The Cold War spy who stole his identity from a missing baby…and fooled the boy’s real mum for a decade to escape justice
'Erwin van Haarlem' was eventually jailed for ten years for espionage
IN 1944, Johanna van Haarlem gave birth to a boy who she was ordered to give away by her father.
Johanna grew up in The Hague, Holland, and was 18 when she met her son's father - a 23-year-old Polish Nazi.
Four weeks after that initial meeting on a train the man raped her, with Johanna travelling to Czechoslovakia after the birth.
She tried to care for her little boy, called Erwin van Haarlem, but eventually took him to an orphanage in Prague. Johanna left him there and went back to Holland.
She was banned from talking about Erwin by her Jewish dad, who even destroyed the adoption papers.
Johanna didn't forget him though, and 33 years later she finally found him.
After enlisting the help of the Red Cross, Johanna was put in touch with Erwin - who invited her to meet him in London.
That happened on January 1 1978, with Johanna thrilled to finally be back in touch with her boy.
Later, Erwin met her whole family in Holland.
He bought his mum gifts, introduced her to his girlfriend and maintained a relationship with Johanna for a decade.
But all that changed in April 1988 when Erwin was arrested and revealed to be a Czech spy.
Worse? He was not Johanna's son.
"When we finally made eye contact I felt hurt," Johanna later said of his trial, which she testified at.
"I didn't see any sign of remorse, not a wink, no warmth, nothing."
The story of 'Erwin' begins on August 23 1944, when Vaclav Jelinek was born near Prague.
As a young man he did the required military service, eventually being singled out when he was found studying German.
The Cold War was intensifying, and Vaclav was recruited by the Czechoslovak secret State police to become a spy for the Soviets.
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He was deemed the perfect candidate because of brushes with violence, a love of women and his superior intelligence, so after training he was sent to work in the West.
But first Vaclav , reports BBC.
Agents came across Erwin van Haarlem, who was born just a day before Vaclav and had been taken to an orphanage. And so Vaclav became Erwin - this way of using another's identity was detailed in Frederick Forsyth's book The Day of the Jackal, which subsequently became a film.
He got a Dutch passport and then moved to London in 1975, where he started working at the Hilton Hotel.
His aim was to get intelligence on the Royal family, and he'd regularly talk to people back home on a radio.
All went well until 1977, when he got word that Erwin's mother, Johanna, was looking for her son.
He was ordered to pretend he was the real Erwin should she find him, which she did.
Even while building his relationship with Johanna, Vaclav maintained his role as a spy.
He got information on Jewish communities around the world, and he even visited a Polaris submarine base.
He moved a lot too, but Johanna just thought her son's career was going well - after all, his homes got bigger and more lavish.
Vaclav eventually quit work at the hotel and became an 'art dealer'... but it seemed people were on to him.
He had frequent visitors, and neighbours noticed 'morse code' signals on their TV.
Then, in April 1988, he was arrested following an operation by British forces.
He was unmasked as a Cold War spy by the anti-terror unit and went on trial, where the fact he'd used Johanna's son's identity was revealed.
Vaclav was jailed for ten years for espionage, where he became known as 'the spy with no name' - at that point no one knew who he really was.
He has told his story to author Jeff Maysh, who details it in his new book The Spy With No Name