Trudy Gold
Theodor Herzl: Zionism in Paris
Trudy Gold - Theodor Herzl: Zionism in Paris
- And today, I’m looking at Theodor Herzl in Paris. And of course, he is there for the Dreyfus affair. So can we go back to the picture of Paris first, if you don’t mind, Jude? Because Herzl, like everybody else, was totally dazzled by Paris. And in fact, he actually wrote, when he arrived in 1891, he wrote in his diary, “Paris and France are the centre of civilization. It would take the rest of the world 100 years to achieve what the French have achieved.” And of course, to Herzl, France was the country of emancipation. It was the country of the rights of man. And there he was ensconced in beautiful Paris. Now, a little bit more background on how Herzl before he came to Paris. He, of course, was born in Budapest in 1860. He was the only son of a relatively wealthy merchant. And in 1880, the family had a terrible tragedy. The beloved daughter died and it appeared that the family just couldn’t bear it anymore to be in Budapest. So they moved to the capital of the Habsburg Empire, to Vienna. And it would seem the father was always intending to go to Vienna to enrich his business, but it was that that pushed them on. And Herzl is now the beloved only child. We know a lot about him because he kept a diary. He was a very dreamy boy. And what happens to him, he comes to Vienna. This dreamy, incredibly clever boy goes to the University of Vienna in 1880. And in 1880, he studies law, he’s there at the same time as Arthur Schnitzler, interestingly enough. And Schnitzler writes about Herzl, there saying how he saw him. He actually joined a student fraternity.
And at that stage of his life, he really believed in an assimilation. He was very much in love with German culture. He believed that Germany had produced the highest culture. He turned to German. And he was aware of the antisemitism in Vienna, of course, he was, but he did believe that there should be other solutions. He actually talked about all of the Jews converting. Anyway, he decides, he practises law for a little while. His family are relatively wealthy. He goes on a tour. He becomes a writer, a travel writer. And he manages to gain a position with an “Neue Freie Presse.” The “Neue Freie Presse” was in fact one of the main liberal papers of Vienna. He writes in the main travel logs. He’s a very, very good writer. So many of these politicos actually make their living as a journalist. He marries. He marries a very wealthy young woman called Julie Naschauer. They’re going to have three children, but it was a very troubled and tragic marriage. And he was thinking about a divorce within a year, but she was pregnant. They kind of stayed together. Anyway, this very restless, incredibly clever young man, he’d first experienced anti-Semitism up close and personal in 1883. In 1883, Wagner died. And of course, Wagner, the great symbol of German nationalism. And there were demonstrations in honour of Wagner from city to city in the German-speaking world, and many of them became anti-Semitic.
And his student fraternity were involved. And he was so upset that he resigned, expecting he was popular. He expected them say, “No, don’t worry about it.” But in fact, they accepted his resignation. So there was already trouble in his heart. When he arrived in Paris, he was aware that he was a Jew. He wasn’t quite sure how the Jews fitted in. He played with assimilation, he didn’t know. And now he takes the job in Paris, his family join him. And of course, he arrives in Paris at a time when Paris is completely split in two. Shall we see his face now? Yeah, Paris is completely split in two. As I said, on one level, and we talked about this the other day, on one level, it’s the country of the revolution. It’s the country of liberalism. It is, of course, the time of the third Republic. It’s the time of gaiety. It’s the time of incredible art, music, theatre, the Paris Opera, the Grand Courtesans, which Patrick will be talking about. It’s an extraordinary period in French history. But underneath, remember that they’d suffered a terrible defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. They’d have to pay a huge indemnity. There’d been a revolution, the communal revolution. And Paris had been barricaded.
The country was split. It was split between the forces of monarchy, conservatism and the church, and the liberal republic. And that is the city that Herzl finds himself in. And of course, this is when he becomes aware of the terrible anti-Semitism. He reads Edouard Drumont. Edouard Drumont, who, of course, had written this article called “Jewish France,” which he said half the capital of France is in the hands of the Jews. So many of the right wing writers, tiny Jewish population. At this stage, there were under 100,000 Jews living in France. So it’s at this stage that he doesn’t quite know which way to jump. And this is a quote from Michael Stanislawski in his brilliant book, “Zionism and the Fin de Siecle Vienna,” because if we look at that picture of Theodor Herzl, he dies when he’s 44 years old. And yet, if you think about the history of Zionism, the word, by the way, was created in 1891 by an eastern European Jew called Nathan Birnbaum. When the state of Israel was proclaimed, it was proclaimed under a picture of Theodor Herzl. Theodor Herzl is the man who created political Zionism. He was not the most profound thinker. In fact, there are many who’d come before him who were far more acutely aware of the nuances within the Jewish world.
But the point about Herzl, and I’m going to come onto that, he was a man of action. Now, this is what Stanislawski wrote, “Herzl entered headlong into the dizzying world and the intoxicating world of European cosmopolitan society in the Fin de Siecle before wending himself towards Zionism.” Now, he is already aware of the problems. He hates what’s going on with Edouard Drumont and all the anti-Semitic agitation. And this is what he writes, “I would deliver a brilliant speech would’ve be that,” he’s actually going to accost one of the leading anti-Semites and challenge him to a duel. Remember, he belonged to a duelling fraternity in the Vienna. Ironically, by 1896, the Viennese students refused to duel with Jews. And they said they were not worthy of honour. But the reality was so many young Jews, particularly from Eastern Europe who were at the University of Vienna, they had perfected the art of duelling so much that they were winning. So it’s important to remember, from someone from Herzl’s background, the notion of duelling is not a strange one. And I should also emphasise, by this time, he’s quite a famous writer. He is writing regularly for the “Neue,” for “Freie Presse.” He’s already written a couple of plays, and one of them has been performed in New York. And he has huge aspirations. He dreams of being a man of destiny. So this is how he’s going to deal.
