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'''Adolfo Kaminsky''' or '''Adolphe Kaminsky''' (born in [[Argentina]] on [[October 1]], [[1925]]) was a [[French Resistance|French Resistant]], specialized in the [[forgery |
'''Adolfo Kaminsky''' or '''Adolphe Kaminsky''' (born in [[Argentina]] on [[October 1]], [[1925]]) was a [[French Resistance|French Resistant]], specialized in the [[identity document forgery|forgery of identity document]]s who later went on to assist Jewish emigration to [[Israel]] and then for the [[National Liberation Front of Algeria|National Liberation Front]] and French [[draft dodger]]s during the [[Algerian War]] (1954-62). He forged papers for thirty years for different activist groups, mainly [[national liberation front]]s, without ever claiming money for it <ref>[http://www.la-bas.org/article.php3?id_article=1878 Adolfo Kaminsky, une vie de faussaire.]</ref>. |
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== Before the war == |
== Before the war == |
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Revision as of 16:38, 21 July 2010
Adolfo Kaminsky or Adolphe Kaminsky (born in Argentina on October 1, 1925) was a French Resistant, specialized in the forgery of identity documents who later went on to assist Jewish emigration to Israel and then 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 money for it [1].
Before the war
Born in Argentina in a Jewish family from Russia, his family moved to Paris in 1932 then to Vire, in the Calvados department, in 1939. He worked in a dye shop, being fascinated by chemistry of colourants. He later created his own lab and worked in a milkery as assistant of a chemist.
World War II
After the German invasion of France, in 1940, his mother was killed by the Nazis. Aged 17, Adolfo Kaminsky entered the Resistance. At first, he watched the train-station of Vire from where wagons of the Todt Organization, loaded of material for the Atlantic Wall, transited. He sent messages to London about these trains. However, his family was interned in the camp of Drancy, last stop before deportation, in 1943. Thanks to support from the Consul of Argentina, which country had broken diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany under pressure from the United States, they managed to be freed on 22 December 1943.
Adolfo then worked in an underground laboratory in Paris ( 17, rue des St Pères) where he passed the rest of the war forging identity papers for Jews and people searched by the Nazis. He met the network by going to search false ID for his father: the Resistant group, made up of Jewish people and called La Sixième, was having problems deleting Waterman blue ink stains on papers. Adolfo told them to use lactic acid, and thereafter joined the group, finally becoming responsible of the chemical forgery lab. They notably have to respond to the challenge of the invention of the watermark. Kaminsky also quickly learnt photogravure under a false pretext, and set up a new lab in order to created "real-false" documents. The Kaminsky Lab became the main producer of false ID for North of France and Benelux, although ties with other clandestine groups were discontinued, each group working as a cell.
He used to say: "Keep awake. The longer possible. Struggle against sleep. The calculation is easy. In one hour, I make 30 false papers. If I sleep one hour, 30 people will die.[2]."
After the Liberation of Paris (August 1944), he joined the French Army and marched to Germany. He was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance, and engaged by the French military secret services, whom charged him of making false ID for spies sent behind the lines in order to investigate and detect the location of concentration camps before their dismantlement by the Nazis.
After the war
After the German capitulation, he helped Jews to emigrate to Palestine from 1946 to 1948, at a time when the United Kingdom was imposing quotas limiting immigration (see also Aliyah Bet). After the foundation of Israel, he stopped this job, refusing a "religious state" endorsed by the Secular-religious Status quo giving an important role to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and became photographer.
He resigned from the military services at the beginning of the Indochina War, unwilling to collaborate in a colonial war. He thereafter continued to forge papers for various groups, working first with the National Liberation Front of Algeria and French draft dodgers by setting up a clandestine lab in Paris. He collaborated with the Jeanson network and Henri Curiel during the war.
Starting in 1963, he assisted various leftist movements from South America (Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Saint-Domingue, Haïti), Africa (Guinea-Bissau, Angola, South Africa) and from Portugal (then under Salazar's dictatorship) and Francoist Spain [3]. He trained a lot of people in forgery in order to support them in their struggle against dictatorships. He always worked for free, in order to be able to refuse a job if he didn't support the ideas - the only exception being during World War II, when the lab took up all his expenses in order to make him able to dedicate him full-time to this job.
He also supported the Greeks struggling against the regime of the Colonels, and made false ID papers for American draft dodgers during the Vietnam War. In 1968, he also made false ID for Daniel Cohn Bendit to allow him to speak at a meeting - he would later on say that this was the most mediatic and useless thing he did during his life, but that it was a nice pick at authorities whom wanted to stop ideas crossing borders [4].
He made his last false ID in 1971, putting an end to his career. He lived the rest of his life in Algiers, married with an Algerian woman. He has been awarded with the Croix du Combattant, the Croix de Combattant Volontaire de la Résistance and recently by the médaille de Vermeil de la ville de Paris for his acts during the Resistance.
Jacques Falck has made a documentary film on his life, named Foreign Identity. Kaminsky's son is a quite-known hip-hop singer, Rocé. Among other themes close to conscious hip hop, his lyrics highlight his various origins (Jewish, Argentinian, Russian, French, Algerian, muslim, etc.) and support peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, recall history of the US civil rights movement and of Black Power, sometimes not well known by French youth, and defends feminism.
His daughter, Sarah, is a comedian and writer, who wrote her father's biography, Adolfo Kaminsky, une vie de faussaire (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 2009).