Lucie Dreyfus-Hadamard (23 August 1869 – 14 December 1945) was the wife of
Alfred Dreyfus
Alfred Dreyfus ( , also , ; 9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most polarizing political dramas in modern French history. ...
, and his main and unwavering support during the
Affair
An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of i ...
that shook the couple from 1894 to 1906. She never ceased to defend the honor of her husband.
[Philippe Bourdrel, Histoire des juifs de France, Vol. 1, Albin Michel, 7 janvier 2004, 464p.]
Life
The Hadamard family hailed from
Koblenz
Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary.
Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...
, and spread to Metz and then settled, in the early nineteenth century, in Paris. David Hadamard, Lucie's father, was a diamond merchant in Paris. The couple organized many receptions. In one of them, Lucie met Alfred Dreyfus, a classmate of her cousin Paul Hadamard. The couple became engaged during the winter of 1889–1890. They were married in Paris on 18 April 1891, celebrated at the
Grand Synagogue of Paris
The Grand Synagogue of Paris (french: Grande Synagogue de Paris), generally known as Synagogue de la Victoire ( en, Synagogue of Victory) or Grande Synagogue de la Victoire ( en, Grand Synagogue of Victory), is situated at 44, Rue de la Victoire ...
, on the 21st by the Chief Rabbi of France,
Zadoc Kahn
Zadoc Kahn (18 February 1839 in Mommenheim, Alsace – 8 December 1905 in Paris) was an Alsatian-French rabbi and chief rabbi of France.
Life
In 1856 he entered the rabbinical school of Metz, finishing his theological studies at the same ...
who stood with the Dreyfusards afterwards. The couple moved near the
Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is lo ...
, at Rue François-Ier. They went on a honeymoon trip to Italy and then to Switzerland, before returning by making a stop in
Mulhouse
Mulhouse (; Alsatian language, Alsatian: or , ; ; meaning ''Mill (grinding), mill house'') is a city of the Haut-Rhin Departments of France, department, in the Grand Est Regions of France, region, eastern France, close to the France–Switzerl ...
. The couple had two children, Pierre-Léon (1891-1946) and Jeanne (1893-1981). Lucie was interested in literature, played the piano and kept reading her favorite historian:
Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges
Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges (; 18 March 1830 – 12 September 1889) was a French historian. Joseph M. McCarthy argues that his first great book, '' The Ancient City'' (1864), was based on his in-depth knowledge of the primary Greek and Latin te ...
.
Dreyfus affair
In 1894, her husband was arrested, the Dreyfus Affair breaks out. She addressed a petition to the chamber and a petition to the Pope on the 16 September 1896. Called as a witness by
Emile Zola
Emil or Emile may refer to:
Literature
*''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life
*''Emil and the Detective ...
, President Delegorgue refused that she be heard. She saw her request for revision of 3 September 1898 be accepted.
Lucie visited her husband daily in Parisian prisons and then on the
Île de Ré
Île de Ré (; variously spelled Rhé or Rhéa; Poitevin: ''ile de Rét''; en, Isle of Ré, ) is an island off the Atlantic coast of France near La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime, on the northern side of the Pertuis d'Antioche strait.
Its highe ...
. She has an important correspondence with her husband, even when he is exiled to
Devil's Island
The penal colony of Cayenne ( French: ''Bagne de Cayenne''), commonly known as Devil's Island (''Île du Diable''), was a French penal colony that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, and officially closed in 1953 in the Salvation Islands ...
.
![Alfred_Dreyfus_&_family](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Alfred_Dreyfus_%26_family.jpg)
She published some letters to raise public awareness of the innocence of her husband. She was in
Rennes
Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...
and waited for his appearance during his second trial on 1 July 1899. He was sentenced again to ten years of imprisonment.
On 19 September 1899, Émile Loubet granted him a presidential pardon. Ten days later, Émile Zola wrote in ''L'Aurore'' an open letter to Madame Alfred Dreyfus:
It was necessary to wait until 12 July 1903, Zola had been dead for nearly four years, so that the judgment of Rennes could be broken without referral. Her husband was finally rehabilitated, and rejoined the army and was knighted the
Legion of Honor
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
on 21 July 1903. Throughout the proceedings, she has left the conduct of the defense of her husband to his brother-in-law, Mathieu Dreyfus.
