France: resistance fighter Adolfo Kaminsky, photographer and king of forgers, buried in Paris
Adolfo Kaminsky, poses in front of the “Lorillon” photographic chamber, on November 16, 2012 at his home in Paris.
AFP - JOEL SAGET
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The photographer Adolfo Kaminsky, a man of a thousand lives who was the "king of false papers" in the service of the Resistance and then of the anti-colonial movements, is buried on January 20 at Père-Lachaise in Paris.
He died on Monday 9 at the age of 97.
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Kaminsky was a "
humanist, photographer and French resistance fighter, specializing in the manufacture of false papers
", summarized Sarah Kaminsky, who had recounted the life of her father in the book
Adolfo Kaminsky, a forger's life
(Calmann-Levy 2009 editions) .
A Jew of Argentinian origin, Adolfo Kaminsky was a "
talented photographer (who) became a genius forger, supplying the Resistance and hunted Jews with false papers, before committing himself after the war to other causes
", hailed the Foundation for the memory of the Shoah.
From the Resistance to the anti-colonial movements, Adolfo Kaminsky was, in hiding, the provider of false papers for all the struggles of the 20th century.
Son of Jewish Russian immigrants, born in Buenos Aires before coming to France, he dreamed of being an artist-painter.
But at 17, he joined the Resistance in Paris, after leaving the Drancy internment camp.
He offers his knowledge of chemistry and photoengraving, useful for discoloring the inks that will be used to make false papers, in a clandestine laboratory, saving thousands of lives.
► Listen again:
Adolfo and Leïla Kaminsky
DISAPPEARANCE.
Adolfo Kaminsky, the "Forger of Paris" has died at the age of 97.
He was a photographer but also a genius forger who saved thousands of Jews from deportation by falsifying identity papers.
pic.twitter.com/Mtjbm0zQ7H
— INA.fr (@Inafr_officiel) January 10, 2023
"
I don't regret anything
"
The beginning of a rich three-decade career, risking his life and disregarding his health, under cover of an activity as a photographer, all that is most banal in his workshops in the Latin Quarter or the Path.
“
I had the chance to save human lives.
I worked day and night, under the microscope.
I lost an eye, but I have no regrets
, "said in 2012 to AFP the one who was then known under the pseudonym of "Mr. Joseph".
He worked for the French secret services until the capitulation of Nazi Germany, helping Jewish survivors of the death camps to emigrate to Palestine.
He then became a political forger by becoming the expert in false papers for all the anti-colonial and anti-fascist struggles: FLN network during the Algerian war, anti-Francoists in Spain, anti-Salazar in Portugal, fight against the colonels in Greece, Printemps de Prague, struggles against dictatorships in Latin America, ANC, Guinea, Angola, American deserters during the Vietnam War and even up to Daniel Cohn-Bendit in May 1968...
In 1971, he had put an end to his forgery activities.
His work as a photographer, with a humanism reminiscent of Doisneau, had been exhibited, notably at the Museum of Art and History of Judaism in 2019.
►
Also to listen
: Adolfo Kaminsky: the heroic forger (on France Culture)
(with
AFP
)
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