Femme Fatale

by Pat Shipman

  For clarity, I refer to the subject of this biography as Mata Hari throughout the notes rather than whatever nickname she was using at the time of various documents. I have standardized spellings and modernized punctuation and format in quotations in the interest of clarity but have not changed emphases.

  Many quotations are taken from the dossier “Mata Hari” of the Service Historique de l’Armée de la Terre (SHAT) in Vincennes, France. Most documents are numbered by pièce (piece or item), but some are numbered following the letter R (résidu, or residue) or S-DR (sous-dossier résidu, or under-dossier residue) and some are not numbered (non-cotée).

  British government documents are cited by the number assigned by the Public Record Office (PRO) and, often, the Metropolitan Police (MEPO).

  Many citations refer to a series of reports and documents in the archives of the former Ministry of the Colonies (Ministerie von Koloniën), now in the Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague. The general citation for these reports is Verbaal, followed by the date on which the memorandum, note, or other document was written, with the (different) date of publication, a number, and a page. The references and information are taken from a paper by Hanneke Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage in the Indies, 1887–1920,” Indonesia 35 (April 1983): 65–93.

  All details of Rudolf ’s military career have been traced through the Stamboeken Officieren (Register of officers) 1814–1929, in the Nationaal Archief, The Hague, Inv. Nr. 624 (2.13.07), item 405, p. 110, and item 624, p. 98. This is the official source for all dates, postings, salary, and details of his career unless otherwise stated.

  Books and articles are referred to below in full the first time they are mentioned in each chapter and in abbrieviated form thereafter.

  Whenever possible, I have given the modern equivalents for monetary amounts using the excellent website http://eh.net/hmit. I first converted amounts and currencies into U.S. dollars of the day using a procedure published by Lawrence Officer (“Exchange Rate Between the United States Dollar and Forty Other Countries, 1913–1999,” Economic History Services, EH.Net, 2002, http://eh.net/hmit/exchangerates/). Then I calculated the modern equivalent of that value in terms of buying power using another segment of the same website (John J. McCusker, “Comparing the Purchasing Power of Money in the United States [or Colonies] from 1665 to 2005,” Economic History Services, 2006, http://www.eh.net/hmit/ppowerusd/). These conversions are not individually cited in the notes.

  Notes

  Prologue

  “There is something” SHAT, pièce 312, 5 June 1917.

  Chapter 1 The Little Orchid

  think of herself as special Information about Mata Hari’s early life from Samgenaar, Mata Hari (New York: Appleton-Century, 1965), 5–11.

  an orchid Ibid., 8.

  “an amazing bit of foolhardiness” Ibid., 6.

  27,000 inhabitants Russell Warren Howe, Mata Hari: The True Story (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1986), 5.

  declare bankruptcy Dossier Zelle, Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie, The Hague.

  violent quarrels Howe, True Story, 18.

  “This day it pleased” Dossier Zelle.

  “I was playing” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 9.

  minimum height for men E. M. Beekman, “Alexander Cohen,” in Fugitive Dreams: An Anthology of Dutch Colonial Literature, ed. E. M. Beekman (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), 184–209.

  five thousand florins Charles S. Heymans, La Vraie Mata Hari: Courtisane et Espionne (Paris: Étoile, 1936), 5.

  the headmaster, Wybrandus Haanstra Information about Haanstra and the school from http://www.deschoolanno.nl/S.inBeeld/sibjrg11_15/sib1102.htm, accessed 7 July 2005.

  “Such a job” Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 1.

  a sexual relationship Ibid., 11; Sam Waagenaar, “Mata Hari as a Human Being,” ms., Fries Museum, ca. 1927, 4; Julie Wheelwright, The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage (London: Collins & Brown, 1992), 10; Heymans, Vraie, 22; Bernard Newman, Inquest on Mata Hari (London: Robert Hale, 1956), 179.

  until his death Information from http://www.deschoolanno.nl/S.inBeeld/sibjrg11_15/sib1102.htm, accessed 7 July 2005.

