1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,280 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. I've had 4 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:19,640 Speaker 1: the dray Fist affair on my to do list for 5 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:23,120 Speaker 1: really quite a while, and it finally made its way 6 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:25,280 Speaker 1: up to the top after we mentioned it in our 7 00:00:25,320 --> 00:00:30,479 Speaker 1: episode on Esperanto not that long ago. This incident comes 8 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: up a lot as a really notable example of anti 9 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,600 Speaker 1: semitism in France around the turn of the twentieth century, 10 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:41,600 Speaker 1: and it definitely is that, but it's also that's one 11 00:00:41,680 --> 00:00:43,839 Speaker 1: piece of a story that connects to a lot of 12 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:47,040 Speaker 1: other stuff, including the role of the media and the 13 00:00:47,280 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 1: spread of articles and imagery that we would describe as 14 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 1: viral today uh, and questions about like the relationship between 15 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:59,000 Speaker 1: individual liberties and national security. This is definitely not a 16 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:02,920 Speaker 1: zero sum situation. None of that stuff takes away from 17 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:05,360 Speaker 1: the role of anti semitism and all of this, but 18 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:10,880 Speaker 1: it adds more layers to it. France had also been 19 00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:15,160 Speaker 1: through a lot over the decades before this happened, and 20 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:17,839 Speaker 1: a lot of what France had gone through really fed 21 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 1: into this scandal and the response from the French government 22 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:25,399 Speaker 1: and the military and the civilian population, and that is 23 00:01:25,440 --> 00:01:28,080 Speaker 1: one of the reasons why this episode stretched into two parts. 24 00:01:28,959 --> 00:01:32,320 Speaker 1: And this first part we're going to contextualize all of 25 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:35,319 Speaker 1: this with a discussion of the Franco Prussian War, which 26 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:38,759 Speaker 1: is also called the Franco German War, and the founding 27 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,480 Speaker 1: of the French Third Republic. Then we'll move from there 28 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:46,720 Speaker 1: onto Alfred Dreyfuss, which you a lot of English speakers 29 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: would say that Dreyfuss, but he said at Dreyfus uh. 30 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: And we will get into the accusation of treason that 31 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: he faced in four and then in the second part 32 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:58,720 Speaker 1: of this two partner we'll talk about his court martial 33 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:02,280 Speaker 1: and his exile and how all of that blossomed into 34 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:05,640 Speaker 1: something that was just known as the Affair, which divided 35 00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:10,080 Speaker 1: French society and became international news. So as Tracy just noted, 36 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:12,600 Speaker 1: the Franco Prussian War was one of the events that 37 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:15,919 Speaker 1: set the stage for the Dreyfus Affair, and it also 38 00:02:16,080 --> 00:02:19,440 Speaker 1: directly and profoundly affected the Dreyfus family, and we'll get 39 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:23,079 Speaker 1: into that later in the episode. In eighteen seventy, Napoleon 40 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:26,400 Speaker 1: Louis also known as Napoleon the third was Emperor of 41 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:30,040 Speaker 1: the French. He was the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and 42 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:33,480 Speaker 1: in June of that year, Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck 43 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:37,720 Speaker 1: convinced Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern Sigmartin to make a claim 44 00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:41,360 Speaker 1: to the Spanish throne. At this point, Spain did not 45 00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 1: have a monarch. Queen Isabella the second had been deposed 46 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:48,919 Speaker 1: in the Revolution of eighteen sixty eight, and Spanish military 47 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:53,480 Speaker 1: leader Jue prim was acting as prime minister. He supported 48 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:58,480 Speaker 1: Leopold's claim to the throne, and France found this enormously threatening. 49 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: Leopold was Russian and the House of Hollands Erin was 50 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:06,880 Speaker 1: the ruling house of Brandenburg, Prussia, so if Leopold became 51 00:03:07,080 --> 00:03:11,120 Speaker 1: king of Spain, France was going to be basically sandwiched 52 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:15,639 Speaker 1: between two nations that could easily ally against it. French 53 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 1: ambassador Vincent Benedetti successfully negotiated with Prussia to get Leopold 54 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 1: to withdraw his claim, but he also demanded that Prussia 55 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,520 Speaker 1: never allowed Leopold to be put forth as a claimant 56 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:31,280 Speaker 1: to the Spanish throne. Again. King Wilhelm of Prussia sent 57 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: a telegram to Otto von Bismarck that outlined all of this. 58 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,360 Speaker 1: Bismarck edited this telegram to make it seem as though 59 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: France had deeply insulted Prussia and then published it basically 60 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: attempting to go to France into declaring war, and this worked. 61 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 1: Napoleon the Third Military Advisors thought that France was equipped 62 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:55,440 Speaker 1: to defeat Prussia without a lot of difficulty, and so 63 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: France declared war on July nineteenth seventy. But then seven 64 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:04,000 Speaker 1: role other German states allied with Prussia and together their 65 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 1: armies fastly outnumbered the French military force. These newly unified 66 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:13,520 Speaker 1: German states, under the helm of the Prussian army, were 67 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,440 Speaker 1: way more efficient and better coordinated than Francis force was 68 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:21,880 Speaker 1: when it came to actually deploying the troops, so unsurprisingly, 69 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:26,560 Speaker 1: this went incredibly poorly for France. Napoleon hoped to be 70 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:29,640 Speaker 1: killed at the Battle of Sudan on August thirty one. 71 