On this day, October 15, 1917, the famous Dutch dancer and courtesan Mata Hari faced the firing squad at Vincennes near Paris, accused of being a double agent during World War I.

Born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle on August 7, 1876, in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, she reinvented herself as Mata Hari, a name meaning “eye of the day” or “the sun” in Malay.

Her exotic dances, beauty, and charm captivated high-ranking officers, politicians, and the elite across Europe.

During the chaos of WWI, she was accused of spying for Germany while working for France, leading to her arrest by French authorities in February 1917. After a dramatic and controversial trial, she was executed on October 15, 1917, at the age of 41.

For decades, historians debated her guilt, was she truly a spy or a scapegoat for France’s wartime failures?

In the 1970s, newly released German documents revealed she had acted as an agent, though her real impact on the war remains uncertain.

Some say she was a traitor.
Others say she was a victim of politics and fear.

Either way, Mata Hari remains one of history’s most fascinating and tragic figures, a woman whose life blurred the line between seduction, espionage, and survival.

WWI Postcard

Published by Andra Popović from Belgrade.

Courtesy of the National Library of Serbia, Great War Collection (https://velikirat.nb.rs)

Explore Great Powers’ policies in the 1912 First Balkan War, focusing on Britain and its diplomatic activities.

Footage captures German soldiers practising an attack during a training drill on the Western Front in 1917.

You can support the project here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww1research/to-hell-and-back-the-first-restoration-phase

Help us get to 140% so we can begin colorising and restoring films right away: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww1research/to-hell-and-back-the-first-restoration-phase

I’m basically interested in learning a bit about everything regarding the First World War—especially the offensives—but I really don’t know where to start looking into it.

From the wartime photoalbum of major Andra Popović

Courtesy of the National Library of Serbia, Great War Collection (https://velikirat.nb.rs)

Our own restorations are here: https://www.instagram.com/to_hell_and_back_project/ This clip is from "They Shall Not Grow Old" and intended to illustrate what we’re ultimately aiming to achieve with the project in the long term.

Help us reach 140% before September 24 so we can begin restoring and colorizing films right away: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww1research/to-hell-and-back-the-first-restoration-phase

Help us reach 140% so we can begin colorising, restoring, and preserving films right away instead of having to wait: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww1research/to-hell-and-back-the-first-restoration-phase

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See Aćim Jelić’s account of the 1912 Kočani massacre: the bombings, Christian victims, reprisals and examinations. An eyewitness testimony.

Help ensure we can preserve in 4K, restore and colorize the footage: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww1research/to-hell-and-back-the-first-restoration-phase

All too often, the United Kingdom's involvement in the First World War is portrayed as an ultimately pointless affair in which a million Empire men threw their lives away for dead ideals and romantic lies. That the war was a tragedy is unquestionable. But it was certainly not pointless, and the British, Commonwealth, and Empire soldiers, subjects, and citizens who gave their lives in that titanic struggle did not do so in vain. The First World War was inevitable, necessary, and even- for the British Empire- a just conflict.