MATA HARI

Mata Hari: translation

(pseudonym of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle) (1876–1917)

After leaving her husband, Rudolph MacLeod, an officer in the army of the Netherlands East Indies whom she had married in 1895, Zelle lived in Paris, where she be came a courtesan and dancer, famous for her highly provocative (naked) performances. During World War I, she became entangled in a web of espionage for the Germans. Mata Hari—which means “eye of the day” or “sun” in Malayan—was court-martialed by the French and executed in Vincennes on the charge of high treason. Her case has since been of lively interest both to historians and the gen eral public. The Frisian Museum collects personal belongings in her city of birth, Leeuwarden.