The War Office, in order to save face, staged a court-martial for Esterzhazy and then acquitted him of all charges on January 11, 1898. But, at bottom, it all started with Major du Paty de Clam, who led them on, hypnotized them, for, as an adept of spiritualism and the occult, he could converse with spirits. I realize that you have no power over this case, that you are limited by the Constitution and your entourage. Ridiculed by the anti-Dreyfusists as senile (when he was actually gravely ill from cancer), Scheurer-Kestner was soon voted out of office and retired from public life. One concerned Madagascar, another one the plan for covering troops; but three listed items solely related to artillery: “the provisional Firing Manual for Field Artillery, a note on the modification of the artillery formations and a note on the hydraulic recoil brake for the canon of 120,” a highly classified leak which the Chiefs of Staff erroneously thought could not come from anywhere but the General Staff itself and, furthermore, from an artillery specialist. Colonel du Paty de Clam,[11] who was at the time a mere Major. [24] In 1894, the handwriting expert from the Banque de France Alfred Gobert had concluded that, in his opinion, anyone could have been the author of the bordereau attributed to Dreyfus. His next series of novels, Fécondité (1899), Travail (1901) and Vérité (1903), dealt with these ideals. And so, by all means imaginable, by press campaigns, by official communications, by influence, the War Office covered up for Esterhazy only to condemn Dreyfus once again. My nights would otherwise be haunted by the specter of an innocent man, far away, suffering the most horrible of tortures for a crime he did not commit. Ten days after the verdict which caused a public uproar, a new, more progressive cabinet, with Premier Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau and President Émile Loubet (1838-1929), nullified that judgment and pardoned Capt. She had married Alfred Dreyfus in 1890 and was the mother of his two children Pierre, (b. Colonel Picquart’s investigation. Discipline means obedience. What is at stake is the sword, the master that will one day, perhaps, be forced upon us. Why stir up trouble, especially since the sun would soon shine? Their excuse, I repeat, is that the supreme chief had spoken, declaring the previous judgment incontrovertible, holy and above mere mortals. In February 1898, Emile Zola was sued for “J’accuse” by both the War Office and the handwriting experts. See, for instance, his article “Pour les Juifs,” published in Le Figaro in May 1896. He knew several languages. His “travels to Germany” and his knowledge of German obviously played a part in his conviction. In his position as President of the Republic, Faure was not constitutionally allowed to intervene directly, as Zola acknowledges here, but he obviously also avoided taking sides. In November 1897, M. Castro, a stockbroker who had recognized the handwriting of his client Esterhazy from a copy of the bordereau reproduced in Le Matin, contacted him directly.Matthieu could finally have Esterhazy brought to trial in January 1898. Then all of a sudden, emboldened, he amazed Paris by the violence of his attitude. I am not even talking about the way the judges were hand-picked. As I have shown, the Dreyfus case was a matter internal to the War Office: an officer of the General Staff, denounced by his co-officers of the General Staff, sentenced under pressure by the Chiefs of Staff. Ah, what a good sweeping out the government of this Republic should give to that Jesuit-lair, as General Billot himself calls it. Translator. About 96% of English native speakers know the meaning and use the word. Ah, that first trial! I expose myself to that risk voluntarily. I shall not chronicle these doubts and the subsequent conclusion reached by Mr.Scheurer-Kestner. Transcription : Keïko Accords lourds, un riff 3 hyper efficace, d’une beauté superbe, Ouais .. putain de riff 3 qu’il faut absolument bien tenir pour s’approprier cette chanson. [11] Major Armand Mercier du Paty de Clam (1853-1916), had been in charge of the preliminary investigation in 1894: his relentless and vicious harassment of Dreyfus continued after the conviction and prevented any chance for a re-trial. Is the article J'accuse linked from the page? She had last seen her husband in February 1895 and wouldn’t see him again until July 1899. Sign in to disable ALL ads. My duty is to speak out, not to become an accomplice in this travesty. But, at about the same time, Cpt. Thank you for helping build the largest language community on the internet. Gonse was instrumental in dismissing Lt. The frequency of it’s usage is somewhere between "mom" and "screwdriver". However, this second court-martial, held in Rennes (Brittany) for security reasons, again pronounced Dreyfus guilty. C : 032010. 