Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Mata Hari" in English language version.
The daughter of a prosperous hatter, she attended a teachers' college in Leiden. In 1895 she married an officer whose family was of Scottish origin, Captain Rudolph MacLeod, in the Dutch colonial army, and from 1897 to 1902, they lived in Java and Sumatra. The couple returned to Europe but later separated, and she began to dance professionally in Paris in 1905 under the name of Lady MacLeod. She soon called herself Mata Hari, said to be a Malay expression for the sun (literally, "eye of the day"). Tall, extremely attractive, superficially acquainted with East Indian dances, and willing to appear virtually nude in public, she was an instant success in Paris and other large cities.
[Translated]A hairdressing business owned by Wyb en Wilma Feddema was in the building at the Kelders 33 until the 2013 fire. The store already had some posters about Mata Hari. ... Architect Silvester Adem, based on drawings and old images, reconstructed the shop façade of the hat shop of Adam Zelle, the father of Margarethe. [There were] two window displays, door in the middle and nearby another door to the apartments. That entrance was previously at the back of the building. There is again a hairdresser and an 'experience centre' (belevingscentrum) about Mata Hari. A beamer projects a lantern-like movie of forty minutes with slides and film fragments on the white wall; there are showcases, pictures, and a large table with everything about Mata Hari, from liqueur to bonbons.
In 1916 the war was going badly for the French. Two of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war—Verdun and the Somme—pitted the French against the Germans for months at a time. The mud, bad sanitation, disease, and the newly introduced horror of phosgene gas led to the death or maiming of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Eventually, French troops became so demoralized that some refused to fight. Ladoux felt the arrest of a prominent spy could raise French spirits and recharge the war effort.
'But the evidence is quite strong that she was completely innocent of espionage,' Shipman, a professor of anthropology at Pennsylvania State University, told Reuters. 'When she was arrested the war was going very badly for the French and she was a foreigner, very sexy, having affairs with everyone, and living lavishly while people in Paris had no bread. There was a lot of resentment against her.' Shipman said Mata Hari's standing in 1917 was similar to that of Marilyn Monroe in the 1960s—she was recognizable everywhere and considered the sexiest, most desirable woman in Europe. 'This is part of why it is so ludicrous to think she was a spy. She couldn't be clandestine and sneak around. She couldn't help but attract attention,' said Shipman, whose book Femme Fatale: Love, Lies and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari (ISBN 978-0297856276) has just been released.
In 1916 the war was going badly for the French. Two of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war—Verdun and the Somme—pitted the French against the Germans for months at a time. The mud, bad sanitation, disease, and the newly introduced horror of phosgene gas led to the death or maiming of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Eventually, French troops became so demoralized that some refused to fight. Ladoux felt the arrest of a prominent spy could raise French spirits and recharge the war effort.
'But the evidence is quite strong that she was completely innocent of espionage,' Shipman, a professor of anthropology at Pennsylvania State University, told Reuters. 'When she was arrested the war was going very badly for the French and she was a foreigner, very sexy, having affairs with everyone, and living lavishly while people in Paris had no bread. There was a lot of resentment against her.' Shipman said Mata Hari's standing in 1917 was similar to that of Marilyn Monroe in the 1960s—she was recognizable everywhere and considered the sexiest, most desirable woman in Europe. 'This is part of why it is so ludicrous to think she was a spy. She couldn't be clandestine and sneak around. She couldn't help but attract attention,' said Shipman, whose book Femme Fatale: Love, Lies and the Unknown Life of Mata Hari (ISBN 978-0297856276) has just been released.