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: He survived, he surrendered, and he was deposed on September four, 72 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:37,320 Speaker 1: at which point the government announced the establishment of the 73 00:04:37,320 --> 00:04:41,560 Speaker 1: Third Republic. But this new government refused to accept Germany's 74 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: conditions to end the war, so Germany lay siege to 75 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:49,799 Speaker 1: Paris beginning on September nineteenth, eighteen seventy. Paris was under 76 00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:54,800 Speaker 1: siege from then until January of eighteen seventy one. The 77 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:58,400 Speaker 1: German forces cut off the city's food supplies and people 78 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:01,839 Speaker 1: started to starve. Also ran out of fuel, and this 79 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:06,560 Speaker 1: was the winter. Eventually, the German army started shelling the city, 80 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:10,640 Speaker 1: and when Paris finally surrendered on January, a lot of 81 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:13,679 Speaker 1: the people who were living there, especially the working class 82 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:16,280 Speaker 1: and the poor, who had been affected the most by 83 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:20,760 Speaker 1: this siege, they felt abandoned and betrayed. There had been 84 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:25,520 Speaker 1: almost fifty thousand civilian casualties during the siege, and the 85 00:05:25,720 --> 00:05:28,559 Speaker 1: people who lived through it had survived months and months 86 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:33,839 Speaker 1: of just incredible hardship. This compounded existing unresolved frustrations and 87 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:37,360 Speaker 1: divisions in Paris and in France as a whole. Many 88 00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: people in France's more rural regions were Royalists, and consequently 89 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: Royalists held a majority of seats in the newly established 90 00:05:45,200 --> 00:05:50,480 Speaker 1: National Assembly. Conservative Adolph Tier was heading the Assembly, which 91 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:54,800 Speaker 1: was meeting at Versailles, further reinforcing fears about the possibility 92 00:05:54,880 --> 00:05:57,720 Speaker 1: of the restoration of the monarchy among the people who 93 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:00,560 Speaker 1: did not want that to happen, and a face of 94 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:05,040 Speaker 1: a potential uprising in Paris, Tierre ordered the National Guard 95 00:06:05,120 --> 00:06:08,160 Speaker 1: that had defended Paris during the siege to be disarmed, 96 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:11,960 Speaker 1: and when troops started removing cannons that had been placed 97 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: around malmart to defend the city, people started fighting back. 98 00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:19,839 Speaker 1: Paris formed its own rival government, the Paris Commune, and 99 00:06:19,880 --> 00:06:23,800 Speaker 1: that formed on March eighteenth, eighteen seventy one. Its leaders 100 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:29,120 Speaker 1: included anarchists, socialists, communists, and Jacobins, united in their opposition 101 00:06:29,160 --> 00:06:33,320 Speaker 1: to what they saw as a conservative royalist assembly. Similar 102 00:06:33,360 --> 00:06:36,680 Speaker 1: rebellions followed in other cities around France, but those quickly 103 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:41,400 Speaker 1: fell apart or were suppressed. But Paris held municipal elections 104 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,800 Speaker 1: and the Communards tried to implement a whole series of reforms, 105 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: including limiting the power of the Catholic Church, protecting the 106 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:52,599 Speaker 1: rights and pay of workers, ending child labor, and expanding 107 00:06:52,680 --> 00:06:57,680 Speaker 1: rights for women. On May twenty one, Tierre dispatched troops 108 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,880 Speaker 1: and volunteers from the country to put down this uprising, 109 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:05,200 Speaker 1: and this led to the deaths of twenty thousand Parisians 110 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:08,520 Speaker 1: and about seven hundred and fifty government troops. And there 111 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: were also tens of thousands of arrests. Thousands of people 112 00:07:11,760 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: were deported. In response, people set fire to multiple buildings 113 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 1: in Paris, including the Tuilerie Palace. By the end of 114 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:23,440 Speaker 1: the Paris Commune, France had also formalized its peace with 115 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:27,520 Speaker 1: Germany through the Treaty of Frankfurt. Germany took control of 116 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:32,080 Speaker 1: alsacein part of Lorraine which had previously been French territory. 117 00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:35,200 Speaker 1: France also had to pay an indemnity of five billion 118 00:07:35,280 --> 00:07:38,120 Speaker 1: francs along with other costs, and that left the country 119 00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:42,800 Speaker 1: deeply in debt, and on January eighteen seventy one, King 120 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:46,680 Speaker 1: Vilhelm the First of Prussia was named Emperor of Germany, 121 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:50,520 Speaker 1: with that taking place at their side. So this was 122 00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:55,200 Speaker 1: all financially disastrous and just humiliating for France, while also 123 00:07:55,360 --> 00:07:59,360 Speaker 1: unifying multiple German states into one nation, which had been 124 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:03,280 Speaker 1: auto on Bismarck's intent from the beginning. Over the next 125 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:06,600 Speaker 1: few years, France really tried to recover from all this. 126 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: The National Assembly passed a collection of laws in eighteen 127 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:13,960 Speaker 1: seventy five that together essentially formed a new constitution for 128 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 1: the Third Republic. It established a b cameral legislature with 129 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:21,400 Speaker 1: a Senate that was elected every nine years by mayors 130 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:24,800 Speaker 1: and counselors, and the Chamber of Deputies that was elected 131 00:08:24,800 --> 00:08:29,600 Speaker 1: every four years by male citizens. And at first monarchists 132 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:33,560 Speaker 1: held the majority in this new assembly, but Republicans eventually 133 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:35,840 Speaker 1: came to power, and then of course the response to 134 00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:39,760 Speaker 1: that shift in who was holding seats and these bodies, like, 135 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:42,680 Speaker 1: the response to that dependent on which side you were 136 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:46,360 Speaker 1: on between the monarchists and the Republicans. Even as the 137 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:49,800 Speaker 1: Republican government got onto more solid footing, there were still 138 