SALVATION ISLANDS PRISON - DEVIL'S ISLAND

In the penitentiary organization, Devil's Island was a place of deportation, a treatment reserved for political prisoners who were sought to be isolated from the rest of the world. One of the first of these men was Charles Delescluze, a Paris Commune leader convicted of conspiracy in 1849. It was on this 14-hectare rock that Captain Dreyfus landed on April 13, 1895. For four long years, he occupied the island, alone with a few warders who scrupulously ensured his isolation. During his stay, nothing was spared for Dreyfus, who found himself in irons in his hut for several weeks at a time. In deep despair, he would spend hours silently gazing out over the ocean, sitting on a stone bench that can still be seen at the tip of the island, near the tip of the Caribbean.

Without the charisma and courage of his supporters, the most famous of whom was Zola, Dreyfus could have ended his days on Devil's Island, as some of his detractors wanted. After Dreyfus's departure in June 1899, other political prisoners were deported to the island, many of them anarchists. By this time, prison conditions had eased considerably, and these men served their sentences under a regime of semi-liberty without compulsory work. Listed as a historic monument, the Dreyfus house has benefited from a restoration program financed by the CNES.