J'Accuse...!: Difference between revisions

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A cleaning woman and French spy by the name of Madame Marie Bastian working at the German Embassy was at the source of the investigation. She routinely searched wastebaskets and mailboxes at the German Embassy for suspicious documents.<ref name=burns>Burns, M. (1999). ''France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Documentary History''. New York: St. Martin's College Publishing Group.</ref> She found a suspicious [[wikt:bordereau|bordereau]] (detailed listing of documents) at the German Embassy in 1894, and delivered it to Commandant Hubert-Joseph Henry, who worked for French military counterintelligence in the General Staff.<ref name=burns/>

The bordereau had been torn into six pieces, and had been found by Madame Bastian in the wastepaper basket of [[Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen]], the German military attaché.<ref name=burns/> When the document was investigated, Dreyfus was convicted largely on the basis of testimony by professional [[Questioned document examination|handwriting experts]]:<ref name=nyt>{{Cite web |last=Rothstein |first=Edward |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/arts/design/17drey.html |title=A Century-Old Court Case That Still Resonates |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=17 October 2007 |archive-url=https://archive.istoday/2WkEN20240321141313/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/arts/design/17drey.html |archive-date=2024-03-21}}</ref> the [[graphologist]]s asserted that "the ''lack'' of resemblance between Dreyfus' writing and that of the bordereau was proof of a 'self-forgery', and prepared a fantastically detailed diagram to demonstrate that this was so."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Gopnik |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Gopnik |year=2009 |title=Trial of the Century: Revisiting the Dreyfus affair |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |issue=28 September |pages=72–78 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/09/28/090928crbo_books_gopnik |access-date=29 May 2011}}</ref> There were also assertions from military officers who provided confidential evidence.<ref name=nyt/>

Dreyfus was found guilty of [[treason]] in a secret military court-martial, during which he was denied the right to examine the evidence against him. The [[French Army|Army]] stripped him of his rank in a humiliating ceremony and shipped him off to [[Devil's Island]], a penal colony located off the coast of French Guiana in [[South America]].<ref name=burns/>