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: a lot of unresolved tensions and divisions that were lingering 139 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:56,600 Speaker 1: after the war, the siege and the Paris Commune, between 140 00:08:56,640 --> 00:09:00,720 Speaker 1: Republicans and monarchists, between Paris and the provinces, between the 141 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:03,960 Speaker 1: Church and the secular community. These conflicts sort of just 142 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,120 Speaker 1: went on and on. In the eighteen seventies and eighteen eighties, 143 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:10,240 Speaker 1: the French government passed a series of laws and reforms 144 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:12,280 Speaker 1: that were meant to try to unify the people of 145 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:15,560 Speaker 1: France and to repair some of the ongoing divisions that 146 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: had both contributed to and grown out of all of this. 147 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:23,440 Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty one, a law replaced a collection of 148 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:26,440 Speaker 1: earlier laws that related to free speech and freedom of 149 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: the press generally expanded on those freedoms. This combined with 150 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:37,360 Speaker 1: public education reforms, increased literacy and new printing technologies, and 151 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:41,640 Speaker 1: it led to a proliferation of newspapers that were widely 152 00:09:41,679 --> 00:09:46,000 Speaker 1: read and widely distributed all through the country. This expansion 153 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:47,880 Speaker 1: of the French media would go on to play a 154 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:51,440 Speaker 1: huge role in the Dreyfus affair. During these years, the 155 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:54,960 Speaker 1: French government also passed new laws related to civil liberties 156 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:58,360 Speaker 1: and freedoms and the relationship between the church and the state. 157 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:02,080 Speaker 1: Many of these new laws were anti clerical in nature 158 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:04,760 Speaker 1: and reduced the power of the church, but at this 159 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:08,040 Speaker 1: point the church and the state were still formally connected. 160 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:13,520 Speaker 1: France also extended its colonial empire into Africa and Asia. 161 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:16,640 Speaker 1: But while the government was trying to take some steps 162 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:20,280 Speaker 1: to try to stabilize things and recover from just a 163 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:25,240 Speaker 1: long period of strife and hardship, France also went through 164 00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:29,440 Speaker 1: several scandals during the late eighteen eighties and early eighteen nineties. 165 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:32,040 Speaker 1: We're not going to talk about all of them, but 166 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:35,920 Speaker 1: a couple in particular both grew out of and fed 167 00:10:36,080 --> 00:10:39,520 Speaker 1: into anti Semitism in France, and then that all also 168 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:42,840 Speaker 1: fed into the Dreyfus affair, and we're gonna get to 169 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:53,160 Speaker 1: that after a quick sponsor break. Towards the end of 170 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:56,840 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, a lot of different groups of people 171 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:02,120 Speaker 1: with different ideologies thought that Rants was in immediate peril, 172 00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:07,880 Speaker 1: but often for totally contradictory reasons. Republicans feared a restoration 173 00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:12,200 Speaker 1: of the monarchy. Monarchists feared a growing support for the 174 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:16,480 Speaker 1: Republican government. Catholics feared the erosion of the Church's power 175 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:20,360 Speaker 1: and this rise of anti clerical laws. People in the 176 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:25,160 Speaker 1: country feared the influence of Parisians in the Chamber of Deputies, 177 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:28,199 Speaker 1: but people in the city's feared the influence of rural 178 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:31,160 Speaker 1: interests in the French Senate. This again went on and on. 179 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:34,880 Speaker 1: Anti Semitism both fed into and grew out of all 180 00:11:34,920 --> 00:11:37,840 Speaker 1: of these fears, and was connected to a number of 181 00:11:37,880 --> 00:11:42,520 Speaker 1: major scandals and crises that unfolded during these decades. One 182 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:47,400 Speaker 1: involved General George Ernest Genrey Boulanger, who served as Minister 183 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:51,080 Speaker 1: of War under Prime Minister Renego Blay. Because of his 184 00:11:51,120 --> 00:11:54,760 Speaker 1: military position, it was illegal for Boulange to run for office, 185 00:11:55,240 --> 00:11:58,640 Speaker 1: but he did it anyway. In some circles, he was 186 00:11:58,679 --> 00:12:02,240 Speaker 1: imagined as sort of a potential successor to Napoleon, an 187 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:07,160 Speaker 1: authoritarian figure who might supplant the Republican government, restore the monarchy, 188 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:10,960 Speaker 1: take back Alsace and Nourin from Germany, and make Germany 189 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:15,000 Speaker 1: pay for the Franco Prussian War. People were so sure 190 00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:16,679 Speaker 1: that he was the man to do this that he 191 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:22,440 Speaker 1: was nicknamed General Revanche or General Revenge. Boulange also grew 192 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:26,280 Speaker 1: in popularity thanks to some other scandals. One became known 193 00:12:26,280 --> 00:12:29,839 Speaker 1: as the Decoration's Scandal of eight eight seven, and this 194 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:34,760 Speaker 1: was a scheme to trade honors for money, including basically 195 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:38,400 Speaker 1: selling ranks in the French Legion of Honor. One of 196 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:41,360 Speaker 1: the people who was involved in this scheme was Daniel Wilson, 197 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:44,040 Speaker 1: who was the son in law of President Jule Grave. 198 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:47,440 Speaker 1: When Grave was forced to resign because of his son 199 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:50,360 Speaker 1: in law's involvement in this, it sparked even more popular 200 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:54,160 Speaker 1: support for Boulange. And like, what kind of does this characterize? 201 00:12:54,200 --> 00:12:58,360 Speaker 1: This support? A little bit um. He had supporters among 202 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:02,239 Speaker 1: a surprisingly why an array of people of different viewpoints. 