2RHPZ
11-19-2005, 06:08 AM
One of the most mysterious spy of the cold war was Erwin van Haarlem. Here is the only (reasonable) article (http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page70.html) I managed to Google. However, there are many mistakes inside. Today, Czech newspaper MFDnes published the article about him. His real name is Vaclav Jelinek. He lives in Prague, working in the Bank and he has published the book Czech spy - Erwin van Haarlem today written by Jaroslav Kmenta. This book reveals the real story. He was in fact an officer of the Czechoslovakian Military Intelligence Service (CMIS). The real Erwin van Haarelm was born by Dutch woman in 1944 (BTW, he was born the same day as Jelinek). The father was German soldier and thus his mother put him to the orphanage house in Teplice (at that time in Protektorate Bohmen und Mahre, now Czech republic) and he was adopted by another family right after the WWII. Therefore, this name was "free to use". Jelinek met this Dutch woman in 1978 ... and he continued to play his role so well that she belived that he is her real son for 10 years, unitl he was detained and DNA test proved the reverse.
In 1993 he went to hunger strike and was decided to die. The Chief of CMIS then, saved his life when unprecedently (besides the cold war was over and Czech were ally of UK already) gave an order to unclassify his real identity and the whole story to Brits. Then they released him from the prison.
This article is too long to translate it whole now, sorry. If anyone has some questions, post them here and I will try to find the answer in the book.
In 1993 he went to hunger strike and was decided to die. The Chief of CMIS then, saved his life when unprecedently (besides the cold war was over and Czech were ally of UK already) gave an order to unclassify his real identity and the whole story to Brits. Then they released him from the prison.
This article is too long to translate it whole now, sorry. If anyone has some questions, post them here and I will try to find the answer in the book.