Mata Hari - a very famous “femme fatale”.

Mata Hari - a very famous “femme

fatale”.

Mata Hari was the stage name of Magaretha Gertrud Zelle who was born on the 7th of August 1876 at Leeuwarden in Holland. 

In 1895, at the age of 18 she married a Dutch Colonial Army Captain, Rudolf MacLeod, some 20 years her senior.  The couple had two children but would divorce in 1906. 

MacLeod and Magaretha spent several years in the Dutch East Indies, serving in Java and Malaysia. Here she learned erotic dancing. 

She adopted the stage name of Mata Hari which translates to “Eye of the Day” in the Javanese language.  

In 1905 she was performing in Paris and her biggest hit was the “Dance of Love” which she performed at music halls all over the city.  

In her day she was considered one of the most beautiful and seductive women in Europe. 

By 1912 her career was declining.  Her open exhibitionism was no longer in vogue.  However, she still captivated successful and high ranking men all over Europe.

During World War I Holland was a neutral country and as a Dutch citizen, Magaretha was able to travel where she wanted to.  

In 1916, she was arrested in Falmouth on a voyage back from Madrid and taken to London for interrogation by counter espionage officers. 

She apparently admitted to working for French intelligence but there was insufficient evidence to charge her.

The following year the French intercepted a communication from the German Military attaché in Madrid mentioning agent H-21.  

The French authorities deduced that this was the code name of Magaretha.  It was suspected that she was passing information about French tanks.

She was arrested on the 13th of February 1917 at the Hotel Elysée Palace on the Champs Elysées in Paris.  Her trial for espionage commenced on the 24th of July.  

Magaretha maintained her innocence till the last, however there was a strong presumption of guilt and she was convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad on the 26th of July 1917.  

She was returned to the Saint-Lazare women’s prison in Paris to await her fate.  Her appeal was rejected on the 17th of August.

The execution was carried out at dawn on the 15th of October 1917.  She was taken by car from her prison cell to the Caserne de Vincennes barracks.  

Here she was attended by two nuns of the Sisters of Charity order and Fr. Arbaux.  

She was placed in front of the twelve man firing squad from the Fourth Regiment of Zouaves and declined to be blindfolded.  Oddly she was not tied to a stake or restrained in any way.  She blew a kiss to her executioners.  

An officer raised his sword and then lowered it as the sign to shoot.  Magaretha slowly collapsed to her knees and then fell forwards.  She was given a coup de grace by an officer.

German documents unsealed in the 1970s proved that Magaretha actually was a spy, albeit a very low level one. 

In the autumn of 1915, she entered German service, and on orders of section III B-Chief Walter Nicolai, she was instructed about her duties by Major Roepell during a stay in Cologne. 

Her reports were to be sent to the Kriegsnachrichtenstelle West in Düsseldorf under Roepell as well as to the German embassy in Madrid under Major Arnold Kalle, with her direct handler being Captain Hoffmann, who also gave her the code name H-21.