203 00:13:02,720 --> 00:13:05,200 Speaker 1: People were voting hit for him in elections where he 204 00:13:05,240 --> 00:13:08,600 Speaker 1: wasn't even on the ballot, and when the army transferred 205 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:10,959 Speaker 1: him out of Paris to try to just get him 206 00:13:10,960 --> 00:13:12,920 Speaker 1: out of the way and cut him off from the 207 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:17,280 Speaker 1: support a little bit. People thronged the train station and 208 00:13:17,360 --> 00:13:20,520 Speaker 1: physically blocked the train from leaving, and then when they 209 00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: finally cleared that away so that the train could go, 210 00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:27,760 Speaker 1: they were chanting, he will return. As he pulled away. 211 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:33,280 Speaker 1: It's intense. It is in. Boulange was dismissed from the 212 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:37,800 Speaker 1: army because of his political activities. With nothing legally prohibiting 213 00:13:37,880 --> 00:13:41,280 Speaker 1: him from seeking office, he ramped up his political ambitions 214 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:45,040 Speaker 1: even further. People either feared or hoped that he might 215 00:13:45,040 --> 00:13:48,199 Speaker 1: attempt a coup, particularly after he was elected to the 216 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:52,160 Speaker 1: Chamber of Deputies in eighteen eighty nine. His supporters were 217 00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:56,280 Speaker 1: disappointed when this imagined coup did not materialize, and after 218 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:59,520 Speaker 1: the Chamber voted to strip him of his parliamentary immunity, 219 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:03,440 Speaker 1: he fled Paris. The Senate tried him for treason and 220 00:14:03,480 --> 00:14:06,360 Speaker 1: convicted him in absentia, and he took his own life 221 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:11,560 Speaker 1: in There was a lot of overlap between the people 222 00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:14,760 Speaker 1: who supported Boulange because they imagined that he was going 223 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:19,000 Speaker 1: to restore France to greatness and anti Semites. The same 224 00:14:19,040 --> 00:14:21,680 Speaker 1: newspapers that were printing a lot of pro boulange A 225 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:27,520 Speaker 1: propaganda were also printing anti Jewish propaganda, including Boulangey propaganda 226 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:31,000 Speaker 1: that was itself anti Semitic. Some of the places where 227 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:34,480 Speaker 1: this was happening had few, if any Jewish people actually 228 00:14:34,640 --> 00:14:39,640 Speaker 1: living there, so people were kind of constructing an imaginary 229 00:14:39,760 --> 00:14:45,120 Speaker 1: enemy to blame for every perceived ill and threat. At minimum, 230 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:48,000 Speaker 1: Boulange seems to have been willing to use this to 231 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:51,240 Speaker 1: his own advantage, and after his death the movement that 232 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:54,440 Speaker 1: had risen to support him became more and more explicitly 233 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:59,200 Speaker 1: anti Semitic. This all merged together into a mass of nationalism, 234 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:05,520 Speaker 1: anti semit Is, m authoritarianism, militarism, and revenge against Germany. 235 00:15:05,840 --> 00:15:09,280 Speaker 1: And then there was the Panama scandal of eighteen ninety three, 236 00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:13,160 Speaker 1: which came up very briefly in our previous episode on Gustavefel. 237 00:15:14,040 --> 00:15:17,720 Speaker 1: After raising huge amounts of money, including through a lottery 238 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:20,560 Speaker 1: that had been approved by the French government, the French 239 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:25,000 Speaker 1: Panama Canal Company went bankrupt. The people who lost all 240 00:15:25,040 --> 00:15:28,480 Speaker 1: of their investments in this included about half a million 241 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:33,160 Speaker 1: ordinary middle class French citizens. There were also allegations that 242 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:35,720 Speaker 1: more than a hundred and fifty members of the French 243 00:15:35,800 --> 00:15:39,360 Speaker 1: Parliament had taken bribes to cover up what was happening 244 00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:41,880 Speaker 1: and to try to keep the Panama Canal Company afloat. 245 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: A parliamentary commission of inquiry was convened and numerous members 246 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,160 Speaker 1: of the government were prosecuted or forced to resign during 247 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:52,600 Speaker 1: the investigations that followed. One of them was Emil Loube, 248 00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:56,840 Speaker 1: Premier and Minister of the Interior. Investigations also revealed that 249 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:00,440 Speaker 1: the French Panama Canal Company had already been a essentially 250 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:04,280 Speaker 1: bankrupt before it's huge round of fundraising and the subsequent 251 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: mismanagement of those funds. None of the prominent investors involved 252 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:11,920 Speaker 1: in all of this were Jewish, nor were any of 253 00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:15,520 Speaker 1: the board of the French Panama Canal Company, but various 254 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,400 Speaker 1: people who had been involved in the bribery scheme or 255 00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:21,640 Speaker 1: had acted as liaisons between the government and the Panama 256 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:26,000 Speaker 1: Canal Company were Jewish. This included Baron Jacques de Reinach 257 00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:29,520 Speaker 1: and Cornelius Hers, who were both of German Jewish descent. 258 00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:34,920 Speaker 1: Anti Semitic newspapers focused primarily on these two men in 259 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:37,560 Speaker 1: their coverage, even though they were just two figures in 260 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:41,640 Speaker 1: a massive scandal of mismanagement and deception. In addition to 261 00:16:41,760 --> 00:16:46,280 Speaker 1: the illegal and unethical activity going on, this reinforced anti 262 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:52,360 Speaker 1: Semitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories. Anti Semitic newspaper La Libre Parole, 263 00:16:52,640 --> 00:16:56,280 Speaker 1: which was founded and edited by Edward Joumont, framed all 264 00:16:56,320 --> 00:16:59,800 Speaker 1: of this as a widespread Jewish conspiracy that involved banks 265 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:03,480 Speaker 1: and secret control of the government. And this was further 266 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:07,320 Speaker 1: compounded by the existence and the activities of the Rothschild 267 00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:11,359 Speaker 1: banking family, which was Europe's most famous banking dynasty and 268 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:15,320 Speaker 1: was also of German Jewish descent. The Rothschild family had 269 00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:18,560 Speaker 1: become quite powerful thanks to being able to make loans 270 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:22,040 Speaker 1: to nations and governments, and this included two large loans 271 00:17:22,080 --> 00:17:24,560 Speaker 1: that were issued to France in the wake of the 272 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:28,000 Speaker 1: Franco Prussian War. In addition to the spread of anti 273 00:17:28,040 --> 00:17:32,240 Speaker 1: Semitic conspiracy theories, this whole incident had a meaningful impact 274 00:17:32,240 --> 00:17:37,199 Speaker 1: on France's most notorious anti Semitic newspaper, Drumont had funded 275 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:40,399 Speaker 1: La Libre Parole using money from the sale of an 276 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:43,800 Speaker 1: anti Semitic book that he had written, called Jewish France. 