Food for Thought

Week 8: Tuesday, March 11

Captain Alfred Dreyfus (Burke)

• What was your military personnel record like up until your arrest?
• What was it about your background that would make it unlikely you spied for Germany against France?
• What was your reaction to your conviction?
• Why did many of your supporters find you disappointing at your second court martial?
• What unusual verdict did the second court martial reach and why?
• Why did you accept a pardon from the Cabinet?
• Why did you want a third court martial? Why didn't the government want to give you one?

General August Mercier (Minister of War) (Fawcett)

• Why did you suspect Dreyfus? On what grounds did you decide to arrest Dreyfus? What evidence did you possess?

Commandant Armand Mercier du Paty de Clam (Crosby)

• What tactics did you employ during Dreyfus' interrogation? As you questioned the prisoner, what leads did you pursue while seeking to establish motive? What other steps did you take?
• Once the General Staff became convinced that Scheurer-Kestner and Picquart were cooperating, what did you find yourself doing?

Mathieu Dreyfus (Alfred Dreyfus' brother) (DeParolesa)

• After Dreyfus' arrest, what steps did you take to defend your brother? On what grounds would your allies criticize your conduct of this defense?
• Who was Bernard Lazare? What did he do for you? In what way did you disagree with him?
• After Le Matin published a facsimile copy of the bordereau in November 1896, what did you do? What break in the case did this action bring about?
• Through the winter of 1896-1897, what important allies did you manage to find?

Commandant Hubert-Joseph Henry (Officer in Statistical Section, Head of Intelligence Office) (Daly and Hill)

• What was in the secret dossier that you and Sandherr put together for Dreyfus' court martial? On what grounds did you deny this dossier to the Dreyfus family and legal team?
• What dramatic action did you take during the trial? What was the meaning of this gesture?
• How did you become chief of French intelligence?
• What did you do through L'Eclair in September 1896 and why? Why was this event significant?
• In October 1896, what did you place in the secret dossier? Why?
• How and why did Cavaignac, a new minister of war, inadvertently discover your misdeed?

Lieutenant Colonel Georges Picquart (Chief of Statistical Section) (Horgan and Hynes)

• Why did the army's case against Dreyfus at the first court martial seem weak and unconvincing?
• What was the significance of the petit bleu found in the German military attaché's wastepaper basket in 1896? What did this document lead you to discover?
• Why didn't you just arrest Esterhazy as soon as you established his guilt?
• In June 1897, to whom did you confide your suspicions? Why did you leak this information? Why did this leak prove so important?
• Why were you arrested in 1898? How did you become a hero?

British Opinion (Knaeble)

• Why did The Times find Dreyfus' trial strange?
• What did Lord Russell of Killowen, Britain's Lord Chief Justice, report to Queen Victoria at the conclusion of Dreyfus' second trial? Provide an executive summary.

French Opinion (Larsen)

• How did Daudet and Herzl's descriptions of Dreyfus' degradation and punishment differ?
• How did French opinion react in the wake of Zola's defamation conviction?
• What types of people seemed to be Dreyfusards? What type of people seemed hostile to Dreyfus?

Bernard Lazare (O'Brien)

• What did Mathieu Dreyfus ask you to do?
• What was your attitude toward anti-Semitism in France? What did you propose the Jewish people of France ought to do?
• In what way did you disagree with Mathieu Dreyfus?

Emile Zola (France's leading novelist) (Cappello and O'Mahoney)

• Initially, why had you not taken much interest in the Dreyfus case?
• Who led you to become a defender of Dreyfus? Why did you become a defender of Dreyfus?
• Why did you write the famous "J'accuse" letter? Why did the Dreyfusard cause look defeated at that moment?
• What did Zola argue in his famous "J'accuse" letter? Who, indeed, did he accuse and why?
• Your defamation trial in February 1898 was a foregone conclusion, but what mistake did General Pellieux make at your trial that had important ramifications later on?
• What happened in the wake of your trial?

Commandant Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy (Moranski)

• Why are you the weak link in the army's case?
• Why was the "Uhlan Letter" so damaging?
• Why did you ask for a court martial in December 1897? What was the outcome of this trial?
• Why did you flee the country after Henry's suicide in August 1898?

Jean Jaurès (Socialist Politician) (O'Malley)

• Why did you become involved in the Dreyfus affair? What did the Dreyfus affair have to do with Socialism?

Cour de Cassation (Poblete)

• In June 1899, why did you declare Dreyfus' 1894 conviction null and ask for a new court martial?
• How did this decision unleash a train of events that led to the fall of the Dupuy ministry?
• What did Waldeck-Rousseau's new ministry stand for? Why did this new ministry almost fail?

Joseph Reinach (Opportunist Politician) (Schaldenko and Vartiainen)

• Why did the Cabinet pardon Dreyfus?
• In 1900, why did the government issue an amnesty for everyone associated with the Dreyfus case?