He’s going to accost an anti-Semite, challenge him to a duel. And then he says, “And when, if, of course, the man is killed, he will commend him as about a man of honour. And then he’d be put on trial.” You see, he’s almost a fantasist. And this does come into his work. “Then I would deliver a brilliant speech, which would’ve begun with my regrets at the death of a man of honour. Then I would’ve turned to the Jewish question and delivered an oration worthy of LaSalle.” Of course, LaSalle was that German Jewish lawyer and brilliant orator who had created German social democracy, or rather communism, in Germany before the word had been invented. “I would send a shudder of admiration through the jury. I would’ve compelled the respect of the judges and the case against me would have been dismissed.” So he’s obviously agonising. And then of course the Dreyfus affair. And I’m going to talk about that in a few minutes. But first of all, I want to talk about the impact on Dreyfus. To put it very, very quickly, Dreyfus was a French army officer. His family had come from Alsace, but came to Paris after Alsace had been annexed to Germany. They were very pro French.
He joined the French army. He was an officer and he was, secrets were sold to the Germans, suspicion falls on Dreyfus evidently because of a similarity in handwriting. And he is put on trial, a secret military trial in camera. And he is found guilty. And Herzl, like everybody else at the time, they believed that Dreyfus was guilty. But as the trial unfolded, he begins to change his mind. And he was witness to the appalling demonstrations stirred up by Drumont. Because what happens, look, France is a divided society. The Jews are already, if you like, at the centre. We’ve already talked last Tuesday about Jews on the Bors, Jews as capitalists. We’ve looked at Jews as communists. So basically, this tiny people, the only non-Christians in France, they are seen and they’re so visibly prominent in all aspects of society. Although the majority of them were middle class. And those that who flood in after 1881 from Eastern Europe, are dirt poor. But nevertheless, it’s the image of Jew and money and power that does not go away. So Edouard Drumont stirring it up, agitators, many French aristocrat, perhaps the clergy, they are stirring up the mob against Dreyfus. And also, please don’t forget, it’s a time of massive industrialization. It’s also a time of huge poverty in Paris. And the underneath the gaiety and the beauty, TB ran rife, so did syphilis, so did overcrowding. And all you have to do is to think about people like Toulouse-Lautrec who died of absinthe poisoning.
They drank themselves to death. They took drugs. It was a dark society. And at the centre, when a society is so striven, it does seem that we always need a scapegoat. So you have the Jews, and now you can focus on one Jew, the man who has evidently sold secrets to the real enemy, Germany. And this is what Herzl all writes, “In Republican civilised France, 100 years after the publication of the Rights of Man in modern republican civilised France. How on earth can this happen?” And of course, Herzl, he’s a man of the press. He’s a foreign correspondent. So he was actually in the press box on a bitterly cold January, it was a Shabbat actually, to witness Dreyfus’s public dishonour. Now, there are no films. In fact, the Lumiere brothers in Paris actually invented the moving image in 1895, the same year. But there’ve been six films, at least on the Dreyfus affair. There are many photographs and there are many depictions. And I’m sure every one of you would’ve seen the dishonouring of Dreyfus when they pull off his epaulettes. they break his sword. And the mob, this is the point, the mob are screaming at the gates of the Palais de Justice not death to Dreyfus or death of a traitor, but death to the Jews, La Mort aux Juifs, death to the Jews.
They’re begging for Dreyfus’s blood. And the poor man is screaming, “I am in this innocent.” So Herzl’s very troubled. He writes his dispatch for the “Neue Freie Presse.” And can we go to the next slide, if you don’t mind, please? There you see, beautiful, beautiful Paris. I just wanted you to see the other side of it. Who hasn’t revelled in wandering around the boulevards? And see, there’s the Paris Opera, the wonderful Paris Opera. Thank you, Judi. That’s one France. Can we turn to the next one, please? And there is the paper that he wrote for. And now can we see the next slide, please? There you see Benedikt. Now, Moritz Benedikt is of Jewish background. He had started out, he came from an ordinary Jewish background. But remember, under Napoleon, he’d set up this whole stand, this whole set set up where kids from poor backgrounds can go to schools and really push their way into the professions. And this is what many young Jews were able to do. He became a journalist, a subeditor, then associate editor, and finally, editor in chief in 1908. He becomes a very powerful figure in Vienna.
But the problem with Benedikt is he’s going to play down anti-Semitism. And what he does when he receives Herzl’s dispatch, he changes the wording from death to the Jews, to death to Judas. And later on, death to the traitor . And it becomes so bad in France that a few days later, the French General Assembly was confronted by a motion to prevent Jews from holding public office. It was only defeated by 70 votes. And this is when, can we go back to the picture of Herzl, if you don’t mind, Judi? Thank you. Herzl, he’s pondering on the Jewish question. He sees the mob, he sees the banging of the mob. Look at those incredible dark eyes that some people describe as a prophet. What’s gone wrong? Where has everything gone wrong? He spends, his wife has already gone back to Vienna because her father was dying. So she’s gone back to Vienna with the children. And it was, as I said, it was a very unhappy marriage anyway, so he puts himself up at a hotel and he works feverishly. He writes, he writes, he writes. What has gone wrong? We must solve it. He wrote, “We must stop this slide into barbarism.” And his name then appeared on a list of suspected foreigners. So already, the right wing French police are suspicious of Dreyfus. Don’t forget the literary salons. Don’t forget that he would’ve been a visitor at least of some of these salons. You have this polarised country.
So we know also that he begins to start attending synagogue, the man who never went near a synagogue. He goes to synagogue in the la Victoire to make contact with other Jews. And it’s at this stage that he meets up with Max Nordau. And can we please see the slide of Max Nordau? Now, Max Nordau was an incredibly famous figure by this time. Hasn’t he got a wonderful moustache? Now, in the past, I’ve lectured at length on Max Nordau. So I’m just going to mention him briefly. And of course, when the website is up, you can find a whole lecture on him. He started out life as Simcha Sudfeld, south field, and he becomes Max Nordau. He was the son of a rabbi, a brilliant mind. By the time he was in his 30s, he could speak 15 different languages. By the time he’s 14, he’s already writing for German travel magazines. He was born in Budapest and he becomes a wanderer. He makes his money, first of all, as a journalist, which gives him the money to travel. His first book was called “From the Kremlin to Alhambra.” He’s a wanderer. He’s fascinated by the world he sees and he goes travelling. And then he goes back to Budapest, he takes a medical degree, and then he goes to live in Paris.