277 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:48,480 Speaker 1: Its circulation remained fairly small until Baron Jacques de Nach 278 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:51,639 Speaker 1: provided Drumont with a list of all of the members 279 00:17:51,680 --> 00:17:56,040 Speaker 1: of Parliament that he said were involved. Rainoch allegedly did 280 00:17:56,040 --> 00:17:58,920 Speaker 1: this in exchange for the paper covering up his own 281 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:02,199 Speaker 1: involvement in the handle in its reporting, and thanks to 282 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:05,440 Speaker 1: its publication of this list, La Le Parole saw a 283 00:18:05,480 --> 00:18:11,400 Speaker 1: massive increase in its circulation and its influence today. Historians 284 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:16,040 Speaker 1: often described the French Third Republic as being relatively stable, 285 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:20,160 Speaker 1: but with some caveats. These two scandals are usually included 286 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:22,639 Speaker 1: in the caveats, along with the Dreyfus affair that we're 287 00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:26,560 Speaker 1: going to discuss. The Republic also went through a series 288 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,399 Speaker 1: of fairly brief administrations between eighteen seventy when it was 289 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:34,000 Speaker 1: established in nineteen forty, when France fell to Nazi Germany 290 00:18:34,040 --> 00:18:38,080 Speaker 1: during World War Two, the Chamber of Deputies was responsible 291 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:41,600 Speaker 1: for choosing the ministry of France, and because there were 292 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:45,480 Speaker 1: so many different parties and divisions within the Chamber of Deputies, 293 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:49,000 Speaker 1: the ministries that they created often lasted for less than 294 00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:54,159 Speaker 1: a year before being replaced. So when you read quick 295 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:57,080 Speaker 1: summaries of the French Third Republic, it's often summed up 296 00:18:57,119 --> 00:19:00,080 Speaker 1: as stable in spite of a series of short of 297 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:04,000 Speaker 1: the governments and a couple of major scandals. It's stable 298 00:19:04,040 --> 00:19:08,480 Speaker 1: with air quotes, right, But as people were living through it, 299 00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:12,200 Speaker 1: especially in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, they 300 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:16,280 Speaker 1: did not feel stable at all. It felt unstable, and 301 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:19,119 Speaker 1: it often felt like it was on the precipice of disaster. 302 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:23,160 Speaker 1: The general perception was that France had been deeply wronged 303 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:26,360 Speaker 1: during the Franco Prussian War and needed not only it's 304 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:30,880 Speaker 1: lost territory back, but also, as we've mentioned, revenge on Germany. 305 00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:33,880 Speaker 1: And as we said earlier, people from all different political 306 00:19:33,920 --> 00:19:38,560 Speaker 1: perspectives saw France as being in immediate continual peril, with 307 00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:42,720 Speaker 1: the media often hyping up that perceived peril through sensationalized 308 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:47,280 Speaker 1: and sometimes outright false reporting. And all of that finally 309 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:50,080 Speaker 1: brings us back to Alfred Dreyfuss in the scandal that 310 00:19:50,280 --> 00:19:54,000 Speaker 1: further divided and already divided France, and we will get 311 00:19:54,040 --> 00:20:04,520 Speaker 1: to that after a sponsor break. Alfred Dreyfus was born 312 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:09,120 Speaker 1: on October ninth, eighteen fifty nine, in Milus, Alsace, which 313 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:12,960 Speaker 1: at the time was French territory, although parts of Alsace 314 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,919 Speaker 1: had a lot of German influence. Mulus in particular was 315 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:21,080 Speaker 1: seen as like the most French of the city's About 316 00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:24,000 Speaker 1: ten percent of the population of Mulus was also Jewish, 317 00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:28,639 Speaker 1: including the Dreyfus family. Alfred's parents were Rafael and Jeannette Dreyfus. 318 00:20:29,080 --> 00:20:32,159 Speaker 1: Rafael was a merchant, dealing in various types of trade 319 00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:35,639 Speaker 1: before eventually focusing on fabrics and buying a mill, and 320 00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:39,200 Speaker 1: Jeanette was a seamstress, and the family was very comfortable. 321 00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:42,240 Speaker 1: The Dreyfus family had slowly built up their wealth over 322 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:47,000 Speaker 1: several generations, transforming themselves from a family of peddlers to 323 00:20:47,080 --> 00:20:51,919 Speaker 1: a prosperous group of employers, landowners, and business owners, and 324 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:55,080 Speaker 1: they had also tried to assimilate with French society over 325 00:20:55,119 --> 00:20:59,399 Speaker 1: the course of those generations. Rafael's generation had changed the 326 00:20:59,440 --> 00:21:02,840 Speaker 1: spelling the family's last name from d r e y 327 00:21:03,080 --> 00:21:06,520 Speaker 1: f u s s with a diaresists over the y 328 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:08,760 Speaker 1: tow d r e y f u s without that 329 00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:13,200 Speaker 1: accent mark. Raphael and Jeanette's first languages were a Judaeo 330 00:21:13,240 --> 00:21:17,159 Speaker 1: Alsatian dialect and German, but they gave their children French 331 00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:20,800 Speaker 1: names like Jacques, Auriette and Leon, and they made sure 332 00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:24,640 Speaker 1: that they all learned fluent French. Alfred was the youngest 333 00:21:24,720 --> 00:21:27,720 Speaker 1: of seven surviving siblings, and he and his older brother 334 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:30,720 Speaker 1: Matthew were the first ones in the family to learn 335 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:35,439 Speaker 1: French as their first language. The Dreyfus family witnessed to 336 00:21:35,440 --> 00:21:39,880 Speaker 1: the Franco Prussian War firsthand. German troops invaded Mulus, where 337 00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:43,800 Speaker 1: they were living, conscripting vast amounts of supplies and threatening 338 00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,240 Speaker 1: to sack the city if those demands were not met. 339 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,960 Speaker 1: The people of Mulus also