The Dreyfus Case
In the manga, Annelotte and Johachim are
illegitimate sons of colonel Maximilien von Schwarzkoppen,
military attaché in the German Embassy in Paris. Together
with the Italian military attaché Panizzardi he conducted
espionage operations. Major Count Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy,
commander of a battalion of the French Army stationed at Rouen,
made contact with him to sell him secret French documents. It
happened that Marie Bastian, working as a cleaning woman in the
German embassy but actually employed by the French secret
service, found the bordereau (un unsigned list of the secret
French documents) in a trash can and sent it to commandant H.J.
Henry. Then, there was a traitor! He had to be found and
punished. October 13th 1894. Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a jewish
junior army officer, was arrested and sent to the prison on
Devil's Island. He did not have a fair trial, the conviction was
based on falsified documents and Dreyfus was innocent. In 1985
colonel Piquart, convinced that Dreyfus was innocent while there
were evidence that Esterhazy was the author of the bordereau,
tried to re-open the case. But Esterhazy was found innocent, and
Piquart sent to prison and dismissed from the army (He was
reinstated in 1906). The writer Émile Zola exposed the
affair to the general public in a famous open letter to President
Félix Faure titled "J'accuse!", which was published 13
January 1898 in the literary newspaper "L'Aurore". In September
of 1899, he was pardoned by the president of France, but it was
not until 1906 that Dreyfus was exonerated of the charges and
readmitted into the army. He was also made a knight in the Legion
of Honour.
♣ Interesting links:
The Dreyfus Affair ~ Usa People Search
Beyond the Pale ~ the Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus Affair
France's Moral Sedan: the Dreyfus Affair ~
Student Historical Journal
