MATA HARI
Mata Hari.
The very name conjures images of a beautiful temptress; a double agent who
betrayed the Allied forces during World War 1 costing the French countless
lives. But who was the real Mata Hari? Was she actually the evil seductress
remembered as a counter agent during the Great War? And did she really change
her allegiance to the Allies (Russia, France, Britain, Serbia, Japan and Italy)
to spy for Germany?
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Mata Hari’s real name was Margaretha Zelle, and she
wasn’t a princess, nor was she from an exotic country. Actually, she was born
in the Netherlands, and her father owned a hat shop.
After a tumultuous childhood, Margaretha moved to
Indonesia and married a well-to-do widower, who was 20 years her senior. He was
well-off financially and was a high-ranking officer in the British military.
But he was an alcoholic, and he often beat her.
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When the war broke out in 1914, she was on tour in
Europe and fell madly in love with a Russian pilot who flew for the French.
When he was shot down during a dog fight, he was badly injured. Margaretha
tried to visit him in a military hospital in France. But the French would only
allow it if she agreed to spy on Germany, or more exactly, seduce the eldest
son of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who had been infatuated with her when she performed
in Germany. The French military wanted her to get information out of the young
German prince and pass it on to them.
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Most scholars who have reviewed the trial documents
believe she was simply made a scape goat by the French government. After all,
it was convenient to blame her for the fact that the French had lost a major
battle, rather acknowledging that poor tactics had been used by the French
commanders.
The new International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.
has an exhibit about Mata Hari which includes some of her personal possessions,
such as the metal bra top she wore as part of her dance costume.
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