In her correspondence with her friend, Hélène Naville, with humility, she calls her:
During the First World War, she volunteered, and in 1933, she obtained a nursing certificate.
Alfred Dreyfus died in Paris of a heart attack on 12 July 1935. She survived him by a decade. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Lucie is hosted in a convent in Valence under the name of Madame Duteil where only the mother superior knew her true identity. Her granddaughter, Madeleine Levy, Jeanne's daughter, was arrested by French police in Toulouse. She was deported to the East, and died of typhus in
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
in January 1944, aged 25.
Lucie Dreyfus died in Paris on 14 December 1945. She is buried next to her husband at the
Montparnasse cemetery
Montparnasse Cemetery (french: link=no, Cimetière du Montparnasse) is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, in the city's 14th arrondissement. The cemetery is roughly 47 acres and is the second largest cemetery in Paris. The cemetery ...
(division 28).
Relatives
![Lucie Dreyfus-Hadamard vers 1891](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Lucie_Dreyfus-Hadamard_vers_1891.jpg)
She was a second cousin of a French mathematician
Jacques Hadamard
Jacques Salomon Hadamard (; 8 December 1865 – 17 October 1963) was a French mathematician who made major contributions in number theory, complex analysis, differential geometry and partial differential equations.
Biography
The son of a teac ...
who was active in the
Dreyfus affair
The Dreyfus affair (french: affaire Dreyfus, ) was a political scandal that divided the French Third Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. "L'Affaire", as it is known in French, has come to symbolise modern injustice in the Francop ...
. She was also a great aunt of French singer
Yves Duteil
Yves Duteil (born 24 July 1949, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French singer-songwriter. He is the third child to be born in the family. Duteil is a noted proponent of the French language, the rights of children and the respect of ...
who in the second half of the 20th century made an album on the subject.
Cultural depictions
In ''
Dreyfus'' (1930, Germany) Lucie Dreyfus was played by
Grete Mosheim
Margarete Emma Dorothea "Grete" Mosheim (8 January 1905 – 29 December 1986) was a German film, theatre, and television actress.
Early life
Mosheim was born in Berlin, Germany on 8 January 1905, the daughter of a Jewish man, Markus Mosheim (18 ...
.
In ''
Dreyfus'' (1931, UK) she was played by
Beatrix Thomson
Beatrix Thomson (1900–1986) was a British stage actress. She also made a handful of appearances in film and television. A graduate of RADA, she made her West End debut in John Galsworthy's '' Loyalties'' in 1922. She was married to the actor ...
.
In ''
The Life of Emile Zola
''The Life of Emile Zola'' is a 1937 American biographical film about the 19th-century French author Émile Zola starring Paul Muni and directed by William Dieterle. It premiered at the Los Angeles Carthay Circle Theatre to great critical and f ...
'' (1937), Lucie was played by
Gale Sondergaard
Gale Sondergaard (born Edith Holm Sondergaard; February 15, 1899 – August 14, 1985) was an American actress.
Sondergaard began her acting career in theater and progressed to films in 1936. She was the first recipient of the Academy Awar ...
.
In the 1958 film ''
I Accuse!
''I Accuse!'' is a British 1958 CinemaScope biographical drama film directed by and starring José Ferrer. The film is based on the true story of the Dreyfus affair, in which a Jewish captain in the French Army was falsely accused of treason.
...
'', Lucie was played by
Viveca Lindfors
Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors (December 29, 1920 – October 25, 1995) was a Swedish stage, film, and television actress. She won an Emmy Award and a Silver Bear for Best Actress.
Biography
Lindfors was born in Uppsala, Sweden, the da ...
.
In ''
An Officer and a Spy
''An Officer and a Spy'' is a 2013 historical fiction thriller by the English writer and journalist Robert Harris. It tells the true story of the French officer Georges Picquart from 1896 to 1906, as he struggles to expose the truth about the ...
'' (2020; French: ''J'Accuse''), Lucie was played by
Swan Starosta.
References
External links
Lucie, épouse indéfectiblesur dreyfus.culture.fr
correspondance de Lucie Dreyfussur bnf.fr
{{Authority control
Dreyfus affair
People of the French Third Republic
Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery