FIRST ENGLISH EDITION OF THE FRENCH BEST-SELLER
By Sarah Kaminsky
Translated by Mike Mitchell
Photographs by Adolfo Kaminsky
Hardcover and paperback. 256 pages with 28 illustrations. Ebook also available.
As seen on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper and in the Emmy-award-winning New York Times documentary, the gripping true story of a Jewish teenager who became "The Forger of Paris" for the French Resistance.
At the age of seventeen Adolfo Kaminsky had narrowly escaped deportation to Auschwitz and was recruited to join the Jewish underground. Due to his expert knowledge of dyes and an artistic, technical ability to reproduce official documents, he soon became the primary forger for the Resistance in Paris, creating papers that would save an estimated 14,000 Jewish men, women and children from certain death. Upon the Liberation and for the next twenty-five years, Kaminsky worked as a professional photographer. But, recognizing the fight for freedom had not ended with the defeat of the Nazis, and driven by his own harrowing experiences, he continued to secretly forge documents for activists, refugees, and pacifists throughout the world.
"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
"... has a thriller dimension that outshines even the best undercover fiction." —Jewish Book Council
"A triumphant wartime biography, full of heroism and near-alchemistic craftiness." —Foreword Reviews
Short documentary produced by The New York Times.
PRESS AND PRAISE
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."
– The Times Literary Supplement
Penned in unassuming, unembellished language, perhaps as discreet as Adolfo’s self-effacing personality, and rendered in a smooth translation by Mike Mitchell, […] Sarah Kaminsky dons her father’s persona seamlessly by transcribing Adolfo’s account to her in his own voice, so the book reads like a memoir. It is a powerful homage, written with a casual, if poignant, simplicity, often masking heartfelt conundrums.
– Jerusalem Post
An engrossing debut … Writing in Adolfo’s voice gives this suspenseful narrative candor and immediacy.
– Kirkus Reviews
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
Kaminsky’s story has received attention internationally including coverage from outlets in Italy, Brazil, Germany, Algeria, Spain, Israel and Argentina. View a selection of these articles.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Kaminsky is a screenwriter, author, and actor. Born in Algeria in 1979 to an Ashkenazi Jewish father from Argentina and a Tuareg Algerian mother, Kaminsky immigrated to France at the age of three. Her 2009 book about her father, Adolfo Kaminsky, has sold widely throughout the world and has been translated into ten languages, including English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Turkish, Hebrew, Chinese, and Arabic. Her screenplays and writing credits are numerous and noteworthy, including for recent films "The Braid" (2023) and "Farewell, Mr. Haffmann" (2021), which earned an Audience Award at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. She lives in Paris.
Watch Sarah Kaminsky’s talk at TEDx Paris
Published with support from the Centre National du Livre and from l’Institut Français.