So by 1880, he’s already living in Paris, he’s practising medicine. He is also beginning to practise a nascent kind of psychology. And he also is part of the literary salons. He becomes a very important writer on the French scene. He writes also for the “Neue Freie Presse.” He saw himself as a fully assimilated European. He was a man of the world who had many affairs, including a very long affair with a Russian aristocrat who used to spend the winters at The Savoy in London, and she was quite a character actually. She also turned out to be a dreadful anti-Semite. And when he becomes involved with Zionism, he finally breaks with her. As I said, he was in love with European culture. He said, “When I reached the age of 15, I left the Jewish way of life and study of Torah, Judaism remained a memory to me and since then, I have only felt to be a German.” So, again, like Herzl, in love with German culture and now living in wonderful Paris. And it’s in Paris that he writes his most famous work, “Degeneration,” which is a critique on fin de siecle Europe. It’s a fascinating book, very disturbing. Those of you who have the time, read it. As I said, I find it very, very disturbing.
And Herzl gets to know Nordau. There is a story that Herzl is sent to see Nordau, to see the doctor because he is not sleeping. He is got all these problems. And he tells Nordau his problems and tells him his dream of doing something about the Jews. And basically, Nordau said, “Well, if you are mad, so am I.” And remember, Nordau is very successful and very famous, particularly after “Degeneration.” And on the 5th of July, 1895, there’s a lovely entry in Herzl’s diary, “Last night with Nordau over a glass of beer and a conversation about the Jewish Question, how close we are to each other?” And in fact, Nordau is going to become very important to Herzl and one of the prime movers of the first Zionist Congress. And he’s also going to be a correspondent at the second Dreyfus trial in Rennes, which I’m going to talk about next Tuesday. So Max Nordau becomes her source’s ticket into meeting people. And can we go on please, Judi? At one stage, he sends Herzl to London to meet Israel Zangwill. Israel Zangwill, of course, a wonderful writer. They call him the Jewish Dickens. He wrote wonderful books like “The King of Schnorrers.” I really advise you to have a look at the works of Israel Zangwill. He wrote plays as well. His famous play, “The Melting Pot,” of course, was written in New York. And that’s what he presuppose America to be.
He was an important figure on the Jewish scene. He worked a lot in the East End. He was a friend of Eleanor Marx and they worked with the Jewish poor in the East End. He lived in Oxford Road, Kilburn, by the way. And he was at the centre of a group of young British Jews called the Kilburn Wanderers. And they very much hoped that they could resurrect Jewish life in London. They were worried that Anglo Jew was losing it all. He married a Gentile, by the way. So did Max Nordau. It’s fascinating. These characters are really on the edge. But it’s Israel Zangwill who introduces Herzl, so Max Nordau introduces Herzl to Israel Zangwill, and you can make the case that when Herzl’s landau pulled up at Israel’s Zangwill’s house, political Zionism was born because he encouraged him to have his article on “The Jewish State,” published in “The Jewish Chronicle.” But meanwhile, Nordau also facilitates introductions to other people because Herzl is playing around with an idea. Remember, could we see the next slide, please?
He’s also, here you have the beautiful salons of Paris where they would’ve met, where Herzl would’ve met some of them. Some of them, of course, are the wives and daughters of the wealthy bankers. That’s to give you an idea of the outward facade of what was going on in France and who had wonderful salons. People like Baron Maurice de Hirsch, Baron Edmond de Rothschild. And of course, some of the greatest salons were in the homes of wealthy Jews. These would’ve been the literary salons, the left wing salons. There was also the conservatives. And again, there’s this great divide. And it is, of course, Nordau who introduces him to one of the richest men in the world. Can we see the next slide please? Here you have Baron Maurice de Hirsch. I’ve already mentioned him. His father had been banker to the King of Bavaria. He took his apprenticeship in Belgium and he married Clara Bischoffsheim, the daughter of another wealthy banker, and he becomes really one of the richest men in the world.
When he died, he left 200 million. He becomes not just a banker, he’s in charge of many railway concessions, particularly in the Habsburg Empire to the east and also the Turkish Empire and the Balkans. He’s known as Turkenhirsch. Now, he’s got wonderful homes in Paris. He’s got a home on the shores Lizay. He has a home, bathhouse in Piccadilly. He has a castle. He’s a huge philanthropist. He sponsors the Alliance, of course, set up by Adolphe Cremieux. He sponsors the Jewish Colonial Association, which was to settle Eastern European Jews who were in trouble. He bought huge tracks of land in Canada. He bought huge tracks of land in Argentina. He paid Jews in Palestine. And the Jewish Colonial Association received 7 million from him in his lifetime. And after his death, when his wife Clara died, tragically, both his children predeceased him. She left a further 11 million. Now, he also had all sorts of benevolent trusts in America for Eastern European Jews, trade schools. Much of the aught money came from Baron de Hirsch. So he is an incredible figure. And Herzl goes to him to try and sell him a dream. He believes now that Europe was unsafe for Jews, that what they were facing was an apocalypse. What could be the solution? He plays around with different ideas. Should it be Palestine? Should it be Argentina? And because the latter was underwritten by Baron de Hirsch, he really wanted to meet him. He neglects Herzl’s neglecting his journalism.
