Mata Hari is executed

Mata Hari, a Dutch dancer, was convicted in France of spying for Germany during World War I and executed. Many historians doubt how strong the evidence against her was.

How much she really passed on is disputed.

Context

Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Zelle, born in 1876 in the northern Netherlands. She reinvented herself in Paris as an exotic dancer with an invented Javanese or Indian-temple past. Because the Netherlands was neutral, she could travel across borders during the war, which drew suspicion from several intelligence services.

French authorities arrested her in Paris in February 1917. A military court tried her that July, and the charge was that she had passed Allied information to Germany, including details of the new tank. She was shot by firing squad at Vincennes outside Paris on 15 October 1917 and reportedly declined a blindfold.

The strength of the case is the contested part. Intercepted German messages named an agent code-named H-21, and she admitted taking money from a German official, but she said it was payment from a lover. Many historians judge the evidence circumstantial, and some think French authorities needed a high-profile spy at a time of heavy army losses. German accounts suggest she produced little useful intelligence, so her real importance is debated. Her trial was held behind closed doors under wartime military procedure, which limits what can be checked today.