Adolfo Kaminsky, the saviour fraudster, dies in January in Paris

Adolfo Kaminsky
Paris, France
16 November 2012
Image: Joel Saget, AFP

Adolfo Kaminsky was born on 1 October 1925 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. On 9 January 2023 he died in Paris, France aged 97. He had a long and very eventful life. So who was he? A very short version would be that he was a very talented forger and a skillful photographer with his unique style. That description would be accurate. It would also fall far short of the whole picture, pardon the pun.

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Second hand item vendor in Paris
1955
Image: Adolfo Kaminsky

Kaminsky's childhood and coming of age were affected by oppression and violence. His parents were Jews who had escaped the pogroms in the Tzarist Russia and made their way to Argentina. That was the reason why their son was born there in 1925. By the 1930's the family had moved to France where they were caught up in the German invasion as the World War 2 came to France. Young Adolfo was interred in a concentration camp for a time. After he came out, he discovered his skill at forging documents.

He had gone on to forge thousands of identity cards for Jews in France falsifying their names, national origin and record of ethnicity. That was a major part of his contribution to the French resistance which he had joined. His magic turned Jews from all over Europe who had sought refuge in France into locally born ethnic French people, as far as official records were concerned. On account of his forgery work Kaminsky is credited with saving thousands of lives.

The Forger

You can watch the video above detailing Kaminsky's incredible work. He was so committed to doing his best that he even lamented the need to sleep as he equated time he spent sleeping to failure to save lives. Sometimes, he had come close to being discovered which would have meant near certain death for him.

After the liberation of Paris Kaminsky had discovered photography where he had also excelled. But he had not given up forgery which he had used to further political causes he had believed in. These causes ranged from opposition to the US draft for the Vietnam War to the French was in Algeria. He had gone so far as to engage in massive production of fake French currency to undermine the country's economy. In a way, that is more controversial than his activities in the French resistance but one thing is clear - Kaminsky was a man of conscience who always put his conscience before the formal law. And that is exactly the right way to handle this potential tension, in this author's opinion.

Kaminsky left this world aged 97, leaving behind many children and grandchildren as well as countless descendants of all those he had saved. And he also exemplified true morality and courage. Because yes, when you live in a society where official institutions are corrupt it is reasonable to expect the laws of that society to also eventually become corrupt and sometimes even outright inhuman. And violation of those laws is not only permissible but sometimes a moral duty.