secretly sent the same amount 340 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,320 Speaker 1: of goods and supplies to the French army, which is 341 00:21:52,359 --> 00:21:55,600 Speaker 1: sort of a wonderful little detail in here. One of 342 00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:59,600 Speaker 1: Alfred's older brothers also joined the Lejon d'Alsace laurent to 343 00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:04,000 Speaker 1: against Germany during the war. When the Treaty of Frankfurt 344 00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:09,080 Speaker 1: ended the war on May seventy one, France ceeded most 345 00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:11,879 Speaker 1: of Alsace and part of lorent to Germany, and this 346 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:16,120 Speaker 1: included LUs, and if the Us family continued living there, 347 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:18,960 Speaker 1: that would mean they would be considered German, but the 348 00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:24,200 Speaker 1: Dreyfuss loyalty was to France. They considered themselves French. At 349 00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:27,360 Speaker 1: the same time, there were also some practical considerations involved. 350 00:22:27,400 --> 00:22:31,480 Speaker 1: Their home and their business were in Mulus. The dust 351 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:34,080 Speaker 1: family was still trying to decide what to do when 352 00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:37,119 Speaker 1: Germany passed a conscription law that was going to force 353 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:39,480 Speaker 1: Alfred and some of his older brothers to serve in 354 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:43,480 Speaker 1: the German military. That really settled the matter. The family 355 00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:47,479 Speaker 1: decided to move to French territory, leaving Alfred's oldest brother, Jacques, 356 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:50,000 Speaker 1: who was too old to be conscripted, to see to 357 00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:53,800 Speaker 1: the family business. Alfred's mother also stayed behind it first 358 00:22:53,840 --> 00:22:56,679 Speaker 1: because she was too ill to travel. It was not 359 00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,840 Speaker 1: military service in general that the Dreyfus family objected to. 360 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:03,760 Speaker 1: It was the idea of serving in an army that 361 00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,040 Speaker 1: they felt was their enemy, which they had seen defeat 362 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:10,440 Speaker 1: the nation that they considered to be their own. Alfred 363 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:13,040 Speaker 1: ultimately decided that he did want a career in the 364 00:23:13,080 --> 00:23:16,000 Speaker 1: French military, based on what he had witnessed during the 365 00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:19,639 Speaker 1: Franco Prussian War and because he wanted his former home 366 00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:23,760 Speaker 1: returned to France. To that end, Alfred entered a cold 367 00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:28,080 Speaker 1: polytechnique in eighteen seventy eight, and he graduated in eighteen eighty. 368 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:31,560 Speaker 1: He decided to join the artillery, which required additional training 369 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:35,760 Speaker 1: and education. He was recommended for the Ecosiperier de Guerre, 370 00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:39,119 Speaker 1: which was a newly established school for officers, and he 371 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:42,600 Speaker 1: was described as being spirited, with a lively intelligence and 372 00:23:42,720 --> 00:23:47,480 Speaker 1: qualified to teach horsemanship. Dreyfus taught mathematics and drafting while 373 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:50,520 Speaker 1: continuing his education, and while he was in the middle 374 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:54,159 Speaker 1: of all that, he also met his future wife, Lucy Hadamard. 375 00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:57,399 Speaker 1: They got married in April of eighteen ninety, with a 376 00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:00,040 Speaker 1: civil wedding on the eighteenth and a Jewish ceremony on 377 00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:03,560 Speaker 1: the twenty one. Alfred's army rank meant that there was 378 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:07,119 Speaker 1: a minimum dowry required for his marriage to be approved, 379 00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:10,040 Speaker 1: but Lucy's family was even more wealthy and prominent than 380 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:13,320 Speaker 1: the Dreyfus family was, so this was not a problem. 381 00:24:13,520 --> 00:24:17,200 Speaker 1: Rabbi Zadok Cohn, the chief rabbi of France, presided over 382 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:20,040 Speaker 1: their wedding. Alfred and Lucy would go on to have 383 00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:23,960 Speaker 1: two children, Pierre Leon in eighteen ninety one and Jeune 384 00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:28,120 Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety three. Dreyfus graduated from a close Superie 385 00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:31,960 Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety two. He ranked ninth out of eighty 386 00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:34,440 Speaker 1: one in his class, and that earned him a place 387 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:37,000 Speaker 1: in the French Army's General Staff, which he joined in 388 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:41,280 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety three. Thanks to his officers supplement, which was 389 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:44,000 Speaker 1: meant to offset the cost of living in Paris and 390 00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:48,040 Speaker 1: Lucy's income and his own inheritance. After his father's death 391 00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:51,000 Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety three, Alfred Dreyfus and the rest of 392 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:54,680 Speaker 1: the family lived very comfortably. They had an Alsatian wet 393 00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:57,439 Speaker 1: nurse to care for the children, and Alfred indulged in 394 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,320 Speaker 1: his love of fine chocolates and cigars, and he had 395 00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:05,040 Speaker 1: his uniforms specially tailored. Alfred Dreyfus became the highest ranking 396 00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,880 Speaker 1: Jewish person in the French Army and the only Jew 397 00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:12,320 Speaker 1: on staff at the French Army's General Headquarters, and military 398 00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:15,160 Speaker 1: reforms that had followed the Franco Prussian War had really 399 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:18,639 Speaker 1: allowed this to happen. The military had become more of 400 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:23,560 Speaker 1: a meritocracy rather than an organization in which aristocrats automatically 401 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:28,200 Speaker 1: became officers regardless of their competence and performance. Not only 402 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:31,480 Speaker 1: in France but also in other European countries, the army 403 00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:34,480 Speaker 1: had also become an organization that was seen as a 404 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:38,000 Speaker 1: noble and patriotic pursuit rather than the last resort for 405 00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:41,760 Speaker 1: people who had nothing in their family background or any 406 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:47,000 Speaker 1: skills to distinguish themselves. But this shift in the French 407 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,159 Speaker 1: military also meant that Dreyfus didn't always fit in with 408 00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:54,639 Speaker 1: his peers and with older officers. Especially in his younger years. 409 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:57,120 Speaker 1: He was known to visit nightclubs and race tracks from 410 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:00,840 Speaker 1: time to time, and before he met Lucy had had 411 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:03,400 Speaker 1: relationships with various women. He does seem to have been 412 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:06,720 Speaker 1: intensely devoted to her after he met her, but the 413 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,000 Speaker 1: culture among many of the other officers was more one 414 00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:13,320 Speaker 1: of excessive drinking and debauchery and gambling, and none of 415 00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 1: that was really Dreyfus. This thing he could also be 416 00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:20,200 Speaker 1: fairly aloof, and he was ambitious in his military career, 417 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:23,680 Speaker 1: which came off to people as being arrogant. His family 418 00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:27,119 Speaker 1: wealth made him the target of envy as well. During 419 00:26:27,280 --> 00:26:31,280 Speaker 1: his education, he had worked really hard in pretty austere circumstances, 420 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:35,080 Speaker 1: as did his classmates, but a lot of them were 421 00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:38,560 Speaker 1: just barely starting to make ends meet on their military 422 00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:41,360 Speaker 1: salaries at this point in their career, while Drayfus had 423 00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:46,120 Speaker 1: finished his education with financial comfort already waiting for him. 424 00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:50,960 Speaker 1: In September of the French armies counter intelligence unit, which 425 00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:54,640 Speaker 1: was known as the Statistics Section, retrieved a torn up 426 00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:58,520 Speaker 1: document from the waste basket of Lieutenant Colonel Maximilian von 427 00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:03,679 Speaker 1: schwartz Koppen, the German military attache. The Statistics Section was 428 00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:07,640 Speaker 1: employing a cleaning woman who routinely delivered waste basket contents 429 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:11,840 Speaker 1: for analysis. This document is known as the Bordereaux and 430 00:27:11,960 --> 00:27:16,640 Speaker 1: it referenced secret documents that someone in France was offering 431 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:20,440 Speaker 1: to sell to Germany. It's not totally clear whether this 432 00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:25,240 Speaker 1: document actually passed through Schwartzkoppin's hands. There's been some discussion 433 00:27:25,280 --> 00:27:28,200 Speaker 1: about whether it was planted in the waste basket already 434 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:30,879 Speaker 1: torn up, as part of an anti Semitic plot to 435 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:33,639 Speaker 1: try to implicate Dreyfus and get him forced out of 436 00:27:33,640 --> 00:27:36,760 Speaker 1: the army as a result. To be absolutely clear from 437 00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,720 Speaker 1: the outset, Alfred Dreyfus had nothing to do with this 438 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,760 Speaker 1: document and he had not tried to sell French secrets 439 00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:45,639 Speaker 1: to Germany. He also had no motive at all for 440 00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:49,359 Speaker 1: doing so. As we already discussed, his family had moved 441 00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:52,560 Speaker 1: rather than becoming German citizens after the Franco Pressian war, 442 00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:56,080 Speaker 1: and his entire motivation for joining the military had been 443 00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,760 Speaker 1: his French patriotism and his hope of Alsace being returned 444 00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:03,040 Speaker 1: to Rands. Also, because he and his wife were both 445 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:05,879 Speaker 1: from affluent families, he didn't have the kind of debts 446 00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:09,679 Speaker 1: or financial strains that might make a person desperate for money. 447 00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:14,320 Speaker 1: But based on the information contained in the Borderaux, it 448 00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:17,199 Speaker 1: seemed like it must have come from someone on the 449 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:20,920 Speaker 1: general staff, And because he still had family in Malus 450 00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:26,320 Speaker 1: and he visited them regularly, that raised suspicions. Dreyfuss Alsatian 451 00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:30,240 Speaker 1: wet nurse also spoke German and had German visitors. Again, 452 00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:34,720 Speaker 1: the army saw this as suspicious. Rumors spread that Dreyfus 453 00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,000 Speaker 1: was spending huge amounts of money on women in gambling. 454 00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:41,040 Speaker 1: This was compounded by the fact that he'd briefly had 455 00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:43,120 Speaker 1: a relationship with a woman while he was still a 456 00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:47,360 Speaker 1: lieutenant a few years before. He apparently had not known 457 00:28:47,400 --> 00:28:50,040 Speaker 1: that woman was married, and he had ended the relationship 458 00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:52,960 Speaker 1: after her father told him that she was already married 459 00:28:53,200 --> 00:28:56,920 Speaker 1: and actually had two small children. Later on, she had 460 00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:59,800 Speaker 1: been murdered by another man she was seeing, and Dreyfus, 461 00:29:00,040 --> 00:29:02,600 Speaker 1: along with several other men that she had previously been 462 00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:06,080 Speaker 1: involved with had all been called to testify at her 463 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:10,480 Speaker 1: murderer's trial, So this was just another tick against Dreyfus 464 00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:15,320 Speaker 1: in this investigation. All that said, though the statistics sections 465 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:19,720 Speaker 1: evidence against Dreyfus was incredibly thin. A graphologist compared his 466 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,640 Speaker 1: handwriting to the border Oaux and found that the two 467 00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:28,120 Speaker 1: were not similar, but the graphologists claimed that this dissimilarity 468 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:32,480 Speaker 1: was evidence that Dreyfus had created this document. The graphologist 469 00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:36,480 Speaker 1: described