1893). And, although I have no desire to dwell on a story that is only partly known, Major du Patyde Clam entered on the scene at the first whiff of suspicion of Dreyfus. Riff 1 – Intro / Couplet J’accuse, (French: “I accuse”) celebrated open letter by Émile Zola to the president of the French Republic in defense of Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer who had been accused of treason by the French army. The expected verdict by unanimous vote of acquittal on 11 January 1898 outraged supporters of the innocent Dreyfus such as Zola, whose “J’accuse” two days later reflected his own indignation. Dreyfus’s brother, Matthieu Dreyfus (1857-1930), also uncovered evidence implicating Esterhazy and he started a suit against him. For dubious reasons, he had been protected all along by some members of the General Staff, including Maj. Henry, Picquart’s successor as Head of Military Intelligence. The bordereau had already been for some time in the hands of Colonel Sandherr,[15]Head of the Intelligence Office,[16] who has since died of a paralytic stroke. Translation of 'J'accuse mon père' by Mozart l’Opéra Rock (Musical) from French to English Deutsch English Español Français Hungarian Italiano Nederlands Polski Português (Brasil) Română Svenska Türkçe Ελληνικά Български Русский Српски العربية فارسی 日本語 한국어 So they rendered an iniquitous verdict that will forever weigh upon our courts martial and will henceforth cast a shadow of suspicion on all their decrees. I am stating simply that Major duPaty de Clam, as the officer of justice charged with the preliminary investigation of the Dreyfus case, is the first and the most grievous offender in the ghastly miscarriage of justice that has been committed. Faut … How, then, could subordinates contradict it? Can you understand this: for the last year General Billot, Generals Gonse and de Boisdeffre have known that Dreyfus is innocent, and they have kept this terrible knowledge to themselves? As Dreyfus’ eldest brothers had remained in Mulhouse to take care of the family textile factory, the French-educated young officer had traveled a few times to visit them in Alsace, now part of Germany. [25] Zola is alluding to a document mentionned, but never produced, by the General Staff. Nils Melzer, photographié par Yves Bachmann. Colonel Picquart as Head of the Military Intelligence as soon he realized the cover up was going to be revealed. [20] General Arthur Gonse (1838-1917) Second in command in the General Staff. [38], I accuse the offices of the War Office of having used the press, particularly L’Eclairand L’Echo de Paris,[39] to conduct an abominable campaign to mislead public opinion and cover up their own wrongdoing, Finally, I accuse the first court martial of violating the law by convicting the accused on the basis of evidence that was kept secret, and I accuse the second court martial of covering up this illegality, on orders, by committing the judicial crime of acquitting a guilty man with full knowledge of his guilt.[40]. The best part of it is that Picquart was himself an anti-Semite. For instance, in September 1896, he let the Daily Chronicle spread the false news of an escape in order to keep the memory of the prisoner of Devil’s Island alive. A common word. [3] Emile Zola (1840-1902) spent his youth in Aix en Provence where he befriended Paul Cezanne. O justice, what horrible despair grips our hearts? He got sent further and further away until he landed in Tunisia, where they tried eventually to reward his courage with an assignment that would certainly have gotten him massacred, in the very same area where the Marquis de Morès[30] had been killed. j'ai envoyer mon dossier le 1er fevrier, il on accuser reception de mon dossier que en mars. To what end? In 1892, in a duel caused by an antisemitic affront, he had killed Cpt. Convinced that his failures were due to a Jewish plot, he rallied the anti-Semite campaign with all the rousing energy of a modern day condottiere. I dwell on this, because this is the germ of it all, whence the true crime would emerge, that horrifying miscarriage of justice that has blighted France. I said it before and I repeat it now: when truth is buried underground, it grows and it builds up so much force that the day it explodes it blasts everything with it. Having been discarded in a paper basket, the bordereau found its way, through a channel