Today in 1917 in Vincennes, France (not far from Paris) the exotic dancer, courtesan and alleged spy Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, better known by her stage name of Mata Hari is executed for espionage by a French firing squad. Sometimes erroneously thought to be German, she was Dutch by birth.
Mata Hari first came to Paris in 1905 and found fame as a performer of Asian-inspired dances. She soon began touring all over Europe, telling the story of how she was born in a sacred Indian temple and taught ancient dances by a priestess who gave her the name Mata Hari, meaning “eye of the day” in Malay. Though it made for an interesting story, the reality was Mata Hari was born in a small town in northern Holland in 1876. She acquired her superficial knowledge of Indian and Javanese dances when she lived for several years in Malaysia with her former husband, who was a Scot in the Dutch colonial army. Regardless of her authenticity, she packed dance halls and opera houses from Russia to France, mostly because her show consisted of her slowly stripping nude.
She became a famous courtesan (what they used to call a "kept" mistress or prostitute, particularly one with wealthy, powerful, or influential clients). By the outbreak of World War I her catalog of lovers had come to include many men of various nationalities, including Crowned Prince Wilhelm of Germany.
It was reported that Hari was so used to being watched and admired by men so much of the time, she never noticed or even suspected that she was being watched and followed, but as early as 1915, Mata Hari was under surveillance by British MI-5 (Military Intelligence, Department 5). Because she had a Dutch passport and her home country was officially neutral in the war, she could pass between belligerent countries with relative ease.
An intelligence report in February 1916, said that she was “in relation with highly placed people and during her sojourn in France she made the acquaintance of many French and Belgian officers“.
“She is suspected of having been to France on important missions for the Germans,” the report said.
In February 1917, French authorities arrested her for espionage and imprisoned her at St. Lazare Prison in Paris. In a military trial conducted in July, she was accused of revealing details about allied tanks (then a new weapon) resulting in the deaths of thousands of soldiers. She was convicted and sentenced to death and after all appeals were exhausted, she was shot by a firing squad. When facing her executioners, she did not so much as flinch and even refused a blindfold. Some reports say she blew a kiss to the firing squad just prior to their opening fire.
Mata Hari’s role and value in espionage is debated to this day. My Scottish grandmother certainly believed she was a spy and got what she deserved. While there is some evidence that Mata Hari acted as a German spy and for a time as a double agent for the French, the Germans had written her off as an ineffective agent who produced little usable intelligence. What is known is that her military trial was riddled with bias and circumstantial evidence, and it is probable that French authorities trumped her up as “the greatest woman spy of the century” as a distraction for the huge losses the French army was suffering on the western front (losses so significant that some French army units had to be disbanded).
After her execution. Mata Hari’s physical remains were buried at the graveyard in Vincennes and a stack of letters was found in her prison cell that were turned over to her lawyers.
(History channel, roughdiplomacydotcom, chimeramyth.blogspotdotcom, historygossip, times of London, commentary)
