Adolfo Kaminsky

Adolfo Kaminsky

Adolfo Kaminsky was born on October 1, 1925 in Buenos Aires, Argentina to a Russian Jewish Family.

In 1932, when he was 7 years old, his Family moved to Paris, France.

Adolpho worked at a Butter Factory as an Assistant to a Chemist and created his own Laboratory at home.

In 1940, the Nazis occupied France and the Germans took over Adolpho’s Family’s House.

His Mother was killed by the Germans in November 1940.

In 1942, at the age of 17, Adolpho joined the French Resistance.

He mainly watched German Train Movements and radioed the information to London.

In 1943 his Family (father, Sister and 2 Brothers) was interned at the Drancy Internment Camp and were about to be sent to the Auschwitz Death Camp in German-Occupied Poland when the Consul of Argentina in France got them released,

From December 1943 until the end of the War in May 1945 Adolpho worked as a Forger.

He created his own Laboratory (called the Kaminsky Lab) and learned the skills needed to create authentic-looking forged Identity Cards helping Jews and Non-Jews escape arrest and death by the Germans and their Vichy French Collaborators.

The Kaminsky Lab was the main producer of forged Identity Cards in all of northern France.

Kaminsky used to say: "Stay awake. As long as 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."

Over the course of the war, Kaminsky created Documents that saved the lives of 14,000 Jews and an untold number of Non-Jews.

After the Liberation of Paris in August 1944, he joined the French Army and marched to Germany.

 He was awarded the Médaille de la Résistance, and was engaged by the French Military Secret Services, who entrusted him with making false IDs for Spies sent behind enemy lines in order to investigate and detect the location of Concentration Camps before their dismantlement by the Nazis.

After the German Surender, he helped forge Documents for Jews attempting to immigrate to the British Mandate for Palestine (Israel) from 1946 to 1948, in defiance of British Anti-Semitic Immigration Restrictions,

Kaminsky subsequently lived for 10 years in Algiers, married a Tuareg Woman, and had five Children, including Hip-Hop Singer Rocé

In 1982 he moved back to France.

Adolpho Kaminsky died on January 9, 2023, at the age of 97.

He is buried in the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.