Adolfo Kaminsky, The Forger | 60 Minutes Archive

60 Minutes rewind it's well known the French government collaborated with the Nazis during World War II helping send tens of thousands of Jews to their deaths what's less well known are the heroic efforts by members of underground resistance groups to save Jews in France many of those who risked their lives are now gone or have been reluctant to share their stories tonight you'll hear from 92-year-old adalo k I who was a Jewish teenager when he joined the French Resistance he had a unique talent he' picked up while working at a dry cleaners an expertise that helped him become one of the greatest forgers in France during the war incredibly he and the resistance networks he worked with created fake identity documents that helped save the lives of as many as 14,000 Jewish men women and children June 1940 Hitler smashed through the West Western defenses and overran France Hitler's Army entered Paris with a massive show of force German troops marched past the arc to Triumph and raised the Nazi war flag over a stunned City Hitler personally attended the surrender ceremony the Nazis took control of Paris but relied on French authorities and police to begin to identify Jews and round them up as part of Hitler's Final Solution tens of thousands of Jews and others targeted by the Nazis in France were arrested and loaded onto trains Bound for aitz and other concentration camps French Resistance networks tried to save as many Jews as possible especially children giving them fake identity papers and smuggling them across the border or hiding them in farms schools and convents in France adalo Kaminsky was just 18 when he began to work as a forger for the resistance he finally we had to move very quickly and help these people disappear before they were arrested so it was just racing against the clock and actually I called it racing against death that's what you were doing yes day and night Kaminsky still has some of the fake documents he made identity cards passports food ration cards and birth and marriage certificates this is one that was fabricated this is one that was made for this person so this is this is your work that's all my work it's all false it's incredible we oh yes that's my writing everything Jewish sounding names had to be replaced with more French sounding ones and the word Jew had to be somehow erased wow look at that that's incredible what is that that is a real one that is a model we would use so this stamp this word was the difference between life and death for some people yes having Jew stamped on anything meant you were in danger two of the Jewish children who were saved by the resistance Network Kaminsky worked for are Edith mayor and Sarah Miller Edith was 15 when she was forced into hiding after her father and brother were sent to awit what sort of documents did you need in order to be able to live well in France at the time you you didn't you were nothing if you didn't have ID so I had to have a birth certificate and I had to have a c identity a p you know an identity card she showed us a copy of the fake birth certificate that saved her life they gave you a new name they gave me a new name so instead of edit may I became El May which sounds more French and my fake father was uh jul May and my fake mother was Elan Maria chauan it was critical that the papers be absolutely correct absolutely if the forger made made a mistake a mistake yeah you were done for Sarah Miller used her fake papers to get a job when she was 16 hiding in plain sight working as a sales girl in a store frequented by Nazi troops you were interacting with German soldiers all the time at work I will try I tried my best to speak as little as possible obviously if they had known you were Jewish believe me I would they would have come and picked me up and sent me to the camp that for sure but they didn't know when was the last time you came back here adalo Kaminsky took us to the street where he ran his secret lab right under the nose of the Nazis it was located in a narrow attic room in the center of Paris just blocks from the Cathedral of notredam there Kaminsky and three others use chemicals and other tools of the forging trade to create and alter documents all the while avoiding detection by pretending they were artists the neighbors thought we were painters we had paintings on the walls and paint brushes and all kinds of colors using everyday items like this sewing machine he still has he created perforations and stamps he salvaged metal from junk shops and used wood blocks and inks to create rubber stamps he also manufactured paper and reproduced watermarks letter heads and official signatures you can make the document and the signature but also the stamp and even the raised water mark oh yes of course and the pipe the pipe was to print with this so you would apply the ink and you would put a piece of paper there and and you rub and then there you go and just do this it was perfect his secret lab would become one of the biggest suppliers of forg documents for Jews in France producing he says as many as 500 a week one of the people who worked with him is 93-year-old Susie shidlo we met her in a small town near Bordeaux where she has an art studio was he a great forger he did incredible things he had a sort of Genius first to find very very simple answers to to problems and and also to learn things that other people learned years to learn it in a few in a few days shidlo was 19 years old and a fine art student when she joined the resistance with her sister Hera she says they spent such long hours in the clandestine lab with Kaminsky that she often fell asleep at her workstation in the lab what was your job everything which has to do with drawing with imitating handwriting she also Drew stamps or in many cases partial stamps because they looked more realistic like somebody had just stamped quickly that sounds difficult no it's uh it's it's art it's amazing when you think back to how young you all were and How brave I think it's it's much easier not to be afraid when you are very young they all knew the risks but sidoff says Kaminsky in particular was determined to take them it so fits with his character he could not stand people being uh oppressed and not being free and false papers give you the freedom no body knew that better than adalo Kaminsky when he was 18 his family was arrested and sent here to drony a concentration camp in the suburbs of Paris miraculously after 3 months they were released though they were Jewish they had Argentinian citizenship and at the time Argentina was neutral in the war but in drony adala witnessed countless others being put on trains and sent to aitz for three months every week I saw a thousand people be deported it was horrible suffering when you saw people going onto trains did you know what it meant we want yes we knew in fact everyone knew deep down there were some people who didn't want to believe it but everyone knew there was just a huge unimaginable quantity of people murdered were there German soldiers everywhere after being released from drony kaminsky's father decided the family should split up and adopt false identities he sent to Alo to pick up their new papers from a member of the resistance that fateful meeting took place here in front of the sbon University when the man from the resistance learned that Kaminsky had worked at a dry cleaners and knew how to remove stains he got excited and he said Dry Cleaner do you know how to work with colors and do you know how to bleach ink and I said yes the resistants had been desperately trying to figure out how to to erase a permanent blue ink from official documents Kaminsky knew the chemical that could do the trick lactic acid when you realize lactic acid could work to remove this blue ink how important was that it was very important because that enabled us to use existing identity documents existing papers that were real and you could erase things from them without leaving any trace it was at that meeting that a Kaminsky decided to join the resistance when he asked you to join you weren't frightened afraid of what afraid of what the risk was the same if you did nothing so at least working in the resistance I could fight I was fighting for Humanity the story will continue after this when you realize what he had done during World War II what did you think I I was amazed I I was a ma I didn't understand why he didn't want to talk about it kaminsky's daughter Sarah says she first heard about her father's heroic work when she was in high school but it took years before he could talk with her about the horrors of the occupation and the memories of trying to save people from being deported to concentration camps he still feels guilty that he survived and the others didn't yes couldn't have saved so many people I wouldn't have survived myself most of my friends who were survivors ended up committing suicide it's just really tough so many people were treated like animals with no respect it's just really hard to Bear by Saving others you saved yourself absolutely absolutely Sarah Kaminsky wrote a book about her father and they share his story with high school students throughout France do you feel like you know your father now I do no yes yes I do and you're proud of him I'm very proud of him very I I I'm always asking myself what would I have done if you were in his shoes yes I'm sure that I I I would not have had his courage there's not many people who would have yeah I'm I'm sure of that what I like in the history is that a few people can make a difference in front of big armies uh so it gives a lot of hope I think in all 76,000 Jews in France were sent to death camps during the war only about 2500 of them survived Edith mayor and Sarah Miller who went into hiding eventually were smuggled into Switzerland to this day they don't know if it was adalo Kaminsky or one of his colleagues who made their false papers what would you say to adalo Kaminsky or to the other forgers they have my eternal gratitude they saved your life absolutely absolutely without papers you were as good as dead absolutely I agree with that to save my life Kaminsky was awarded the medal of the resistance after the war along with a stack of other medals but he doesn't like to display them he keeps them in a suitcase under his bed that's a big one yes gryl they say I saved how many people was it 1500 3,000 Jewish children you never take them out even to look at them no no you know I've seen them they don't change were you one of the best [Music] forgers now I'm nobody but I think I was able to meet the challenge I did what I had to when I had to and I was lucky to be able to do it

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 161,748

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, WWII, anderson cooper, adolfo kaminsky, french resistance

Id: MB2F6SvVjN0

Length: 13min 10sec (790 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 26 2024