He actually went, and we know so much about Herzl ‘cause he kept a diary. He went to hear “Tannhauser” at the Paris Opera House. He loved Wagner’s music. And he decided that the new state, which he’s going to create, he’s going to have an opera house to rival Paris. Now, he’s also, in his visits to Vienna, he’s aware of what’s going on in Vienna. In fact, Freud had written with the election of Karl Lueger to becoming an the mayor of Vienna, the anti-Semitic Karl Lueger, the first glimpse into the abyss. Even on holiday in the lakes, I saw anti-Semitic graffiti, all good Christians must be free. So he meets Baron de Hirsch, he’s very nervous, and he criticises not a good move when you’re meeting a huge philanthropist. He criticises him. He said, “Even you are not immune from anti-Semitism and you are breeding shnorrers.” And Hirsch said to him, “One of the problems is Jews are rising too high.” He was shown the door and the two of them never met again. He has another go at another wealthy Jew. And of course, who does he go? To see someone I’ve already mentioned to you, and that, can we see the next one, please? That is Barron Edmond de Rothschild.
Now, you will remember he is Hanadiv, he is the benefactor. And Herzl, he wants to go further. You see de Hirsch and particularly Edmund de Rothschild, they are sponsoring settlements in Palestine. They are helping poor Jews. There’s a huge difference between buying land for settlement, setting up wineries, setting up wine growing businesses, even opening bottle plants, and actually talking about creating a Jewish state. And this is what Herzl is moving towards. And he appeals to Rothschild. He says, “We must evacuate 150,000 Jews to Palestine at once.” And Edmond de Rothschild said, “150,000 beggars, who will feed them? Me?” They argued bitterly. And unfortunately, they never met again. Now, as I’m sure you all know, as far as Herzl’s concerned, he goes on, he writes it down, he writes “Der Judenstaat,” “The Jewish State,” and he decides, look, remember he’s a journalist. He understands PR and marketing. He decides to set up a Congress and they set up the first Zionist Congress in Basle in August 9th, 1897. They’d want to hold it in Munich. But the Jewish term, I suppose the word would be macri in Munich didn’t want it. They thought it would raise the notion of Jew loyalty. So in the end, it was held in a dance hall in Basle, and Max Nordau, the famous Max Nordau gives the opening speech where he says, “There is only one country in the world that is free from the taint of anti-Semitism, and that country is England.”
And he begged that the only answer for the Jewish problem was a Jewish state. Now, the conference lasted for three days. And at the end of it, Herzl wrote in his diary, “Today, I created this Jewish state, maybe in five years, certainly in 50, it will be a reality.” Now, who would’ve known what would come in the meantime in which what would intervene? But it is a very curious fact that in 1947, 50 years later, the United Nations partition Palestine, which led, of course, to the creation of the state of Israel. And Zangwill the great writer in Basle, “He wrote by the rivers of Babylon,” remember the great quote from the Bible? “By the rivers of Babylon, We sat down and wept. By the rivers of Bal, we resolved to weep no more.” So Zionism is an ongoing business. And what Herzl realises when he’s actually when he’s in Basle, is that the majority of the delegates come from Eastern Europe and they are far more entrenched in the Jewish world. Herzl didn’t speak Hebrew, and they are going to push him on, and they’re going to push him on. And in the end, it’s going to be Palestine. In “Der Judenstaat,” he actually says, “Should it be Argentina? Should it be a monarchy?” But that’s for another time because I want to turn back to France and to the Dreyfus affair because that’s by no means off, it’s by no means over. And in fact, I would go as far as to say, I don’t think it is still over, but we can talk about that.
Why don’t I think it’s still over? Because France is still a divided society, and anti-Semitism is still a pernicious disease in France. And it’s coming in different directions now. But nevertheless, it was never really cured. So here you have a picture of Alfred Dreyfus. In many ways, some feels rather sorry for Dreyfus because he wasn’t a very interesting man. He was at the centre of it, but there are far more alive, interesting people. He was a loyal French patriot, and he never really understood the forces sweeping around him. So as I said, he had been born in Alsace. His family came from Alsace. They were wealthy. They were in the mining business, manufacturing. And because they loved France, after Alsace became part of Germany after the Franco-Prussian War, the family moved to Paris. But there was an awful lot of suspicion of anybody with a German name, Dreyfus, particularly Jews from Germany. So I’ve mentioned that when I talked about the German Jewish bankers. So he comes to Paris, he’s quite a wealthy man. He marries a wealthy woman. And actually, he keeps a diary, he calls the Franco-Prussian War his first sorrow when Alsace-Lorraine was enacted by Germany. And his childhood experience of war prompted him to decide on a military career. And in 1877, he enrolled in the military school in Paris. He had military training.
He was educated in the sciences, and he is commissioned as a subtenant in the French army. He goes to the military school in Fontainebleau for specialised training. And on graduation, he’s assigned to an artillery regiment. And as I said, he marries Lucie Hadamard and he has two children, and she was the daughter of a very wealthy, well, Paris diamond merchant. And they had their wedding. And though they were very acculturated, they’re in love with France. They are French citizens of the Jewish religion. They were married by Zadoc-Kahn in the Synagogue of Paris. They lived near the shores of Lizay. Ironically, they had a daughter who survived in a convent under an alias in the Second World War, where only the mother superior knew her true identity. Unfortunately, another daughter died later of typhus in Auschwitz in 1944. Age 25, she was a social worker from the Red Cross. So you’ve got to understand a lot of these stories have very, very unhappy memories for today as well. But all of Dreyfus surviving children now live in Switzerland. Anyway, three days after the wedding, he learned that he’d been admitted to the war college. Two years later, he graduates with honourable mention and becomes a trainee to the French general staff. And at the war college examination of 1892, he was expected to do very well. But one of the panel, General Bonnefond, quote, “Jews were not desired on the staff,” gave Draper’s poor marks for lack of likability, which brought his grades down. He protested against this and it was later held against him.