  Mysteriously, there are no documents Personal communication, Michiel van Halem to Paul Storm, 21 January 2005.

  Chapter 2 Different Lives

  Approximately 7,700 officers General information on the Atjeh War taken from M. C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300, 2d ed. (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1993), 144–46; also C. M. Schulter, “Tactics of the Dutch Colonial Army in the Netherlands East Indies,” Revue internationale d’histoire militaire 7 (1988): 59–67.

  “December 6, already 302 sufferers” J. van Swieten, “De waarheid over onze vestiging in Atjeh met een kaart van Atjeh en een plan van den Kraton (The truth about our settlement in Atjeh: with a map of Atjeh and a plan of Kraton) (Zaltbommel: Noman, 1879), 7.

  more than 8,000 soldiers Information from http://www.engelfriet.net/Alie/Hans/Aceh.htm, accessed July 2005.

  at least three-quarters of the enlisted men E. M. Beekman, “Alexander Cohen,” in Fugitive Dreams: An Anthology of Dutch Colonial Literature, ed. E. M. Beekman (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), 196.

  a twelve-foot-long behemoth This cannon and several others are on exhibit at Museum Bronbeek—Museum ran het Koninklijk Tehuis voor oud-Militairen in the Netherlands.

  medical treatment was minimal See J. A. de Moor, “An Extra Ration of Gin for the Troops: The Army Doctor and Colonial Warfare in the Archipelago, 1830–1880,” in Dutch Medicine in the Malay Archipelago 1816–1942: Articles Presented at a Symposium Held in Honor of Professor De Moulin, ed. G. M. van Heteren, A. de Knecht-van Eekelen, and M. J. D. Poulissen (Amsterdam and Atlanta: Rodopi, 1989), 133–52.

  “An expedition in the Outer Districts” Ibid., 140.

  “So every day” M. Van Adringa, “Geneeskundig verslag van de expeditie tegen Latoentoer, zuider en ooster afdeeling van Borneo” (Medical report of the expedition against Latuntur, South and East District of Borneo), in Geneeskundig Tijdschrift Nederlandsch-Indië (1862): 84, cited ibid., 147.

  A total of 1,052 men J. W. F. Herfkens, De Atjeh-Oorlog van 1873 tot 1896 (The Atjeh War of 1873 till 1896), recast and completed by J. C. Pabst (Breda: De Koninklijke Militaire Academie, 1905), 72; similar figures given in Schulter, “Tactics,” 62.

  “to remain in Atjeh for ever” Schulter, “Tactics,” 62.

  “I have seen a mother” Colijn was later adjutant to van Heutsz and, still later, prime minister of the Netherlands. This letter is reproduced on http://home.iae.nl/users/arcengel/NedIndie/heutsz.htm, accessed July 2005.

  “Jan Fusilier” H. L. Zwitzer and C. A. Heshusius, Het Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger 1830–1950 (The Royal Dutch Indies Army, 1830–1950) (The Hague: Staatsuitgevrij, 1977), 10.

  arak De Moor, “Extra Ration,” 136.

  “fortifying provisions” Ibid., 140.

  They worked in the open air Report of Johannes Godfried Kerlen, 1873–9, of his experiences in the Atjeh War, reproduced in http://www.engelfriet.net/Alie/Hans/Aceh.htm, accessed July 2005.

  ran out of these vital medicines Xavier Brau de Saint-Pol Lias, Chez les Atchés: Lohong (Among the Atjeh: Lohong) (Paris: Plon Nourrit et Cie, 1884), 21.