this as a self forgery. In other words, the 470 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,400 Speaker 1: big piece of evidence that was supposedly connecting Dreyfus to 471 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:42,480 Speaker 1: this document was the fact that it did not look 472 00:29:42,520 --> 00:29:47,080 Speaker 1: like it was in his handwriting. He concocted a whole 473 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:51,680 Speaker 1: other handwriting to cover his tracks. All of the stuff 474 00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:53,480 Speaker 1: that we talked about in the first two thirds of 475 00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:57,680 Speaker 1: this episode meant that France was particularly primed to just 476 00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:01,000 Speaker 1: believe that Alfred Dreyfus was guilty, and that his guilt 477 00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:03,400 Speaker 1: was a sign of a much greater crisis and a 478 00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:07,760 Speaker 1: serious existential problem for the nation. He was Jewish, he 479 00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:10,440 Speaker 1: was also from Alsace, and even though in his mind 480 00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,200 Speaker 1: that led directly to his love of France, in his 481 00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:16,040 Speaker 1: desire to serve in the French army. To other people, 482 00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:19,200 Speaker 1: that meant that he was really German and loyal not 483 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:22,000 Speaker 1: to France but to France's enemy, which had not only 484 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,400 Speaker 1: humiliated and devastated the French during the Franco Prussian War, 485 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:29,440 Speaker 1: but had also stripped France of Alsace and Loraine, and 486 00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:32,920 Speaker 1: he was accused of selling military secrets to that enemy. 487 00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:36,360 Speaker 1: Pretty Much everyone who saw France as under threat in 488 00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:40,160 Speaker 1: some way saw Dreyfus as emblematic of that threat, whichever 489 00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:43,840 Speaker 1: direction they saw the threat as coming from. Alfred Dreyfus 490 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:47,840 Speaker 1: fell under suspicion for selling French military secrets to Germany 491 00:30:47,920 --> 00:30:51,920 Speaker 1: on October six, and we will get into his court 492 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:56,400 Speaker 1: martial and what followed it in our next episode. Bump 493 00:30:56,440 --> 00:31:02,000 Speaker 1: bum bum cliffhanger. Yeah. When I started on this, I 494 00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:03,920 Speaker 1: wasn't expecting it to be two parts, and then it 495 00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:05,840 Speaker 1: as it became two parts, I was like, this is 496 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:08,120 Speaker 1: a this is a place to have to end it, 497 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:12,080 Speaker 1: but like this is where it's gonna have to break. Uh. 498 00:31:12,080 --> 00:31:15,320 Speaker 1: While we wait on tenter hooks for that next installment, 499 00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:19,520 Speaker 1: do you also have listener mail? I do this is 500 00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:22,760 Speaker 1: from Cassandra or maybe Cassandra. It is about our recent 501 00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:26,200 Speaker 1: episode on Lola Montez. Is one of several notes we 502 00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:29,880 Speaker 1: got along the same topic, and Cassandra has says, Hi, 503 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,520 Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy. First off, I love your podcast and 504 00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:34,680 Speaker 1: have been listening to it for the past few years. 505 00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:38,000 Speaker 1: I just recently listened to the episode about Lola Montes. 506 00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,920 Speaker 1: You kept mentioning how everyone said she was beautiful, so 507 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:43,320 Speaker 1: I decided to google her, and when I plugged her 508 00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:47,200 Speaker 1: name to Google, the song Lola Montez by vul Beat appeared. 509 00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,800 Speaker 1: I've heard that song many times before. In fact, it's 510 00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:53,920 Speaker 1: a liked song on my Spotify playlist, but honestly, I 511 00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:56,560 Speaker 1: can't understand a word the lead singer is saying. So 512 00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:58,560 Speaker 1: I just bombed my head to the beat and enjoy 513 00:31:58,680 --> 00:32:01,280 Speaker 1: the tune. When I re lies the title to this song, 514 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:04,280 Speaker 1: I looked up the lyrics and it's basically a synopsis 515 00:32:04,320 --> 00:32:07,320 Speaker 1: of your recent podcast. I thought this was so funny, 516 00:32:07,360 --> 00:32:09,920 Speaker 1: as I've heard this song a million times and never 517 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,280 Speaker 1: knew what it was really about. Thanks for broadening my 518 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:17,240 Speaker 1: musical background, Cassandra, So thanks so much for writing this note. Uh. 519 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:19,080 Speaker 1: We heard from a lot of people who told us 520 00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:21,880 Speaker 1: they were disappointed that we did not mention this um. 521 00:32:21,920 --> 00:32:25,640 Speaker 1: That song is actually the background music in the Dickinson 522 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:28,360 Speaker 1: story arc that we talked about a little bit in 523 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:30,480 Speaker 1: the episode and more in the behind the scenes about 524 00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,280 Speaker 1: Lola Montez, and I just forgot to mention it. It 525 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:38,160 Speaker 1: is basically a song about Lola Montez and I do 526 00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:41,200 Speaker 1: also enjoy it, So thank you Sandra for giving me 527 00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:44,920 Speaker 1: the chance to add that into the episode. If you'd 528 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:47,280 Speaker 1: like to write to us about this or any other podcast, 529 00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:51,200 Speaker 1: where at history podcast at iHeart radio dot com, and 530 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:53,720 Speaker 1: then we're all over social media at Missed in History. 531 00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:57,400 Speaker 1: That's where you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, 532 00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:00,440 Speaker 1: and you can't subscribe to our show and I heart 533 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:03,320 Speaker 1: radio app and Apple podcasts and anywhere else you get 534 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:10,960 Speaker 1: your favorite shows. Stuff you Missed in History Class is 535 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,200 Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from 536 00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:17,560 Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 537 00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:19,680 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.