But it was true to say the French army was open to advancement and there were 300 Jewish officers, 10 were generals. So it’s a mixed picture. And the person, they did recognise that he was very clever, but he wasn’t a particularly likeable individual. So anyway, what happens to cause this terrible, terrible story? A cleaning woman who was also a spy for the French Secret Service, found a military document, a secret military document at a German embassy. And the German ambassador was called Schwartzkoppen,. He was actually gay and had a lover, and it’s all very complicated story, but I’m not going to go into it now. And he sent it to Colonel Henry, who was head of the French intelligence. It was unsigned, but only believed it must be an artillery officer attached the General Staff. Henry was also aware from other spies at the French Embassy that they were in front touch with a French soldier. And the Scoundrel D, and Henry believed it was Dreyfus. And following conversations with Minister of the War furthering investigations, Major du Paty de Clam, who was the cousin of the chief of staff and an expert on handwriting, but an amateur. The president looked at Dreyfus handwriting and they decide on this handwriting, it must be the man. He’s arrested on October the 15th, 1894. He’s interrogated, he’s not told of his crime or allowed to contact his family.
He’s treated like a common criminal. The end of October, the story is leaked by Colonel Henry to the “La Libre Parole.” Colonel Henry is very right wing, and he believes very much that Jews should not be in the army. Can we just look a little bit at him please, Judi? If you, and then I’ll go back to Drey. There you have the Dreyfus affair as it erupts. This is “Le Petit Journal,” one of the most important magazines in France. I have all these covers at home actually, because you can go and buy them in the flea markets in Paris. France is still obsessed with the Dreyfus affair. And it gradually is going to be become the huge scandal of France. Could you go on, Judi, so we can have a look at Colonel Henry? Can we see the next one, please? There you see Colonel Henry. Now, remember, he hates Jews. He’s born into a farming family. He enlists in the French Army as an infantry man. He is a man of the countryside. He becomes a sergeant major in 1866, served in the Franco-Prussian War. Very brave, captured twice, escaped, commissioned as a lieutenant, and appointed as aid the Chief of the General Staff. Later on, he joins the Statistic Division of the Ministry of War. He’s responsible for counterintelligence. He serves in Tunisia, Tonkin, Algeria before he returns to Paris.
Now, let’s go back please to Dreyfus’s picture. Sorry, I just want to bring you all, I’m trying to make this as clear as possible. Thank you very much, Judi. So Henry is convinced that Dreyfus is guilty. And at the moment, he’s treated by a common criminal and nobody knows what’s going on. The end of October, the story is leaked by Colonel Henry to “La Libre Parole” and it goes mad. They denounced Dreyfus as Judas. They speculate that the case was hushed up because he was a Jew. And the Jews have so much power, you’re not being told the truth. And to ensure that, and this is when things begin to go very wrong, because to shore up the conviction, the Statistics Section begin to manufacture forgeries. We only know that later. Mid-December in a closed court martial session with manufactured evidence, we now know that, a secret dossier evidence was provided that Dreyfus needed money because he was a gambler and a womaniser, totally untrue. He was actually very, very wealthy and a very ordinary bourgeois husband. So Dreyfus is publicly humiliated. This, of course, is witnessed by Herzl, to the screams of death to the Jews. Now, let me read, let me again give you another quote of Herzl’s. “If such things could happen in Republican France, modern civilised France, a century after the Declaration of Human Rights, then the Jews need their own country.”
This is “La Libre Parole,” Edouard Drumont. “It was not a man being degraded for an individual error, but an entire race whose shame was led bare. This is Le Figaro. He was the colour of treason, a race from the ghetto.” Now, this is unfortunately, the Jewish community at this time believed in his guilt. This is an analysis from the very good historian, Michael Marrus, “Having emphasised for so long that they were French, they could scarcely assert to their any vigour, their right to be Jews. In this, as in everything else they did, they truly showed themselves to be the Frenchman that they claimed to be.” This is Bernard Lazare, very important French writer. “It was because Dreyfus was a Jew that he was arrested. It was because he was a Jew that he was tried. And it would be because he was a Jew that the voice of truth and justice is not allowed to speak on his behalf.” He’s going to, he’s sentenced to Devil’s Island, which of course is a penal colony off the coast of South America. Mosquitoes, swamp disease, in isolation, and nobody can talk to him except his guard. He’s going to be there for five years. And interesting, the Consistoire, the Jewish Consistoire there hardly discussed the case.
This is Leon Blum, because France is such a complicated story. Leon Blum, the Jew who became Prime Minister, as did Mendes France, France had two prime ministers. There was another one for just a few months. So in reality, three Jewish prime ministers, that’s quite something. Yet, we have the Dreyfus affair. This is Leon Blum talking about 1936 and the Jewish response to Dreyfus. “They did not talk of the affair. A great misfortune has fallen on Israel. One suffered it without a word, waiting for time and silence to wipe away the effects.” So Dreyfus has arrived in Devil’s Island in April, 1895. He was allowed to occasionally write. He wrote, “Still alone,” this is September 8, 1895, sorry, 1896, “Still alone, never speaking to a single person.” And in September 1896, there were rumours in the press that he had escaped. And his brother and his wife are really going to fight for him. And they’re going to do everything they can to free him. And they are the ones, and along with another, a man who is a real hero, they’re actually going to discover that forgeries have been perpetrated. And can we turn now, please? Beyond Colonel Henry to the real hero of the Dreyfus affair, Colonel Picquart. That should be one on from, thank you, Judi. Perfect as ever. That is Marie-George Picquart, the real hero. He was born in Strasbourg when it was, of course, under France. He graduated fifth his year from military school. He was an infantry officer in France.
He served in Indochina, think of the French Empire. He studied at the General Staff Academy. Brilliant. Graduated second in his class. Became a lecturer at the War Academy. One of his students actually was Dreyfus. He didn’t think much of him. He didn’t like him very much. Dreyfus evidently was one of these characters who was quite difficult to like. He was appointed to the general staff in Paris. And he reported on the debates in the first court martial for the Minister of War and Chief of General Staff. It was on the 6th of April, 1896 that as head of Army Intelligence, he discovered that the memo used to convict Dreyfus was a forgery. Several high ranking generals advised him, he goes to his superiors, he says, “Look, it’s a forgery. What shall I do about it?” And they tell him not to. And he refused. He refuses, but he sabotaged by other offices, particularly Major Henry. Now, there’s so much fuss going on at this stage that there has to be a new trial. Meanwhile, the culprit has really come forward. And that is a man called Ferdinand Esterhazy. Now, let me go back to Colonel Henry before we get on to Ferdinand Esterhazy, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. So what happens is Picquart realises that Henry had forged the documents to prove the definitive guilt of Dreyfus. But Henry had the support of the General Staff. So he was promoted and Picquart was actually arrested.
