About Mata Hari the Dutch Spy and the mistery of her double agent status

Matahari at her 'peak'

Matahari, at 41 when she was arrested

The character Wang Jiazhi in Lust, Caution reminded me to a story which I read during secondary school, about a Dutch lady spy during WW1 who was famous for using seduction to obtain information from top officers...I guess it would be interesting to share her story here..I got these info from wikipedia though, as I can't remember much of what I read ages ago, haha..

Margaretha Geertruida (Grietje) Zelle (7 August 1876, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands – 15 October 1917, Vincennes, France), was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was executed by firing squad for espionage (activities of spying, a new word to me too, nice to pick up something new;P) during World War I...

Margaretha had a tough chilhood, mum dead and father went bankrupt, and when she was 18 she got married to a navy officer, from an advertisement she saw in the newspaper (gosh!!) however the marriage ended after just a short while, she was in Indonesia with her husband, but moved back to the Netherlands to go their separate ways...to make ends meet, she moved to Paris and joined the circus, became an artist's model and finally she became famous as an exotic dancer using the name 'Mata Hari' (Indonesia/Malay words that literally means Eye of the Day, but as a whole meant the Sun)

and to quote this para from Wiki "Promiscuous, flirtatious, and openly flaunting her body with a mystique that captivated both her audiences and the public, Mata Hari was an overnight success from the debut of her act at the Musée Guimet on March 13, 1905.[4] She was so successful that she became the long-time mistress of the millionaire, Lyon industrialist Emile Etienne Guimet who founded the Museum. She posed as a princess from Java of priestly Indian birth, pretending to have been initiated into the art of sacred Indian dance since childhood. She was photographed numerous times during this period, nude or nearly so. She brought this carefree provocative style to the stage in her act, which led to wide acclaim".

it's interesting to know that her act actually made exotic dance more acceptable and gained a more respectable status, and brought about a style of entertainment for which Paris was later famous for

During world war one, she became a spy for the Germans, and prior to spying for the Germans, she even admitted that she was a spy for the French, and this was however not acknowledged. The facts of her case, the double agent status remained vague, because the official case documents regarding the execution were sealed for 100 years. Details might become clearer when they are revealed in France sometime in 2017 (wow!!)

She was discovered after the French revealed her identity after intercepting the message transmitted by the German military from Madrid to Berlin. She was arrested in her room in Paris on 13 February 1917, put on trial, accused of spying for Germany and consequently causing the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers. She was then found guilty and executed by firing squad on 15 October 1917, at the age of 41.

It was said that her head was kept in the Museum of Anatomy in Paris but was said to have disappeared in 2000 (but it could have happened as early as 1954. Other body parts were also supposedly kept in the museum but none of them could be accounted for after relocation (oooo!!!! people steal her body parts?!) sigh...if even just the head is still in Paris I will certainly make my visit there this coming Feb!!! (guess it would send shivers down my spine though;P)