What is Mata Hari?
[[Image:Mata Hari 6.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Mata Hari, [[exotic dancer]] and convicted [[spy]], made her name synonymous with [[femme fatale]] during [[World War I]].]] '''Mata Hari''' was the [[stage name]] of Margaretha Geertruida (Grietje) Zelle (7 August 1876, [[Leeuwarden]], [[The Netherlands]] – 15 October 1917, [[Vincennes]], [[France]]). She was a [[The Netherlands|Dutch]]-[[Frisians|Frisian]] [[exotic dancer]] and [[spy]]. She was [[Death penalty|executed]] by a [[firing squad]] of the French Army. French authorities thought she was a spy during [[World War I]]. Because she had relationships with both German and French [[officer]]s, they thought she was a double agent (working for both sides). Her dossier (file) was released in 2017, a hundred years after her death. == Guilty == German documents unsealed in the 1970s proved that Mata Hari was truly a German agent. In the autumn of 1915, she entered German service. On the orders of section III B-Chief Walter Nicolai, she was instructed about her duties by Major Roepell during a stay in [[Cologne]]. Her direct handler was Captain Hoffmann, who gave her the code name H-21.<ref>{{cite book|title=Historical dictionary of German Intelligence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gnEWm4kC844C&pg=PA290|first=Jefferson|last=Adams|publisher=Rowman&Littlefield| isbn=978-0-8108-5543-4|page=290|year=2009}}</ref> == References == {{reflist}} {{bio-stub}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Mata Hari}} [[Category:1876 births]] [[Category:1917 deaths]] [[Category:Dutch artists]] [[Category:Erotic dancers]] [[Category:People executed by firearm]] [[Category:People from Leeuwarden]] [[Category:Spies]]