Mizkreant,
What a fascinating story: I'll confess that I got caught up in this
little-known subject.
To set the stage, let's start with a quick review of Mata Hari's life.
Born in Holland in 1876, her maiden name was "Margarete Gertrude
Zelle" (or "Margaretha Geertruida Zelle"). She was also known by the
nicknames "M'greet" and "Gerda". Her father was a well-to-do hatmaker
who later lost his money in the stock market when Margarete was a
teenager.
After surviving a high school scandal, Margarete, 17, married Rudolph
MacLeod, 38, a Dutch military officer, in Holland on July 11, 1895. He
served at various times and places in the Dutch East Indies (today's
Indonesia). Their first child was a boy: Norman John MacLeod, born
January 30, 1897 (or possibly 1896) in Leeuwarden, Holland.
For a new military assignment, MacLeod moved his family to Abawara on
the island of Java (the second largest island in the Indonesian chain,
hosting the present city of Jakarta). The MacLeod's second child was a
girl: Jeanne Louise Macleod, born May 2, 1898. Her Malaysian nickname
was "Non".
The MacLeods moved to Sumatra where, tragically, both young children
were poisoned by persons unknown on the night of June 27, 1899. Norman
died, but Jeanne survived. The three remaining MacLeods went back to
Holland soon afterwards.
Their marriage failing, Rudolph & Margarete separated and finally
divorced in 1906. Margarete moved to Paris in 1905 and started her
exotic dancing career under the assumed name of "Mata Hari". With an
imaginative background story, and a costume that left little to the
imagination, she became an overnight sensation. She remained a
celebrated dancer for several years, then became a courtesan to the
rich and famous.
During World War I, Mata was suspected of being a spy due to her many
affairs with men in different countries. Recruited by the French to
spy on the Germans, her intrigues left many unsure of her actual
loyalties. She was finally arrested by the French, was convicted of
spying for the Germans, and was executed by a firing squad on October
15, 1917 in Vincennes, France.
Mata's daughter Jeanine died in 1919 at the age of 21 while planning a
voyage back to the Dutch East Indies. Traditionally, this is the end
of Mata Hari's story.
However, there have been rumors that Mata -- then Margarete -- had an
affair while she was in the Dutch East Indies which produced an
Eurasian daughter named "Banda". Ironically, Banda went on to suffer a
fate similar to that of her infamous mother:
About Spies
The Most Famous Woman Spy Ever?
http://www.nelsonthornes.co.uk/secondary/history/textbooks/spies/mata_hari.htm
"...some people claim that a Javanese woman called Banda was Mata
Hari's illegitimate daughter. She certainly had a more successful
spying career, and the same fate. She spied for the Japanese after
their invasion of Java in 1941, but was really an Allied double agent,
spied for Indonesian nationalists after the war, and then worked for
the Americans in North Korea in 1950 where she was recognised by a
Chinese paid Indonesian, was arrested and shot."
There is a 1973 book that mentions Banda Gertrude and her role as a
spy:
The Master Book of Spies
Donald McCormick
Hodder Causton Ltd. (1973)
A search on ABEBooks.Com (http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch)
lists 42 copies of this book available for $4.00 to about $29.00. You
may also be able to find it at a local libary.
Several paragraphs from the book can be read online:
How To Be A Spy
http://www.geocities.com/spy_grrl/reality.html
The lengthy quotes give some backgound information about "Banda
Gertrud". Here's a summary:
- A 1952 report (not referenced) says Banda was Mata Hari's
daughter.
- Banda thought of herself as Eurasian.
- She was 17 and living in Batavia, Java's capital when she learned
of her mother's execution. She then changed her name (see below).
- When Japan occupied Java in World War II, she became a spy for
the
Indonesian resistance and the Allies.
- After WWII, she married a Malaysian who believed in the Communist
fight for independence from British rule.
- She persuaded him the British were right and would support
Malaysian independence. They switched sides and gave
anti-communist
information to the British.
- Banda went to Washington and spoke in favor of the British fight
against Communism in Malaysia.
- During the Korean War, she went into North Korea on a spy
mission,
and like her famous mother over thity years earlier, was captured
and shot.
There also is an online Indonesian article about Mata Hari that
contains a shorter account. While the article is similar to Donald
McCormick's 1973 book, it gives several different names that Banda
Gertrude was also known by:
"Banda Gertrud" (without an "e")
"Banda MacLeod"
"Margarida Gertrud Zelle" (very similar to her mother's maiden
name)
"Wilhelmina Vandereen"
You can see the entire article here (in Indonesian):
Mata Hari, mata-mata penakluk lelaki
http://www.satulelaki.com/kehidupanmalam/0,4228,00.html
Banda's story is in the last four paragraphs. We can roughly translate
these Indonesian paragraphs into English using an online translator:
ArcNet Text Translation
http://sangenjaya.arc.net.my/sent/index-e.html
After editing the rough English translation and comparing it to what
we already know, Banda's story reads something like this:
"Several years after the death of Mata Hari, a woman named Banda
MacLeod, alias Margarida Gertrud Zelle, alias Banda Gertrud, alias
Wilhelmina Vandereen, takes revenge. The daughter of Mata Hari,
Margarida stays in Batavia [Java's capital city, now called Jakarta]
as a spy when Japan occupies Java [in World War II]. She listens
closely to whoever comes to her parties and passes this information on
to Indonesian resistance fighters and the Allies.
After WWII, Margarida falls in love with a Malaysian freedom fighter
named Sulaiman, who believes that the best way for Malaysia to gain
independence from Britain is by supporting the Communists. Margarida
convinces her husband that he is wrong and they later fight for
Malaysian independence by giving anti-communist information to
England.
She also goes to Washington and persuades the Americans that the war
in Malaysia is not merely about English oppression, and that
independence can be gained just as quickly by persuading Malaka
[Malaysia's capital city and government] to support England.
Her husband was eventually killed by Communists in Malaysia, and the
end of Margarida's life was not much different than her mother's. It
was reported that she was executed by a firing squad after being
caught during a mission."
Banda's life was largely overshadowed by that of her mother, and her
actions took place in a remote area of the World (at least to those of
us in the West). Consequently, there aren't that many references to
her on the Web.
There are two references to "Banda Gertrud" in newsgroup messages. One
of them mentions that Banda also had the name "Juana-Luisa", but I
think she is being confused with Mata Hari's first daughter, who died
in 1919.
The second newsgroup post states the following:
Subject: Re: Mata Hari-2 Clans???
Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=%22banda+gertrud%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=20010610150610.18944.00004377%40nso-fd.aol.com&rnum=2
"Factoid from the Whole Spy Catalog by Richard L. Knudsen: Mata
Hari's daughter was also executed for spying. The daughter changed her
name to Banda Gertrud. During WW2, she spied in Java and Malaysia.
Eventually she became a British supporter, and was shot for this in
Korea in 1952."
Here's the book reference mentioned in the post :
The Whole Spy Catalog: An Espionage Lover's Guide
Richard Knudson
The Saint Martin's Press, 1986
A search on ABEBooks.Com (http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch)
lists one copy for $6.50. Check your local libraries also.
"Banda Gertrud" is also mentioned in the following book:
The French Secret Service
Richard Deacon
Grafton Books, London 1990
ISBN# 0-586-20673-6
A search on ABEBooks.Com (http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch)
lists 8 copies ranging in price from $6.00 to $20.00. Check your local
libraries.
Although many results can be found for "Mata Hari" on the following
major book sites, there were no results for "Banda Gertrude" or "Banda
Gertrud":
ABE Books
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch
AddAll Book Search
http://www.addall.com/
Amazon Books
http://www.amazon.com
I also tried major library searches for books with title references to
"Banda Gertrude" or "Banda Gertrud", but had only minor success. These
searches included:
Library of Congress
http://catalog.loc.gov/
OCLC WorldCat*
http://www.oclc.org/firstsearch/
*NOTE: WorldCat is a worldwide database of library holdings that is
available through many public libraries. Check with your local library
to see if you can access it online.
"InfoTrac" is a set of Gale Group databases offered online or in-house
by many public libraries. A search on InfoTrac's "Biography and
Geneaology Master Index" did result in the following periodical
reference:
Gertrude Banda
1905?-1950
Biography Index.
A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines.
Volume 19: September, 1993 - August, 1994.
New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1994.
According to H.W. Wilson (www.hwwilson.com/newdds/wg.htm), Biography
Index "is a bibliographic database that cites biographical material
appearing in periodicals indexed in other Wilson Company databases and
additional selected periodicals, current books of individual and
collective biography, and incidental biographical material in
otherwise non-biographical books. Periodicals indexed are selected
from all subject areas represented by other Wilson Company databases.
Biographical subjects indexed range from antiquity to the present and
represent all fields and nationalities."
Sounds pretty thorough. They don't have references available online,
so you will need to check with your local library for a back copy of
the issue cited above.
Searches in InfoTrac's other databases, including "OneFile", "General
Reference Center Gold", "Expanded Academic ASAP", and "National
Newspaper Index" gave no results.
I also looked, without any success, in major biographical Web sites
including:
Biography Center
http://www.biography-center.com/
Biography.Com
http://www.biography.com/
Biographical Dictionary
http://www.s9.com/biography/
InfoPlease - Biography
http://www.infoplease.com/people.html
Lives
http://amillionlives.com/
Who2
http://www.who2.com/index.html
I even searched the CIA's Web site, but nothing. Of all people!
Banda Gertrud certainly was a brave woman: your question has helped
make us all aware of her unique life.
Thank you,
Huntsman
P.S. - "Banda" most likely took her name from a small group of islands
in an Indonesian sea of the same name. Also known as the the "Spice
Islands", they were colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century for the
production of nutmeg and mace. The islands' history, too, has been
marked by strife and war, right up to present times:
Bartleby.Com
The Columbia Encyclopedia
Banda Islands
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ba/BandaIsl.html
The Banda-Islands
http://home.planet.nl/~vdbroeke/bandar.htm
Spice Islands Archaeology Project
http://faculty.washington.edu/plape/intro.html
Additional References -
Mata Hara biographies and history:
The Crime Library
All About Mata Hari
http://www.crimelibrary.com/spies/mata_hari/
Espionage - Spy
http://www.angelfire.com/dc/1spy/Mata_Hari.html
FemBio
Mata Hari
http://www.fembio.org/women/mata-hari.shtml
Famous Females
Women in Espionage
http://famousfemales.tripod.com/6or.htm
Search Terms & Google Results -
While you originally suggested looking for the name "Banda Gertrude",
I came up with zero results, even on Google. However, a search for
"Banda Gertrud" (without the "e") was a little more productive, but
still only gave three relevant results.
"banda gertrude"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22banda+gertrude%22
"banda gertrud"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22banda+gertrud%22
"banda gertrud"
http://groups.google.com/groups?sourceid=navclient&q=%22banda+gertrud%22
"mata hari"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22mata+hari%22
"mata hari" daughter banda
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22mata+hari%22+daughter+banda |
,
0 Comments
)