Two
years later, in 1896, the real culprit was brought to light
and identified: a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin
Esterhazy. However, French high-level military officials
dismissed or ignored this new evidence which exonerated
Dreyfus. Thus, in January 1898, military judges unanimously
acquitted Esterhazy on the second day of his trial. Worse,
French military counter-intelligence officers fabricated
false documents designed to secure Dreyfus' conviction as a
spy for Germany. They were all eventually exposed, in large
part due to a resounding public intervention by writer Emile
Zola in January 1898. The case had to be re-opened, and
Dreyfus was brought back from Guiana in 1899 to be tried
again. The intense political and judicial scandal that
ensued divided French society between those who supported
Dreyfus (the Dreyfusards) and those who condemned him (the
anti-Dreyfusards).
Eventually, all the accusations against Alfred Dreyfus were demonstrated to be baseless. Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army in 1906. He later served during the whole of World war I, ending his service with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.*2
Read about a
Yiddish theatrical production of "The Jewish Captain Dreyfus
on Devil's Island," as performed at the Windsor Theatre in
New York City in 1898, by clicking
here.