of various French agents, to the War Office, and more precisely to its Intelligence Office. [2] It took Zola just two days to write his “Letter to the President of the Republic.” According to tradition, its catchy title, “J’accuse...!”, inspired by the conclusion, was coined by Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929), then political editor of L’Aurore. I would like to point out how this travesty was made possible, how it sprang out of the machinations of Major duPaty de Clam, how Generals Mercier, de Boisdeffre and Gonse became so ensnared in this falsehood that they would later feel compelled to impose it as holy and indisputable truth. De très nombreux exemples de phrases traduites contenant "j'accuse réception de ces documents" – Dictionnaire anglais-français et moteur de recherche de traductions anglaises. The truth, first of all, about the trial and conviction of Dreyfus. Some trivial note, maybe, about some easy women, wherein a certain D... was becoming too insistent, no doubt some demanding husband who felt he wasn’t getting a good enough price for the use of his wife. Dreyfus. What petty whims of a few higher-ups trampling the nation under their boots, ramming back down their throats the people’s cries for truth and justice, with the travesty of state security as a pretext. I accuse ! An accusation, especially one made publicly. Find me a motive. It should be noted, furthermore, that all of them came from the War Office. [39] L’Echo de Paris (founded in 1844) and L’Eclair (fonded in 1888) were both violently anti-Dreyfusard and the General Staff willingly leaked to them partisan information: for instance, in September 1896, L’Eclair was able to reveal to its readers that some incriminating - but secret – evidence had been presented by the prosecution during Dreyfus’ trial in 1894. His ashes were transferred in 1908 to the Pantheon in Paris. General Billot directed the judges in his preliminary remarks, and they proceeded to judgment as they would to battle, unquestioningly. Ah, yes, of course, an army that would rise to the first threat, that would defend French soil, that army is the nation itself, and for that army we have nothing but devotion and respect. From then on, it became a duel between Lt. It is for this serene trust that he is now being so cruelly punished. In the same “yellow press” vein, La Libre Parole, thanks to a friendly leak from the War Office, published in October 1894 the juicy news that a Jewish officer had been arrested for treason a week earlier; then, on November 1rst, it publicly identified Cpt. No! His multi-volume saga, Les Rougon-Macquart (1870-1893), illustrated these principles, giving vivid descriptions of milieus usually ignored by the Romantics, and addressing social issues, in novels such as L’Assommoir (1877), Nana (1880) or Germinal (1885). [33] Esterhazy told the scandal hungry press (L’Echo de Paris, 18 November 1897) that he had received messages, including a letter signed “Espérance” [Hope], from a mysterious veiled lady who was trying to save him from his enemies. Minister of War 1893-1894 in the Casimir-Périer’s cabinet and the two Dupuy’s cabinets (1894; 1894-1895). [29] General Jean-Baptiste Billot (1828-1907), Senator and Minister of War in the Freycinet’s (1882) and the Duclerc’s cabinets (1882-1883) as well as the current Méline’s cabinet (April 1895- June 1898). Colonel du Paty de Clam, one with his face visible, the other masked. Open menu. I know of no greater crime against the state. G : 320003 Information was leaked, papers were disappearing, then as they continue to do to this day; and, as the search for the author of the bordereau progressed, little by little, an a priori assumption developed that it could only have come from an officer of the General Staff, and furthermore, an artillery officer. But to whom if not to you, the first magistrate of the country, shall I reveal the vile baseness of those who truly are guilty? And we must not forget this: members of the General Staff had sought this trial to begin with and had passed judgment. It becomes clear why, at that point, as justification for the verdict, it became vitally important to turn up some damning evidence, a secret document that, like God, could not be shown, but which explained everything, and was invisible, unknowable, and incontrovertible. Yann 21:47, 4 April 2009 (UTC) Touché. Comes from a newspaper article entitled "J'Accuse," published by Emile Zola in 1898. As for the people I am accusing, I do not know them, I have never seen them, and I bear them neither ill will nor hatred. So an internal search was conducted.