But there’s so much fuss now because his brother, Dreyfus’s brother, and there’s a whole group of people led by Bernard Lazare. Zola’s getting involved. And I’ll be talking about Zola next Tuesday. So many people are getting involved in this, that there’s an absolute scandal. In August 1898, the Minister of War, Cavaignac, had the documents examined and a forgery was revealed. Henry is called in. And after an hour, he confesses and two generals resigned. Henry was sent to military prison and he commits suicide. In fact, officers said of him, “Dreyfus should have followed his example.” And at first, the anti-Dreyfusards facades believed it would prove Dreyfus innocent. However, Drumont in the “La Libre Parole” sponsored a public subscription in favour of Henry’s widow, in which donors were invited to vent their anger on the Jews. The royalist paper, “La Gazette,” praised Henry for sacrificing his life for the Fatherland. Charles Moreau, who we have already talked about, and I’ll be talking about a lot more, and declared that the gallant soldier’s forgery stood amongst the finest feats of war.
They raised over 130,000 francs for Henry’s widow. And comments in and signatories were released in the form of a book in 1899, 700 pages of French people giving support for him. So basically, what has happened is those who think Dreyfus is guilty, it’s gone way beyond that now. They are not going to allow the honour of the army to go down. So what then happens is that this man, can we go on to Mr. Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy. So let’s talk about him. He’s born into a military family. He’s actually from the Habsburg Empire. He’s the son of General Esterhazy who was a very important commander in the Crimean Army. And his grandfather was the illegitimate son of Countess Marianne Esterhazy. They’re a very important family. They’re actually Hungarian in the Habsburg Empire. And that branch of the family has settled in France. He was orphaned at nine. He studied in Paris and he disappears from public record. He appears again. He part of the French volunteers in the service of Pius IX. We’ve met him. And in 1870, his uncle’s influence enabled him to be commissioned in the French Army Foreign Legion. During the Franco-Prussian War, he takes the title of count, although he wasn’t. He goes to Tunis. He’s a man who’s very popular with the troops. He’s very popular with the men. He’s a gambler. He’s an absolutely terrible womaniser.
And he was employed to translate German in the French Embassy. He became acquainted with Colonel Henry, who he could wrap around his little finger. And also Lieutenant Colonel Sandherr, another figure in the Dreyfus of affair. He had been garrisoned in Marseille. He came back to France in 1888. He married. He squandered his wife’s fortune. He was always in trouble, life of gambling, speculation, excess. And he was the man who had sold secrets to the Germans. In fact, he was close to Edouard Drumont. And when Drumont was challenged to a duel by Andre Cremieu-Foa, a Jewish officer, Esterhazy acted as his second. Now, ironically, because as a result of being Drumont’s second, he found that he had no money and no one would help him. He was a very plausible character. He went to the chief rabbi, Zadoc-Khan, who got him money from the Rothchilds. Now, it was in 1896 what Picquart also discovered, a letter sent by Schwartzkoppen, the German ambassador, to Esterhazy. And his handwriting was that of the original borderer. And after fruitless efforts to bring him to justice within the Army, that’s when Picquart sent the letter to Dreyfus’s lawyers. And in 1898, an ex-lover of Esterhazy made public letters in which he admitted that of his hatred of France and the army, and admitted that he had been the traitor. But the General Staff didn’t want the judgement quashed or questioned. And in order to clear his name, Esterhazy asked for a trial. This is January, 1898.
And again, he is acquitted. He’s given a pension. He flees to England. Ironically, those of you who are listening who come from England, he settled in Milton Keynes, Harpenden. He wrote anti-Semitic articles right up until his death in 1923. He worked as a translator and a writer under the pseudonym Comte de Voilemont. He was also, we think, a travelling salesman. He lived with his mistress, first as Mr. And Mrs. Fitzgerald and then as the Comte de Voilemont. There is another story that he could have been responsible for the death of the landlady, that he murdered her. He was a real no gooder. But the point is, he’s already admitted his guilt, and everything is boiling over. And already, Zola has written his very famous passage, “J'Accuse…!,” which I don’t want to rush this, so I’m going to talk about that on Tuesday. But just to finish off, what happens next. In June, 1899, the French Court of Appeals, there’s so much come out now. They know Esterhazy’s the guilty. Colonel Henry has already committed suicide. So they overturn the military verdict of the Dreyfus trial and call for a new court martial in Rennes. On the 7th of August, the trial begins with all the new evidence. Now, there was a critical document, nevertheless, Dreyfus is again found guilty. And that’s where I’m going to stop, because as I said, it’s complicated. So why have I brought these things together?
Well, to continue with the split in French society, but also I think it’s important to see this what actually happened in France that really, although Herzl was aware of anti-Semitism beforehand, nevertheless, it’s what’s happened in France that spills him over into understanding the necessity for a Jewish state. And you see, this is what upsets so many French Jews, German Jews, Jews in the Habsburg Empire because they are giving everything to being loyal citizens of France or Germany or the Habsburg Empire or wherever. And let me give you a caution here. You see, we have the hindsight of history. And I’ve got to repeat something now. By 1900, on one level, the Dreyfus affair is not completed till 1906, but in the end, he is going to be pardoned. So you can make the case that the Dreyfusards won, And if you were a Jew living in France in the turn of the century, you would’ve said, “It’s still the best century we’d ever experienced.” Just as you would’ve said the same thing in Germany. Yes, there’s racial anti-Semitism. Isn’t this a society that’s going through pangs of all the problems that we face? But once they realise how much we are part of it, they’re going to be okay. The same thing is happening in the Habsburg Empire. So, as I said, don’t use the hindsight of history because nobody could have predicted the future. And don’t forget that things were far worse in Russia at this period. So much so that many Eastern European Jews are flooding into France. Although, the existing community isn’t going to welcome them very much. Anyway, Judi, I think I’ll stop there. And if you don’t mind, can we keep the last three slides, Emile Zola, for my next presentation, please?
