Hotel des Indes 2001 & Mata Hari one hundred years ago (15th of October 1917)

My first ever butler assignment came November 2001 at Hotel des Indes in The Hague (the Netherlands). I kept a box of matches as a Souvenir of this day.

I will always remember it.

In 2001 this Historic Hotel sounded very exotic to me with its French name, especially due to the fact that it refers to des Indes, India in French (or was it referring to Indonesia?)

The exotic didn’t stop there; once inside, photographs of a very special lady adorned the walls: Mata Hari! an exotic dancer that inflamed Europe Society for her Art. It was a special Art, she described herself as an “Exotic dancer”.

What the powers at war didn’t like was her freedom, especially the fact that she had lovers, officers from both the French and German Army.

In a parody of Justice, where she got convicted of being a spy, her life came to an abrupt end on that fateful day of October 15th 1917; that day she stood, dignified, in front of a French firing squad.

My feelings towards what I understand from this sad story is that one life, another one, was spent absurdly in vain to feed the ogre of war.

This happened precisely one hundred years ago. I felt compelled to write this note.

How could I forget my first butler assignment?

In Memoriam Margaretha Geertruida Grietje Zelle AKA Mata Hari 1876-1917

In the Early Hours of October 15, 1917, Mata Hari met her fate… link