Project Witness The Forger
Kaminsky at his worktable with a pencil in his hand, as depicted in The Forger
Eighteen years old, at the table, with the work in front of him. As depicted in The Forger.
Grades 7-8

The
Forger

You will not read this all at once. You will move through it one picture, one decision, one question at a time.

Every step can read itself out loud. Press Listen whenever you want to hear a step again.

A German army truck and two German soldiers in a Paris street, seen from a window, as depicted in The Forger
A German army truck in the street below. Nazi Germany occupied Paris from June 1940 to August 1944. As depicted in The Forger.
Before we watch

Know what you are walking into.

The film runs 90 seconds. It shows a teenager in a Paris attic: chemistry on a table, ink coming off paper, documents made fast.

Nobody is hurt on screen. There is no blood and no violence to watch. The hard part is a thought, not a picture: a piece of arithmetic about sleep. The pictures are animated in 3D by a team of artists. They are not old photographs and they are not made by AI. If you need to step out of the room, you can. You do not owe anyone an explanation.

A wartime French identity card stamped with the word Juif
A real French identity card from the war, stamped JUIF. One word, printed in red, on the paper you had to carry.
Four words first

Four words you will need.

The short version is on each card. Tap a card and the longer version appears at the top of the screen.

Adolfo Kaminsky at 19, a photograph he took of himself
Adolfo KaminskyThe forger, age 18
Jewish children in Paris in 1942
The Three HundredChildren on the list
A figure standing in a dark doorway, as depicted in The Forger
The CourierA knock at the attic door
The cover of Sarah Kaminsky's 2009 book about her father
Sarah KaminskyHis daughter, 2009
A chain, not one hero

Start with people.

One teenager did the work at the table. Other people carried the papers across the city. Three hundred children used them. Sixty-five years later his daughter wrote the story down, and that is the only reason anyone knows it.

A document being held up and examined by a man in a dark coat, as depicted in The Forger
A card being checked. Every forged document had to survive a moment exactly like this one. As depicted in The Forger.
Predict

Why turn down the money?

Kaminsky was eighteen. He was hungry, he was hiding, and the Nazis would have shot him if they found him. He could have named any price. He never took a franc, not in 1944 and not for the rest of his life.

Why would somebody risking his life to make these papers refuse to be paid for them? What would money have changed about the work?

This video has the film's own sound. The Listen button above plays the lesson narration instead.

The film

Listen for the numbers.

Do not try to catch every fact. Catch the arithmetic. Thirty documents an hour. One hour of sleep, thirty people. That one calculation is the whole story.

Kaminsky bent close over his work by lamplight, as depicted in The Forger
Hours in, still at the table. As depicted in The Forger.
Pause

One word. No analysis yet.

Not a sentence. Not an opinion. Not something that has to sound smart. One word for what you are carrying right now.

Hands spread over a table covered in identity cards and ration cards, as depicted in The Forger
Identity cards, ration cards, official stamps. Every one had to look like a hundred others. As depicted in The Forger.
How it worked

A good forgery is a boring forgery.

He did not make dramatic papers. He made dull ones. Dull cards get waved through.

A tall stack of finished documents on the worktable, as depicted in The Forger
The stack, hours later. Nine hundred documents, made by one pair of hands. As depicted in The Forger.
His own words

The math is the hard part.

"It was a simple matter of arithmetic. In one hour I can make 30 blank documents. If I sleep for an hour, 30 people will die." Adolfo Kaminsky, recounting summer 1944
Adolfo Kaminsky in later life, standing beside a large-format camera in his apartment
Kaminsky in later life with a large-format camera. He made his living as a photographer and never took a franc for a forged document.
Your call

What did refusing mean?

He refused in 1944. He kept refusing for decades: papers for Algerian fighters, anti-apartheid activists, refugees. The film never says why.

Pick the answer you can defend.

A finished French identity card held up, stamps and fingerprints visible, as depicted in The Forger
A finished card. Stamps, fingerprints, a tax stamp worth ten francs, and a name that belonged to nobody. As depicted in The Forger.
Make something

Make a microstory.

Pick a real person whose everyday skill saved someone.

Put in

One real name. One ordinary skill used for a good reason. One real number that shows what it cost.

Leave out

Invented heroes. Words your person never said. Anything you added because it sounded good.

A card reading Adolfo Kaminsky, 1925 to 2023, from the closing of The Forger
He lived almost unknown until 2009, when his daughter published his story. He died in 2023, at ninety-seven.
Last step

What changed for you?

People like Kaminsky were rare. Most people in occupied Europe did nothing, and that is part of the truth too. Finish the sentences below and be specific enough that you would still know what you meant next week.

Before this film I thought saving people during the Holocaust meant ___. Now I know it could also mean ___. The hardest part of Kaminsky's story for me is ___ because ___.

If this one is hard to carry, tell a teacher, a counselor, or an adult you trust.