‘ALL HUMANS ARE EQUAL’

Forger Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust Dies at 97

The Frenchman toiled for years in an underground laboratory in Nazi-occupied Paris that made or altered 10,000 documents to help Jews get to safety.

Adolfo Kaminsky, who forged birth certificates and other documents to save Jewish children from the death camps during the Holocaust, has died at age 97. The Frenchman toiled in an underground laboratory in Nazi-occupied Paris that, he told The New York Times, made or altered 10,000 documents to help Jews get to safety. After World War II ended, he continued to volunteer as a forger, helping insurgents across the globe and Americans trying to dodge the draft. “I saved lives because I can’t deal with unnecessary deaths — I just can’t,” he told the Times in 2016. “All humans are equal, whatever their origins, their beliefs, their skin color. There are no superiors, no inferiors. That is not acceptable for me.”