[Judi] Sure.
Thank you, Judi. So shall we have a look at the comments?
Q&A and Comments:
Oh, this is from Judith, “Professor Jean-Marc Dreyfus is a professor in Holocaust studies at Manchester University. When I interviewed him, he revealed he was a relative Dreyfus.”
Barbara’s saying it’s 54 degrees in Pikesville.
Michael played hockey at four.
Okay, Carla’s looking forward. “At school in Israel,” this is from Mimi, “we studied a phrase that Herzl used, 'There is not a thing that stands in front of the desire. There’s not a thing that stands in front of the desire.’”
Q: Abigail, have I seen the report about a German prince arrested for plotting, takeover the Bundestag?
A: Yes, yes, yes. It’s doing the rounds in all the press, I’m afraid, Abigail. Half the blues at Oxford and Cambridge in the mid ‘60s, in the mid '60s were Jewish. Yes, yes. It was a good period for Jews in the '60s, wasn’t it? It’s interesting.
Oh, beg your pardon, Michael. Yes, you’re right. I made a mistake. His public humiliation was at Ecole Militaire, and there was a press box there.
And Victoria says, “My aunt in Tel Aviv lived on Nordau Boulevard. Now I know who he was.” It’s fascinating. You know, there’s a whole course to be taught on the streets of Tel Aviv. In fact, there is a book called “The Streets of Tel Aviv,” which tells you all about the names of the people. 'Cause remember, Tel Aviv itself is based on a name of a book that means hill of spring, but it was based on a book that Herzl wrote called “Altneuland: The Old-New-Land,” where he envisages the new great society.
Q: Julian, “Israel Zangwill looks the spitting image of a high ranking labourer and PR, I forget the name. I don’t know if the MP’s Jewish.” You might be thinking of Sydney Silverman, who I will be talking about later on in the year. Can you discuss how Jews who love German culture are so comfortable in Paris, the capital of Germany’s enemy, please?
A: I think when you’re talking about people like Herzl and Nordau, they are international, they are European cosmopolitans. They love German culture, but they go beyond it.
Read Michael Stanislawski’s “Zionism and the Fin de Siecle.” It’s fascinating, David. It’s a brilliant book. Rose Rahalme, “As a Jew, we die from genocide or we assimilate.” It’s not as dark as that, Rose.
Q: “Why do all those people assimilate? Some of the most brilliant people were Torah scholars and they stayed Jewish and firm despite the terms. I’m so sad about it.”
A: Look, Jewish history goes through many phases and many stories. Look, I’m not a religious person, but I do believe in Jewish destiny. And look, we have seen it all. You should read, I’m trying to think some of the best things to read on this. Later on, I’m going to read from Edmund Fleg, who is a French writer. And I think how he comes back to being a Jew. And also, it’s such a complicated story, Rose. Yes, of course, unless you are getting the beauty of Judaism, it’s a complication to be a Jew. And people, I think a lot of people want to be accepted. It’s not easy to live on the edge. And these characters, remember Herzl and Nordau, they’re not religious Jews. Nordau married a non-Jew. His daughter was brought up as a Christian. In fact, Chaim Weizmann, he lived till 1923 and Weizmann was very angry with him. You see, the Russians, they were far more Jewish, the Russian Zionists then was Nordau. When I say Jewish, and inverted communist, then was Nordau or Zangwill in many ways. These are international people. They live on the edge. So that’s how I would best answer that. Millions of what? Francs, when I was talking about the money raised for Colonel Henry. when I was talking about the money of Baron de Hirsch, it was dollars. No it wasn’t. It was pounds, 200 million pounds. A first edition of the “Jewish State” sold for over $10,000 at a Chicago Auction House. That’s interesting, Shelly.
Well, Paula, thank you very much. Thank you. This is my grandfather’s name is in Herzl’s diary, “The first token of adherence, a London bookseller, Philip Michael is, proffers me his devotion and energy at the time in the first sign is Congress in Basle.” Wow! That is fabulous. That’s a wonderful thing to have.
Oh, this is lovely, from Hindi. Hi, Hindi. “There’s a pinprick on the map of Canada and a dot on the map of Saskatchewan called Hirsch. My husband’s grandfather and father arrived there in the late 1890s. And according to the grandfather’s diary, they wait at the train station in the middle of nowhere for someone to fetch them. It was -30 Fahrenheit, a typical day in the prairie winter. My husband was born there and the famous Bromford family were running liquor across the borders. Our family had some interesting law thanks to that period, which were actually quite brutal.” I can imagine, Hindi. Oh, that’s a wonderful story. Hirsch, yeah.
Susan, “It seems that anti-Semitism will never be cured.” No, and Judith, do you remember yesterday, I beg pardon? On Tuesday, I said Anti-Semitism is to dislike Jews more than is reasonable. In fact, that’s a quote of Isaiah Berlin’s. Thank you for that, Judith. Now, Susan, be careful. Anti-Semitism is not, and when we look at Germany, I’ve decided, Wendy asked me if I’d give a couple of lectures on the origins of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism. And I’m going to spend two lectures really just dealing with this for you. Anti-Semitism is a product of the world of monotheism, particularly, the world of Christianity. Today, it’s also a real problem in Islam. But amongst, not amongst all Muslims and not amongst all Christians, we have to be careful. But in Hindu, India or in China, it doesn’t even exist. So it’s an issue that we have to face head on. There’s a lot to say about it. So, Susan, if you will bear with me, I’ll be talking about it a lot.
