55. Zola's Oath and the Truth about Dreyfus

The monumental speech that Emile Zola read out before the French court does not only belong to the history of litigation; it belongs to literature. It will take pride of place in all of Zola's works, for it gives us a deep insight into the soul of the great writer, the brave, admirable fighter for truth and justice. The conclusion of this speech strikes me as heroic. Such a solemn oath by all that is sacred to him was made by a man in whom the will to truth is present in the highest perfection.

All those who see clearly in the Dreyfus affair, whose instincts are not misled by petty chauvinism or ill-advised state wisdom, must also feel within themselves the feelings that urged Zola to take this oath.

And after the speech that Zola's great lawyer delivered with so much fervor and so much superiority, it is not difficult to see clearly. Only incurable blindness to justice and humanity can still doubt Dreyfus' innocence. One need only have sound, untainted common sense to see the truth here.

For those who want to see, I don't need to write these lines. But there is a way to force even those who want to close their eyes to the truth to see. Zola said: the authoritative personalities know the truth. Yes, they know it. And I simply want to tell you here what the truth is. I will tell you how a person in an important position, who must know this truth and who is in no way a party to the matter, spoke out.

It was in 1894 that France sought an alliance with Russia. At that time, the Russian government received from the French all the information about the French army that Dreyfus was said to have betrayed. In Russia, the French government's information was met with some suspicion. They were looking for a second source to gain an insight into the military situation in France. And now the French leaders made use of Esterhazy. The information the Russians needed was handed over to him. He passed them on to Russia. There they wanted to have the official information confirmed by a traitor. The letters in which he did this were signed: Captain Dreyfus. There are said to be around twenty letters. Dreyfus was chosen because his handwriting was similar to that of Esterhazy. In order to make the matter completely plausible, the Russians had to be provided with apparent proof that a traitor had really sent them the important messages. Esterhazy had been assured that his role would never be mentioned. In order to give his statements the necessary emphasis, the outrage over the betrayal had to be made public: and for this purpose Alfred Dreyfus was sacrificed. Russia's faith in France was bought with his life.