end of the comic strip.
Alfred Dreyfus, a French-Jewish officer, was wrongly accused of spying for Germany, and in 1894 he was convicted and placed in solitary confinement on Devil’s Island. One of the reasons for his conviction was the anti-Semitic atmosphere rampant in Europe at the time. Only years later, as result of public protest, was Dreyfus acquitted.
In the years following Alfred Dreyfus’ trial and imprisonment, the Dreyfus Affair split the French nation in two. On one side were the Dreyfusards who were fighting for Dreyfus’ innocence; on the other, the anti-Dreyfusards who supported his conviction. It was the press which was primarily responsible for shaping the case into “The Dreyfus Affair.” From 1898-1899, in particular, the public campaign became a goldmine for graphic artists and draughtsmen; newspapers, magazines, posters, brochures, postcards and board games attracted readers with colourful caricatures, cartoons, and vignettes. The two camps seemed to be involved in a ping pong match: a month after the publication of a poster entitled “Dreyfus is a Traitor,” a poster appeared entitled “Dreyfus is Innocent”; the comic strip “Story of a Traitor” was the anti-Semitic answer to the “Story of an Innocent”. Likewise, the newspaper L’Aurore published “The Game of Truth,” a Dreyfusard spin on the traditional Goose Game; the newspaper L’Anti-Juif then responded with “The Game of 36 Heads.”
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The Dreyfus Affair – Alfred Dreyfus was born in 1859 to a Jewish family in Alsace in the east of France. Dreyfus joined the French Army and was promoted to the rank of captain in the artillery corps in 1889. In 1894, the French Army’s counter intelligence section became aware of classified information being passed on to the German Army. Suspicion quickly fell on Dreyfus, and he was arrested in October 1894 and convicted of treason in a secret court martial. Dreyfus was stripped of his rank and military decorations before a large crowd of cheering onlookers in a “degradation ceremony” and was deported to Devil’s Island, a penal colony off the coast of South America. Throughout his trial Dreyfus claimed his innocence, and in the degradation ceremony he cried out: “I swear that I am innocent. I remain worthy of serving in the army. Long live France! Long live the army!” The many activists and intellectuals who supported Dreyfus were known as Dreyfusards. The famous French writer Émile Zola published an open letter titled “J’accuse” in a Paris newspaper, accusing the president and government of France of anti-Semitism and of the wrongful imprisonment of Alfred Dreyfus. The anti-Dreyfusards, on the other hand, saw the affair as an example of the unpatriotic views held by the Jews. They saw Dreyfus’ roots in Alsace (a territory still being disputed by France and Germany) as proof of his affiliation to Germany. The protests finally succeeded, and in 1896 Alfred Dreyfus was returned to France and given a second trial. Despite the evidence brought before the court, Dreyfus was again found guilty of treason. Public opinion, however, forced President Émile Loubet to grant a pardon, and in 1899 Dreyfus was released from prison. He, nonetheless, officially remained a traitor until his full acquittal in 1906.