Q: Why don’t we always mention the creation of the state of Israel and the state of Palestine, which they were.
A: Yes, of course, when I said the partition of Palestine, and it should have been a Jewish state and an Arab state. Please don’t forget though, who was head of the Arabs at the time, tragic for them for the Palestinian Arabs, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem. And what was also tragic is none of the Arab leaders wanted there to be a Palestinian state. So it’s a very complicated story.
Oh, that’s interesting. From Marion, “After Dreyfus was freed, my father met him in Switzerland when Dreyfus was on vacation.” Hmm. I love lockdown. Where else would you get all these kind of comments?
Q: Susan, “How did the French ever Leon Blum, a Jew heavily influenced by the Dreyfus effect?”
A: Because France is a divided society. You wait till I get onto Leon Blum. And also we get onto Emile Zola. He wasn’t a Jew. There were a lot of people who stuck up. They were the liberals. Think of Jean Jarre in the first World War. France also is the country of the rights of man. I can remember being with my partner in Versailles wandering around and we had a screaming argument about France because he was a Yeshiva educated character. And he’d fallen in love with France and the enlighten, he actually taught at the Sauvignon for a while. And he would hear no words about the country of the enlightenment. Honestly, it’s two Frances, Susan. That’s the point.
Yes, very good book by Robert Harris, “An Officer and a Spy.” There are so many books on the Dreyfus affair. In fact, Robert Wistrich wanted to write, make it his definitive work. And whenever he travelled around Europe, he had a suitcase full of documents on the Dreyfus affair. But tragically, he died before he could write it. And of course, there are so many books. I’m not going to recommend one. There are so many. But there are six films on the Dreyfus affair that I know of.
This is from Rose again, “I’ve just read that his great-granddaughter write all the letters he wrote to his wife, said it was not the cold removed man people describe, or his grandson, Charles Dreyfus, still lives in France at the age of 87.” That’s interesting.
“Yes, I understand,” This is from Jerry. “I understand that when they arrested Dreyfus, he was presented with the guns, do the honourable thing.” Yes, you see, Colonel Henry did the honourable thing. He committed suicide for the honour of the army. Dreyfus couldn’t possibly be a proper French officer because he didn’t commit suicide for the honour of the army. Yes, Yolanda is also mentioning the Robert Harris’s book. He’s such a good writer. As a side note, Julia Louis-Dreyfus from the show “Seinfeld” is a direct relation. Fantastic.
When did Victor, it’s not Victor Hugo, Margaret, it’s Emile Zola. And “J'Accuse…!” appears in 1898. And I’m going to talk about it. He was tried for libel against the army and he had to flee to London. So I’m going to talk about Zola because he’s a very complicated character.
Q: What is the best book to read about the Dreyfus affair?
A: When I get back to London, I’m in Cornwall at the moment. I will go through my collection and I will pick one for you. As I said, I promise you, once the website is up. Look, I’ve mentioned already, if you want one general book on modern Jewish history, it’s “The Course of Modern Jewish History” by Sachar. There are so many. There are a couple of good overview television programmes. I mean, there is Simon Schama, there’s the Abba Eban series. I don’t know if it’s still available. “History of the Jews,” have a look at them. And then on every subject, we have to give you various different books.
Oh, this is Judith. “I stayed in Rehof Nordau in North Herzler,” Now you know all about Nordau. Zangwill looks like the former labour home secretary and foreign secretary.
Susan. Thank you, Susan. See you soon.
Q: Where does the Camondo family fit into your lecture?
A: I’m going to be talking about, I’m going to be talking about Theodore Reinach. The Camondo family, of course, are in Paris at the time. They are very wealthy. Look, they keep their heads down. Listen to Camondo, of course, and much of his great art is going to go to to France. They are living and they’re trying to pretend it’s not happening.
Brenda, “The more I learn about Jewish history, the more I believe that Europe doesn’t deserve the Jews.”
Rita, I can’t do two hours, honestly. You’ll go bar me. I’ll tell you. You really will go bar me. I haven’t got the energy and nobody wants to listen to people for two hours. Unless you are a Jabotinsky. I must tell you an empowering story. I have my wonderful friend Felix Shaaf, who came from Krakow. In his early years. He was a revisionist. He later became very left, but he talked about how Jabotinsky came to Krakow in 1937. And all the students, they unhooked his carriage from the horse, they dragged him to the Hotel Saxon, where he lectured for seven hours, okay? And at the end of it, a young man came and spoke, and he put his hands on his shoulder and evidently said, “You are my future.” And that was Menachem Begin. Lovely story. Hope it’s true.
Jack Kliman, “Crutcher Mark said he wouldn’t join in club that would have him as a member.” I agree with you, Jack. Who would want to? I happen personally to like living on the edge, but then I’m very strange.
Carrie, how lovely to hear from you? Get in touch with me, please. Carrie’s a great educator herself.
Q: Are there any undivided societies?
A: Sandra, I think society is less divided when there’s economic, social, and political ease.
Q: What is the best book about Herzl?
A: Ooh. I’ve got to think on that 'cause they’re all so political. I will promise you, I’m going to get the list together.
Q: What about Marcel Proust?
A: I’m going to get a literature person to lecture on Proust because he’s too big. In fact, I believe David Piemer has already lectured on him. But you see, the problem is we’ve been lecturing for 2.5 years, so maybe I’ll speak to David.
Carla, “ an excellent book to read.” What language is it in, Carla? Has it been translated? Yes.
And somebody else, Monesa is recommending, “An Officer and a Spy.”
Look, what I will do is I’ll be back in London and I will give you the books that I’ve enjoyed most on this particular period of history. Unfortunately, I am way behind because I was hoping to get up to at least to 1918 by next time. But you’ll have to bear with me.
Anyway, from cold, cold Cornwall, I wish you all well. Judi, thank you very, very much. And Judi, see you on Tuesday, I hope.
God bless, everyone. Bye.