Femme Fatale?
This sweet image of an elegant lady belies a troubled life and an enduring notoriety. During her childhood, Dutch-born Margaretha Zelle was abandoned by her bankrupt father and sent to live with relatives after losing her mother. She was married at eighteen to a much older, abusive husband. The couple would lose their son, and nearly their daughter too, to a suspected poisoning before they separated in 1902.
Refused alimony, Margaretha left her daughter in her husband’s care and moved to France, going on to gain fame throughout Europe as the exotic dancer, Mata Hari. By the time the First World War broke out, business had severely dwindled. Her lifestyle was maintained via a succession of wealthy lovers and, critically, military officials. It was then, supposedly, that Margaretha became a double agent, her Dutch origins allowing her to travel between enemy lines, exchanging information from both sides, before being discovered and detained by the French.
In October 1917 the 41-year-old, shamed internationally as a traitor, faced a firing squad in Paris. She dressed in a velvet, fur-lined cloak and heels, glamorous to the last. Declining the offer of a blindfold, she bravely faced her fate. In 1999, official paperwork was released which showed she was a spy for the French, not against them. It appears her execution was merely a distraction by French officials, an insurance against the disclosure of her dalliances with their own officers, which included a high-ranking general. Margaretta never gave a complete confession to her “crimes”.