This is the first page of a letter written (in French) by Lucie to her husband, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, after he was imprisoned for treason. The letter shows the couple’s deep and loving relationship. In the letter, sent just eleven days after Alfred was jailed, Lucie inquires with affection and concern about the conditions of his imprisonment. She also updates Alfred about the other family members. She implores her husband to share his feelings with her and urges him to exercise in order to keep his mind working.
The Dreyfus Affair was an anti-Semitic plot that took place in 1894. Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a artillery officer in the French Army, was charged with treason and spying for Germany. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and his military ranks were taken from him in a humiliating public ceremony while anti-Semitic cries were heard in the audience. It was only in 1906 that the court acquitted him of all charges, cleared his name, and returned him to the army with the rank of major. The Dreyfus family, and especially his brother Matthieu, had been working for a retrial and were supported by public figures, politicians, and writers who saw the affair as a stain on the image of France.
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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.
