Word: dreyfuses
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...Dreyfus case had never happened, some writer undoubtedly would have invented it--so perfect is it for dramatic treatment. The case almost tore the Third Republic of France apart, involved at its height some of the most articulate men in modern history, and finally trailed off into an ending that was both touching and ludicrous. The movie Dreyfus, made in Germany in 1930, captures only some of the drama of the incident, mostly because it attacks the story with the somewhat unfocused view of a documentary...
...Dreyfus story is extremely complicated, and if it sometimes appears totally confused in the film, the script-writer can hardly be blamed. The affair began in 1894, when some secret French defense plans leaked into German hands. The commanders of the French army picked Captain Alfred Dreyfus, the only Jew on the General Staff, to take the blame, and after and absurd court-martial sent him to Devil's Island. Eventually, of course, the novelist Emile Zola came to his aid, with the result that the Captain finally received his freedom and the award of a Legion of Honor...
During those years and since, thousands of articles and hundreds of books have been written about the Dreyfus Affair. Now comes Hungarian Refugee Journalist Nicholas Halasz to prove that the story has lost none of its excitement when coolly researched and laid out in skillful narrative 60 years later...
...Dreyfus was a brilliant, studious artillery officer who ate, slept and dreamed the army. But in a French officers' club of those days, he had two marks against him: he was stiff, studious and humorless, and he was a Jew. He refused to be cowed by the anti-Semitism of the day, through sheer ability became the first Jewish officer to be appointed to the French general staff. Suddenly, on Oct. 15, 1894, he was ordered to report to the office of the chief of staff. There a Major du Paty de Clam dictated a letter filled with secrets...
Strained Conscience. Treason there was, but the traitor was not Dreyfus. As a Jew, he made an excellent scapegoat. Even after the high command learned that the real traitor was Major Count Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy, decadent scion of the aristocratic Hungarian family, they tried to cover up their mistake and even let Esterhazy keep his rank and assignment. Dreyfus' conviction touched off a wave of anti-Semitism that made it dangerous for anyone to doubt his guilt. But one general-staff officer, Lieut. Colonel Marie-Georges Picquart, found the truth more than his conscience could stand, although he cordially...