  A mere 10 to 15 percent A. H. M. Kerkhoff, “The Organization of the Military and Civil Medical Service in the Nineteenth Century,” in van Heteren et al., Dutch Medicine, 9–24.

  sinkhole or sewer of Europe Hanneke Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage in the Indies, 1887–1920,” Indonesia 35 (April 1983): 65, citing Verbaal, no. 4 (20 January 1902): 6; and Beekman, “Alexander Cohen,” 194.

  “Orang Atjeh datang!” J. R. Jacobs, Neerlands Driekleur in Neerlandsch-Indië door Neerlands Dapperen bewaakt: “Schetsen uit het Indische Krijgsleven; met Portretten opgedragen aan de Ridders de Militaire Willemsorde, benelef den rang van Officier door J. R. Jacobs, Kapitein der Infanterie van het Ned.-Ind. Leger” (The Dutch Tricolor in the Nether
lands Indies by Dutch Heroes: “Sketches of the Indies Warbook, with portraits of the behavior of the Knights of the William’s Cross, under the rank of officer by J. R. Jacobs, Captain of the Infantry of the Netherlands-Indies Army”) (Rotterdam: Nijgh and Van Dilmar, n.d.), 44.

  a sharp defeat Brau de Saint-Pol Lias, Chez, 10.

  “stunned by the rapidity” Ibid., 8.

  “finagled” not to give it Sam Waagenaar, Mata Hari (New York: Appleton-Century, 1965), 13.

  He coyly asserted Charles S. Heymans, La Vraie Mata Hari: Courtisane et Espionne (Paris: Étoile, 1936), 12–13.

  Women comprised less than 20 percent A. Van Marle, “De Groep der Europeanen in Nederlands-Indië, iets over ontstaan en groei” (The European group in the Netherlands-Indies, its origin and growth”), parts 1–3, Indonesië 5 (1951/1952): 10.

  Indisches or Indos Roger Wiseman, “Assimilation Out: Europeans, Indo-Europeans and Indonesians Seen Through Sugar from the 1880s to the 1950s,” paper presented to the ASAA 2000 Conference, University of Melbourne, 3–5 July 2000.

  Those without concubines Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 70.

  “necessary evils” Ibid., 81, 83–87; and Beekman, “Alexander Cohen,” 201–2.

  most of the male Europeans Van Marle, “Europeanen,” part 3, 485.

  the right of a soldier to have Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 67, citing Verbaal, 4 August 1913, no. 71, Exhibitum 7 October 1912, no. 131: 17.

  By 1872, military regulations Anonymous, Een onderzoek naar den toestand van het Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger, uit een zedelijk oogpunt beschoouwd, ter ernstige overweging aangeboden door de Vereeniging tot bev-ordering der Zedelijkheid in de Nederlandsche Overzeesche Bezittingen en de Nederlandsche Vereeniging tegen de Prostitutie (Research into the state of the Dutch Indies Army, from the point of view of moral considerations, for the serious consideration by the Society for the Promotion of Morality among Dutch Overseas and the Dutch Society against Prostitution) (Press and publisher unknown, n.d.), 86. See also General Order no. 62 of 1872, cited in Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 70.

  Prostitutes living in the barracks Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 84, citing Verbaal, no. 89 (13 May 1902).

  fewer men who cohabited Liesbeth Hesselink, “Prostitution: A Necessary Evil, Particularly in the Colonies: Views of Prostitution in the Netherlands Indies,” in Indonesian Women in Focus, ed. Elsbeth Locher-Scholten and Anke Niehof (Leiden: KITLV Press, 1992), 205–24. 26 “The moral standards” Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 70, citing Verbaal, no. 47 (29 December 1903): 13.

  “Unnatural vice” Ibid., 69, quoting postscript to report of 18 March 1893, in Verbaal, no. T1 (21 January 1903).

  girls in military brothels Ibid., 70.

  from twelve to perhaps thirty-five Ibid., 73, citing J. T. Koks, De Indo (Amsterdam: H. J. Paris, 1931), 53.

  a single visit to the brothel Ibid., 71, n. 32.

  “women’s sheds” Ibid., 68, citing report of 18 March 1893, in Verbaal, no. T1 (21 January 1903).

  inspected weekly for signs Ibid., 68; Hesselink, “Prostitution,” 207.

  no effective cure for syphilis Deborah Hayden, Pox: Genius, Madness, and the Mysteries of Syphilis (New York: Basic Books, 2003), 36; Claude Quetel, History of Syphilis, trans. Judith Braddock and Brian Pike (Cambridge, U.K.: Polity Press, 1990), 6, 142.

  nyai Ann Solter, “Sexual Affronts and Racial Frontiers: European Identities and the Cultural Politics of Exclusion in Colonial Southeast Asia,” in Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World, ed. Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 199–237.

  “for that…is prescribed by adat” Ladislao Székely, Tropic Fever: The Adventures of a Planter in Sumatra, trans. Marion Saunders (1937; Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1984), 110, 112.

  anyai ’s influence Lily E. Clerkx and Wim F. Wertheim, Living in Deli: Its Society as Imagined in Colonial Fiction (Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit Press, 1991), 18.

  Nyais ran the kitchens Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 67, citing Verbaal, 4 August 1913, no. 71, Exhibitum 24 February 1913, no. 111: 8, and no. 109, and Exhibitum 10 July 1916: 2.

  “walking dictionaries” Rob Niewenhuys, Leven tussen twee vaderland (Life between two fatherlands) (Amsterdam: De Engelbewaarder, 1982), 18–19.

  “And now, hurry up” H. Veersema, Delianen van de tafelronde (Deli tales around the table) (Medan: Kohler, 1936), 158, quoted in Clerkx and Wertheim, Deli, 31.

  if they became pregnant Madelon Székely-Lulofs, De Andere werelde (A different world) (Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1936), 103, 133–34, 296; and Rubber (London: Cassell, 1933), 9, 10. See also Székely, Tropic Fever, 206, 236–37.

  their mother had no further rights Anonymous, Een onderzoek, 15.

  “The nyai are numerous” Ibid., 5.

  overwhelming probability See, for example, such Dutch colonial literature as Louis Couperus, The Hidden Force (1900), trans. Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, in Fugitive Dreams: An Anthology of Dutch Colonial Literature, ed. E. M. Beekman (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988); P. A. Daum, Nummer Elf (Number Eleven) (1893; ’s Gravenhage: Thomas & Eras, 1981).

  “because of illness” and “promotion during leave” Stamboeken Officieren (Register of officers) 1814–1929, Inv. Nr. 624 (2.13.07), item 405, p. 110.

  prolonged periods of…convalescence See, e.g., Jacobs, “Neerlands,” 61.

  carried on a stretcher Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 13.

  Rudolf suffered from diabetes Erika Ostrovsky, Eye of the Dawn; The Rise and Fall of Mata Hari (New York: Dorset Press, 1978), 23.

  neither a reliable means of diagnosing Christine Ruggere, Institute of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, e-mail to author, 28 April 2005.

  usual nineteenth-century treatments C. Savona-Ventura, The History of Diabetes Mellitus: A Maltese Perspective (Malat: self-published, 2002), 6.

  provokes joint problems Jonathan Waltuck, “Rheumatic Manifestations of Diabetes Mellitus,” Bulletin of the Rheumatic Diseases 49, no. 5 (2000): 1–3.

  “Everyone, including the few” A. de Knecht–van Eekelen, “The Debate About Acclimatization in the Dutch East Indies (1840–1860),” in “Public Health Service in the Dutch East Indies,” Medical History, supp. 20: 70–85.

  early stages of syphilis Hayden, Pox, 319.

