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, died Monday January 9 at the age of 97, his daughter announced to AFP.
Kaminsky was a “
French humanist, photographer and resistant, specializing in the manufacture of false papers
”, summed up Sarah Kaminsky, who had recounted the life of her father in the book “
Adolfo Kaminsky, a forger’s life
”.
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.
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Drancy internment camp
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.
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 don't regret anything
, ”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.
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He will then become 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-Franco 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 activities as counterfeiters .
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.