Adolfo Kaminsky
| Aldolfo Kaminsky | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 1, 1925 Argentina |
| Occupation | Forger of documents |
Adolfo Kaminsky (or Adolphe; born 1 October 1925) is a former member of the French Resistance, specializing in the forgery of identity documents. During World War II, he forged papers that saved the lives of more than 10,000 Jews. He later went on to assist Jewish immigration to the British Mandate for Palestine and then to forge identity documents for the National Liberation Front and French draft dodgers during the Algerian War (1954–62). He forged papers for thirty years for different activist groups, mainly national liberation fronts, without ever claiming payment for it.
Kaminsky was born in Argentina to a Jewish family from Russia. In 1932, when Kaminsky was seven years old, he moved with his family to Paris, where his father worked as a tailor. From Paris the family moved in 1938 to Vire, Calvados, where his uncle was established. Adolfo worked in a dye shop, and became fascinated by the chemistry of colourants. He bought at that time a treatise from Marcellin Berthelot at a flea market. He later created his own lab at his uncle's house, and worked in a butter-shop as an assistant to a chemist who taught him the basics.
In 1940, after the German invasion of France, the family house in Vire was taken by the Germans and Kaminsky temporarily lived in another house, in which Michel Drucker's father was also hosted. His mother was killed by the Nazis in 1941. Aged 17, Adolfo Kaminsky entered the Resistance. At first he watched the railway station at Vire from where railcars of the Todt Organization, loaded with material for the Atlantic Wall, transited. He sent messages to London about these trains. However, in 1943 his family was interned in the camp of Drancy, as a prelude to deportation. Thanks to support from the Consul of Argentina, which had broken diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany under pressure from the United States, they were freed on 22 December 1943, and moved on to Paris.
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