It
was then that Picquart, after 25 years’ army service, realized he had
no alternative but to break ranks. He passed his evidence against
Esterhazy to a senior politician, the vice president of the senate,
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner. Then, at the end of 1897, he provided Émile
Zola with the information that enabled the novelist to write his
celebrated exposé of the affair, “J’Accuse ...!” Picquart’s reward was
to be dismissed from the army, framed as a forger and locked up in
solitary confinement for more than a year.
was then that Picquart, after 25 years’ army service, realized he had
no alternative but to break ranks. He passed his evidence against
Esterhazy to a senior politician, the vice president of the senate,
Auguste Scheurer-Kestner. Then, at the end of 1897, he provided Émile
Zola with the information that enabled the novelist to write his
celebrated exposé of the affair, “J’Accuse ...!” Picquart’s reward was
to be dismissed from the army, framed as a forger and locked up in
solitary confinement for more than a year.
It
was not until 1906 that justice was finally done; Dreyfus’s conviction
was quashed, and Picquart was restored to the army with the rank of
brigadier general. That fall, when his friend and fellow Dreyfusard,
Georges Clemenceau — the owner of the newspaper that published “J’Accuse
...!” became prime minister, he made Picquart minister of war, a post
he held for three years.
was not until 1906 that justice was finally done; Dreyfus’s conviction
was quashed, and Picquart was restored to the army with the rank of
brigadier general. That fall, when his friend and fellow Dreyfusard,
Georges Clemenceau — the owner of the newspaper that published “J’Accuse
...!” became prime minister, he made Picquart minister of war, a post
he held for three years.