The letters are filled with her love and admiration for him, her immense pain at his suffering, and the courage of a very brave woman. His wife, Lucie, with many others, worked hard to clear his name, writing him constantly (though for the most part, they did not arrive for two or three months after having sent them due to censorship). He describes in detail the rigorousness of his captivity reaching its climax when he was kept within the boundaries of the tall fence, built closely around his hut/cell during the intense heat of the day, and chained to the bed at night, all the while watched every moment by a guard with a gun pointed at his head.Īll throughout his five years of imprisonment the only thing that kept him alive was the thought of his duty to his wife and two children, and his name. As Dreyfus was the only Jew on staff, there was considerable prejudice against him, and what he went through on the island was much more than the meanest criminal should have undergone. The mental agony he went through was far worse than any physical suffering he experienced.Īfter several months of close confinement, Dreyfus was sent to Devil’s Island (a former leper colony) off of the French Guiana. The sentence of treason is the single most awful -in its truest since- crime for a soldier to commit against the country he has given his life to, and Dreyfus was no exception to this. Regardless of this, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Dreyfus himself was completely innocent of every charge made against him, having a spotless record as a man devoted to his country, the army, and his family. As this were not enough to convict him, several officials forged documents to prove his guilt. At the trial it was declared that this evidence was nil, and there was no proof of guilt on his part whatsoever. The only evidence to prove his guilt were some letters containing a handwriting similar to his that had been intercepted by a member of the Intelligence Bureau of the French General Staff. In 1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus was arrested, tried and found guilty of high treason against his country for revealing top secret information to one of the officials in the German embassy. #ömrümdenbeşsene #cinqannéesdemavie #alfreddreyfus #vacilandokitap İyi ki okudum denebilecek ve uzun süre aklımdan silemeyeceğim bir kitaptı. 12 yılın sonunda sonuca ulaşılan bu süreç tam anlamıyla bir 'özgürlük için mücadele' örneğidir. Hukuk mücadelesi adeta ders niteliğinde olup 5 yıl içinde yaşanılanlar inanılmayacak kadar ilginçti. Bu kez başkası değil, bizzat suçu işlemeden yatan bir insanın kaleminden dinleyeceğiz.

Emile Zola'nın 'Suçluyorum', Marcel Proust'un 'Kayıp Zamanın İzinde' kitaplarında da değinildiği ve Fransa gibi pek çok ülkenin itiraz ettiği bir 'haksız yere yargılanan' bu davanın esintilerini bulmanız mümkün.ĭreyfus'un satırlar arasında 'ben masumum' sözü zihnimize yankılar halinde yayılırken sizi etkisi altına alacak kişisel metuplarıysa cabası! Okumalı mısın? Şüphesiz ki okuduğunda sen de haksızlık yapıldığına ikna olacaksın.īir adamın mahkumluk sürecini anlatan çarpıcı bir kitaptı. Alfred Dreyfus'un tutuklu kaldığı süreçte kalem aldığı günleri ve kişisel mektuplarının bulunduğu bir metin var ellerimin arasında.

Captain alfred dreyfus biography