  W (wounded) and F (fever) A. H. M. Kerkhoff, “Organization,” 22; also J. van der Werff, “Beknopt overzicht der gescheidenis van der militair-geneeskundige dienst van het KNIL” (Brief historical survey of the military medical service in the KNIL), in Handboek voor den Officier van Gezondheid van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch-Indische Leger (Handbook for the Officer’s Health in the KNIL), vol. 1, ed. J. M. Elshout (Bandoeng: Vorkink, 1938), 25.

  the diseases that killed Peter Boomgaard, “Morbidity and Mortality in Java, 1820–1880: The Evidence of the Colonial Reports,” in Death and Disease in Southeast Asia: Explorations in Social, Medical and Demographic History, ed. Norman G. Owen (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987), 48–69.

  Malaria constituted 90 to 95 percent Peter Gardiner and Oey Mayling, “Morbidity and Mortality in Java, 1880–1949: The Evidence of the Colonial Reports,” in Owen, Death and Disease, 70–90.

  V (venereal), O (ophthalmic) Kerkhoff, “Organization,” 22; and van der Werff, “Beknopt,” 1, 25.

  Syphilis was the third most common John Ingleson, “Prostitution in Colonial Java,” in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Indonesia: Essays in Honor of Professor J. D. Legge, ed. David P. Chandler and M. C. Ricklefs (Clayton, Australia: Centre of Southeast Studies, Monash University, 1986), 123–40, citing Anonymous, Mededelingen, Burgelijk Geneeskundig Dienst van der Nederlandsch-Indië (Communications, Civil Medical Service of the Netherlands Indies), part 2, 1939: 99.

  alcoholism and venereal disease Ming, “Barracks-Concubinage,” 84, citing Verbaal, no. 89, Exhibitum 13 May 1902.

  Syphilis was “rampant” Boomgaard, “Morbidity,” 51–
52.

  twice as common in towns with Anonymous, Onderzoek naar de Mindere Welvaart der Inlandsche Bevolking op Java & Madoera (Study of the declining welfare of the native population on Java and Madoera), vol. 2 (Batavia: Drukkerij G. Kolff, 1912), 24.

  an average of 127 prostitutes G. H. Von Faber, Oud Soerabaia (Old Surabaya (Surabaya: Gemeente Surabaya, 1931), 246.

  an astonishing 29.4 to 35.9 percent J. F. H. Kohlbrugge, “Prostitutie in Nederlandsch Indië”(Prostitution in the Dutch Indies), Indisch Genootschap 19 (February 1901): 2–36; S. Weijl, and W. H. Boogaardt, Pro en contra: Het concubinaat in de Indische kazernes (Pro and con: Concubinage in the Indies barracks) (Baarn: Hollandia-Drukkerij, 1917), IX, no. 6.

  vitamin-deficiency disease Information from http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/hc/nutrition/nh1.html, accessed July 2005.

  determining the cause of beriberi Information from http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/vitamin_b1/eijkman.html, accessed 21 July 2005.

  mechanized rice processing Even after the publication of Eijkman’s work, there was considerable resistance to shifting back to unpolished rice and the problem persisted. See E. M. Beekman, “Alexander Cohen,” and “Bas Veth,” in Beekman, Fugitive Dreams, 182n20, 207. See also http://nobelprize.org/medicine/educational/vitamin_b1/eijkman.html, accessed 21 July 2005.

  a soldier’s soldier Waagenaar, Mata Hari, 13.

  always wore his uniform Sam Waagenaar, “Mata Hari as a Human Being,” ms., ca. 1927, Fries Museum, 5–6.

  told a salacious story Ibid., 5.

  She loved officers Philippe Collas, Mata Hari: Sa véritable histoire (Mata Hari: Her true story) (Paris: Plon, 2003), 306.

  Chapter 3 Object Matrimony

  In 1894, Lombok Information from M. C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1300, 2d ed. (Stanford, Calif .: Stanford University Press, 1993), 134–36; http://home.iae.nl/users/arcengel/NedIndie/lombokengels.htm; and http://www.aboutbaliisland.com/Article_Resources/endofkingdom.htm.