ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sarah Kaminsky - Actor and writer
Sarah Kaminsky writes about her father, Adolfo Kaminsky, a forger with a mission.

Why you should listen

Born in 1979 in Algeria, of an Argentinean father with Russian origins, and a Tuareg Algerian mother, Sarah Kaminsky arrived in France when she was 3 years old. Passionate about art since her childhood, she started learning the cello at age 4. As a teenager, she discovered two passions, which are still vibrant in her life: theater and writing. Since then, she's shared her time between her acting career and writing screenplays, plays or books.

In 2009, Sarah wrote a book worthy of the best spy novels, based on the true story of her father, Adolfo Kaminsky, genius-forger who committed his know-how and convictions to serve the French Resistance during World War II, saving thousands of Jewish families, and many others over the course of 30 years for various causes around the world.

More profile about the speaker
Sarah Kaminsky | Speaker | TED.com
TEDxParis 2010

Sarah Kaminsky: My father the forger

Sarah Kaminsky: Meu pai, o falsário

Filmed:
660,630 views

Sarah Kaminsky conta a extraordinária história de seu pai, Adolfo, e suas façanhas durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial; usando sua engenhosidade e talento para falsificar documentos e salvar vidas.
- Actor and writer
Sarah Kaminsky writes about her father, