Adolfo Kaminsky The Forger of Paris

"At a moment when someone’s passport, or religion, can still mean the difference between life and death, Mr. Kaminsky’s story remains painfully relevant, but inspiring." —Filmmakers Samantha Stark, Alexandra Garcia and Pamela Druckerman for The New York Times

"Ably translated, the prose carries the tension of a spy novel. […] Sights and smells of laboratories are vividly rendered, along with the nuances of photoengraving and careful interactions with strangers and colleagues. […] This is a fascinating tribute to a humanitarian and a glimpse at the nuts and bolts of covert operations." —Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

"He was a discreet hero. One of those who act in the shadows. An anonymous guardian angel [... doing] untiring work for freedom. ... Adolfo Kaminsky was also a remarkable photographer, ... wherever he went, he would try to find humanity, which puts him in the same rank as Sabine Weiss, Robert Doisneau, and Willy Ronis. In 2019 the Museum of Jewish Art and History devoted a remarkable exhibition to him, paying tribute to his photographic work." —Blind Magazine

"Kaminsky’s career as a forger is remarkable by any standard. He served almost every major revolutionary or subversive cause in the world from the upheavals of the 1940s until the end of the turbulent 1960s. […] He was driven by principles, took no payment for his work […] and kept his secret well until the new millennium. Only then did he decide to tell his incredible story, under the gentle prodding of his youngest daughter, actress Sarah Kaminsky. […] The result is a riveting book." —Haaretz

"Every resistance movement had its forgers,​ but few have told their tales. Many, like​ ​Kaminsky, were very young technicians and​ ​chemists when they began their work. Sarah​ ​Kaminsky's affectionate rendering of her​​ ​father’s life, with all the intricacies of his trade,​ ​is a book not just about a remarkable craftsman,​ ​but a man who strove to save 'every life​ ​that​ ​was​ ​in danger'​.​” —Times Literary Supplement

"Mr. Kaminsky was a self-taught master of forgery and lent his skills over the years to Algerians during their struggle for independence from France, to opponents of the fascist dictator Francisco Franco of Spain, to revolutionaries in Latin America, to anti-apartheid activists in South Africa and to American deserters during the Vietnam War. He sought no pay for his services; it was not money, he insisted, but rather principle that motivated his work, which he first undertook as a teenager in France. The Holocaust, he said, had taught him that 'on every document rests the life or death of a human being'.” —Washington Post