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Speaker 1: Hey, history fans, if you want a double dose of history,

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Speaker 1: here's a rerun for today, brought to you by Tracy V. Wilson.

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Speaker 1: We hope it makes previous episodes for this date easier

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Speaker 1: to find in the feed. Welcome to this day in

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Speaker 1: History Class from how Stuff Works dot Com and from

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Speaker 1: the desk of Stuff you missed in History Class. It's

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Speaker 1: the show where we explore the past one day at

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Speaker 1: a time with a quick look at what happened today

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Speaker 1: in history. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson,

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Speaker 1: and it's December twenty two. Alfred Dreyfuss was wrongfully convicted

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Speaker 1: of selling military secrets to Germany on this day in

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Speaker 1: eight He was sentenced to military degradation and exile for life.

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Speaker 1: Most English speakers in the United States say his name

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Speaker 1: dry Fuss and called us the dry Fuss Affair, but

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Speaker 1: in French it is a lot more like dust. Dreyfuss

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Speaker 1: had decided to join the military as a young man

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Speaker 1: after witnessing the German occupy station of his hometown and

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Speaker 1: the French defeat in the Franco Prussian War. He graduated

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Speaker 1: with honors from Ecole Polytechnique, then he became the first

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Speaker 1: Jewish officer on the General staff at the headquarters of

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Speaker 1: the French Ministry of War. On December twenty six, eighteen

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Speaker 1: ninety four, a document was intercepted that was addressed to

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Speaker 1: the German military attache, Lieutenant Colonel Max von Schwartzkoppen, and

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Speaker 1: then that October Dreyfus was charged with this crime. There

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Speaker 1: were a lot of reasons that the military had for

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Speaker 1: suspecting him. He was from Alsace, which had been under

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Speaker 1: German control since the Franco Prussian War. He had access

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Speaker 1: to the information and question thanks to his position. His

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Speaker 1: handwriting was supposedly similar to the handwriting in the documents,

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Speaker 1: and he was Jewish. Several openly anti Semitic officers said

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Speaker 1: quite plainly that being Jewish made him suspect. He was

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Speaker 1: convicted in a closed court martial and publicly degraded on

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Speaker 1: January five. He was then transported to prison and ultimately

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Speaker 1: held in solitary confinement on Devil's Island. His family, especially

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Speaker 1: his wife and his brother, believed his innocence from the

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Speaker 1: very start, and he steadfastly maintained that he was not guilty.

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Speaker 1: They fought for a retrial for him, and gradually members

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Speaker 1: of the general public started to call for a retrial

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Speaker 1: as well. Emil Zola's famous Jacque's Letter, published in a

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Speaker 1: newsletter called Laure, was printed on January. This letter took

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Speaker 1: up the whole front page and it accused the military

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Speaker 1: and others of a cover up. He was put on

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Speaker 1: trial for defaming the French military, convicted of libel and

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Speaker 1: sentenced to a year in prison and three thousand francs.

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Speaker 1: He was forced into exile in London. Then George Picard,

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Speaker 1: chief of Intelligence, found compelling evidence that another French officer,

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Speaker 1: Ferdinand valsin esther Hasi, was the real culprit. And this

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Speaker 1: was true, that was the real culprit. This man had

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Speaker 1: offered his services to Vaunched sports Coppin on July. He

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Speaker 1: had been paid on August fift and this was his message,

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Speaker 1: not dry faces that had been intercepted. Picard was ordered

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Speaker 1: not to pursue this matter, but he continued on in

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Speaker 1: defiance of that order. There was eventually a court martial,

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Speaker 1: but ester Hazi was acquitted and Picard was removed from

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Speaker 1: his position and sent on a series of dangerous missions

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Speaker 1: to get him out of the way. This blossomed into

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Speaker 1: a major schism in France. The dry Fussards and anti

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Speaker 1: dry Fussards lined up four and against reopening the case.

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Speaker 1: This led to all kinds of political ar cartoons, many

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Speaker 1: of them extremely anti Semitic and full of disparaging stereotypes.

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Speaker 1: Was also tied up in thoughts about the military, with

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Speaker 1: the dry Fussard's wanting the military to be overseen by

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Speaker 1: Parliament and the anti dry Fussard's arguing that this whole

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Speaker 1: affair was damaging the military. This all spread well beyond France,

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Speaker 1: with writers and composers and artists and world leaders and

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Speaker 1: other prominent people all taking sides. In August of it

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Speaker 1: was discovered that one of the documents that had been

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Speaker 1: used to convict Dreyfuss was a forgery, and one officer

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Speaker 1: admitted that he had fabricated this document in order to

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Speaker 1: get a conviction. A retrial was held in June of eight.

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Speaker 1: Once again Dryfus was convicted, but this time he was

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Speaker 1: given a reduced sentence, led to international outrage. She was

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Speaker 1: offered a pardon not long after that because he was

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Speaker 1: in poor health, but he and his family continued to

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Speaker 1: seek exoneration. They didn't just want him free. They wanted

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Speaker 1: his name cleared. Another retrial was held in nineteen o three,

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Speaker 1: and finally in nineteen oh Extryfus was exonerated. He was

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Speaker 1: innocent of all charges. He was restored to his position

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Speaker 1: of major. Picard was also reinstated and promoted to brigadier general,

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Speaker 1: and the French Army publicly declared that Dreyfus was innocent.

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Speaker 1: They did that in before we close out today's episode.

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Speaker 1: For the next week, my co host on Stuff You

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Speaker 1: Missed in History Class, Holly Fry, will be filling in

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Speaker 1: for me on this show because of the very weird

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Speaker 1: time travel nature of this podcast. That was to help

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Speaker 1: me cover some time out of the office back in November,

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Speaker 1: So thanks Holly. Thanks also to Christopher Hasiotis for his

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Speaker 1: research work on today's show, and to Casey Pegram and

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Speaker 1: Chandler Mayze for their audio work on this show. You

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Speaker 1: can subscribe to the Stay in History Class on Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: Google podcast, the I Heart Radio app, and wherever else

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Speaker 1: you get podcasts. Tune in tomorrow for one of the

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Speaker 1: world's most famous patrons