11. “The Robin Hood of False Papers” Helped Save Over 14,000 Jews From the Holocaust
Adolphe Kaminsky spent the rest of WWII working out of a secret Resistance laboratory in Paris. He specialized in forging identity papers for those on the run from the Nazis and in need of fake ID, particularly Jews. By the war’s end, he had produced fake documents that helped save over 14,000 Jewish men, women, and children, from the Holocaust. After the war, Adolphe worked as a professional photographer. He also continued his clandestine work as a master forger, lending his talents to disadvantaged peoples and liberation causes around the world.
He created documents for thousands of freedom fighters, such as the Algerian FLN, refugees, exiles, and pacifists. As the Jerusalem Post summed his career: “He grew to be a humanist forger, a utopian outlaw, the Robin Hood of false papers, preparing passports and identity cards for the world’s oppressed.” He continued forging until 1971, before moving to Algeria. He lived there for ten years, married a Tuareg woman, and had five children with her, including a well-known French hip-hop artist known as Roce.