The order would come within moments.
Yet witnesses later claimed she showed no fear.
The woman was Mata Hari—the most famous alleged spy of the First World War.
More than a century later, historians are still arguing about a question that has never been fully answered:
Was she truly a dangerous double agent responsible for the deaths of thousands, or was she an innocent woman sacrificed during one of history’s darkest moments?
A Woman Who Reinvented Herself
Long before newspapers called her a spy, Mata Hari was simply Margaretha Geertruida Zelle, born in the Netherlands in 1876.
Her early life was marked by hardship, disappointment, and personal tragedy.
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