The Hidden Life of a Forger

[mgc1961]

Life in the underground has left its mark on Adolfo Kaminsky. It's a summer day, and Kaminsky's daughter, Sarah, is wearing a light-pink flower in her hair as she leans out the kitchen window blowing cigarette smoke into the courtyard. Her father casts a skeptical, questioning look in her direction.

Back in the 1960s, a girlfriend left him because he disappeared every evening without explaining that he forged papers in his studio all night long. But now he's supposed to speak openly about his life as a forger, something he has always steadfastly refused to do. "Silence was always of the utmost importance," Kaminsky says. "One doesn't have the right to put other people's lives in danger."

Kaminsky forged his first passport at the tender age of 18. By the time he turned 20, he was working for secret agents; at 42, he was aiding revolutionaries. He has had too many aliases to remember. In fact, there were times when he'd change his name and address every three months. Though police around the world wanted to arrest him, they never tracked him down.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,782340,00.html

[roxiejules]

1. Risked his own life to save others from death

In the summer of 1944, "Penguin" -- Kaminsky's associate from La Sixième -- ordered papers for 300 children, including food stamps, birth and baptism certificates, and ID cards. He needed a total of 900 documents, all within three days' time. After working through two nights without sleep, Kaminsky passed out from exhaustion, leaving his friends to produce the rest.

Kaminsky later discovered that "Penguin" and a group of children had been deported to Auschwitz. "Neither he nor the children ever returned," he recounts in his daughter's book. To this day, Kaminsky doesn't know what happened. Was "Penguin" picked up carrying the forged papers? Was something wrong with the papers? Did someone tip off the police?