Alfred Dreyfus was the only prisoner on Devil's Island -- apart from the French soldiers, the only inhabitant. His diary documents the four and a half years of isolation; the inexplicable double-manacles and seven-foot fence; the constant presence of mute guards, which made his life a "profound, eternal and tortuous silence...never speaking to a single person, never hearing a human voice... [not] one sympathetic word, one friendly look."
Dreyfus was allowed a small library, although the novels of Emile Zola were not included in it. Nor would Dreyfus discover until afterwards that it was Zola's voice which spoke out most passionately and daringly on his behalf, compelling the events which would eventually return him to France and clear him of treason ... FULL STORY »
