Femme fatale, spy, traitor... now secret files say Mata Hari was betrayed after being tricked & used as a scapegoat
WAS SEX SYMBOL EXPLOITED TO HIDE WW1 FAILURE?
Mata Hari stepped out as if dressed for dinner with one of her many lovers. Black stockings peeked over the top of her knee-length boots, a fur-lined velvet cloak hung from her shoulders.
But the exotic dancer, whose performances took Paris by storm, was actually going to face the firing squad for selling secrets to the Germans during the First World War.
Mata shed no tears and showed no fear, refusing to wear a blindfold. Some claim she even waved to her lawyer and blew kisses to her executioners.
Her death 100 years ago this week set the seal on her reputation as the ultimate femme fatale; the woman who abandoned her children to satisfy her lust for money, men and fame before her treachery killed thousands of soldiers.
Yet newly discovered letters now on show in her home town reveal Mata wasn’t quite the woman many thought.
Far from her image as a cold-hearted monster, she was a doting mother whose early life was beset by tragedy.
And it was that which led her to become Europe’s most famous dancer, then a courtesan whose lavish spending bankrupted several wealthy lovers and finally a double agent who earned a fortune spying for both sides.
Secret files finally opened to the public expose how she was tricked by the French, who made her a scapegoat for their own military failings.
Hans Groeneweg, curator of the Friesland Museum in Mata’s home town of Leeuwarden, Holland, says: “There is no doubt Mata Hari enjoyed having so many men and living in luxury, spending money on jewellery and fine clothing.
“But these letters reveal her before she was a beautiful dancer and a spy.
“I always thought she was a cold mother more interested in men and money but the letters show how much she missed her daughter and the difficult choices she was condemned to make.
“The French wanted someone famous to blame because the front in 1917 was a disaster.
“They made Mata Hari a scapegoat. She didn’t deserve to be shot.”
Mata – real name Margaretha Zelle – was the eldest daughter of a Dutch businessman.
She was groomed for life in high society until her father went bankrupt when she was 13.
Her parents divorced and soon after her mother died. The family was torn apart as her father remarried and her three brothers were sent to Switzerland. Mata was determined to revive her fortunes and at 18 replied to an advert seeking a wife for rich Dutch officer Rudolph John MacLeod, almost twice her age and described as “caddish”. The couple had two children but both fell ill, allegedly poisoned by their nanny. Daughter Nonnie, one, survived but their son Norman, two, died and the couple’s initially passionate marriage crumbled. She won custody of Nonnie but MacLeod refused to pay maintealso nance. Mata could not afford to raise her so she left her with her ex-husband and moved to Paris to seek her fortune, even contemplating suicide because she missed her daughter so much.
She wrote: “I’m tired of fighting life and I want one of two things: either Nonnie lives with me and I behave like a decent mother or I’m going to enjoy the beautiful life being offered to me here. I know that life ends in tragedy – but I’m over that.”
Mata quickly established herself as the most famous exotic dancer in Paris.
Pretending to be a Javanese princess who performed sacred Indian dances, she shed her clothes until she wore little more than a jewelled bra and an elaborate headpiece. She also posed for numerous nude photographs.
She became the most famous dancer
Letters show how much she missed her daughter and the difficult choices she had to make HANS GROENEWEG MUSEUM CURATOR
and courtesan in Europe, earning an army of admirers and taking lovers for pleasure and profit. One banker bankrupted himself after buying her a chateaux... so she moved to a new man.
Yet she seemed to feel some guilt, writing to a relative: “Don’t think I’m bad at heart. I did it only out of poverty.”
However Mata’s many lovers, including French army officers, soon made her an obvious target for the Germans.
Hans said: “It is very clear she became a spy for the money. When the war started the theatres closed and she was desperately looking for money.”
There is little evidence she passed any hard information to the Germans. In fact she believed she was a double agent after being recruited by the French.
Again she ensured she profited from the deal, demanding one million francs.
Hans said: “They used her as a pawn. They didn’t want her as a double ag they wanted evidence she was spyi
The French never found that proo Mata was arrested as spy codenam H-21 in her hotel room on the Cha Elysees in February 1917. Investiga claimed they found secret ink in room; she insisted it was make-up.
She faced a military court in July year, accused of causing the deaths
least 50,000 soldiers. Hans said: “She didn’t get a fair trial. Years later some of those involved admitted they wanted an international figure to blame so they could show what happened to those who stood against France.”
Mata, then 41, was convicted, confined to dark rat-filled cell and sentenced to death.
On the morning of October 15 she was woken before dawn and wrote: “I am ready”. She told the nun accompanying her: “Don’t be afraid, Sister, I will die without trembling. You’re going to see a beautiful death.” At 5.30am she was led from her cell. Pte Paul Koenig, one of the 12-strong firing squad, later said: “I have taken part in a lot of executions but that was the most moving and dignified one for me.”
Hans said: “We know she refused a blindfold. I don’t think she blew kisses. But, putting the myths aside, she was still a strong woman who faced death with great bravery and dignity.”
Mata’s fortune was seized by the French, leaving nothing for her daughter, and her body was donated to the Paris Museum of Anatomy to be dissected.
Her head was embalmed and stored but was found to have disappeared years later, adding one more mystery to her story. Hans said: “There are still many dark pieces in her life, questions we just don’t have answers to.
“It makes her story as irresistible now as she had been when she was alive.”
Don’t think I’m bad at heart. I have done it only out of poverty MARGARETHA ZELLE IN LETTER TO RELATIVE