Friday, April 4, 1947

Page Six

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
life with his family in Paris, while in every sector between Alsace
Pierre was studying engineering and Belgium, holding the rank of
captain at the end of the war. Ile
at the Ecole Central.
received several decorations for
When the Germans declared war gallantry, and in the Verdun sec-
on France, in August, 1914, Al- tor Gen. Petain cited him "by
fred Dreyfus was reactivated to Order of the Army," the highest
serve as commander of a sector of citation anyone could get.
entrenched France. In that cap-
However, when Marshall Petain
acity he received the alarming became dictator of defeated
news that Gen. von Kluck's army France, Pierre Dreyfus, then a re-
was heading towards the French serve officer, was forbidden to
capital. Immediately he trans- wear a French uniform—because
mitted this information to his su- he was a Jew!
perior, Gen. Gallieni, who took the
* • *
measures which doomed the Ger- HERITAGE OF LOYALTY
mans to defeat at the Marne and
ALFRED DREYFUS bequeathed
when all Dre:, fusards sincerely de-
turned the scales in fl.vor of upon his son not only his lighting
sired the victory of Loubet who
France.
spirit but also the loyalty to his
was opposed by the anti-Dreyf us-
Shortly before the armistice fellow-Jews. Upon his father's
ard premier, Meline, famous for
Alfred
Dreyfus
was
made
lieuten-
death in 1935, he inherited the
his remark: Il n'a pas d'Affaire
ant colonel and officer of the old man's membership on the
Dreyfus (A Dreyfus case does
Legion of honor.
board of directors of the Ecole de
not exist).
During these fateful four years
Of course, since I was then
(Continued on page 11)
the
younger
Dreyfus
was
fighting
only eight years old, I did not
know what all the talk was about
fr-
except that I divined that Loubet's
success would make mother CHARLES P. TAFT, son of the
happy."
late President and head of the
Ile then described to me how Federal Council of Churches of
he was taken by an aunt to the Christ in America, will be prin-
offices of Le Matin in order to cipal speaker at the annual
read the election bulletins. When meeting of the National Jewish
they learned that Loubet had won, Welfare Board Sunday, May 11,
they hurried home and the young in Pittsburgh. henry Meyers of
boy burst into the parlor to an- Detroit is a member of the ar-
nounce the news. But when some- rangements committee for the
body asked him why the result event.
of the election had made him so
happy, little Pierre did not know
July, 1899. The prisoner was
and began to cry.
«
brought to Rennes for a second
SPOKE TO FATHER
trial by court martial, was found
MADAME DREYFUS wisely guilty but pardoned by the gov-
kept alive the memory of the ernment in September.
prisoner of Devil's Island by fre-
When, finally the family was re-
quently speaking of him lest the united at Carpentras, in Southern
children should forget their fath- France, the captain looked like
Michigan's Largest Clothier
er. She taught them to pray to an old man, although he was only
God every night that He should 40. His hair had turned white.
1265 GRISWOLD AT CLIFFORD
soon send back father who had He was terribly emaciated and so
gone on a long, long trip.
weak that he could hardly walk.
vt.
She also made them write little
• * •
notes, herself guiding their falter-
ing hands, so that Alfred might OFFICERa IN THE WAR
AFTER HAVING been acquit-
regularly receive a message from
ted by the Court of Cassation in
his children by mail.
Pierre was nine years old when 1906 the elder Dr fun, promoted
the captain returned to France in to the rank of major, lived a quiet

JWB Speaker

Son's Death Recalls
the Dreyfus Affair

Pierre Told How Mother Kept Alive
Memory of the Devil's Island Captive

By ALFRED WERNER

IN THE LAST WEEK of 1946
there occurred one of the worst
flight disasters of the post war
era. A New York-bound plane
crashed near the Shannon Air-
port, Ireland, and 12 of the 23
passengers were killed.
Among the victims was Pierre
Dreyfus, the son of the late
French army officer Alfred Drey-
fus, whose name made big head-
lines around the turn of the cen-
tury. Pierre Dreyfus was only
in his mid-fifties, perfectly heal-
thy and had just restored his
business career, which was inter-
rupted by the war.
By a strange irony of fate the
man who successfully eluded the
Gestapo of Himmler and the mil-
itia of Laval was destined to die
in a traffic accident caused by
fog.
I happened to meet Alfred Drey-
fus' son several times between
1942 and 1944 when he and his
family lived as refugees in New
York City. It was inevitable that
I should ask him to tell me some
of his personal recollections of
L'Affaire, and he was gracious
enough to comply with my wish.
However, he reminded me of
the fact that he was, after all,
only three and a half years old
when his father was arrested in
October, 1894, charged with hav-
ing sold secret military documents
to the Germans.
4,
*

PROTECTED BY MOTHER
"FATHER SPENT five dreadful

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•

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years on Devil's Island, but in
that time :.gather .carefully kept 0
me and my younger sister, Jeanne,
away from street demonstrations
or newspapers lest our young 0
minds be troubled with a pain we
could not understand.
My earliest recollections of the
Affaire dates from the presiden
tial election of February, 1899,

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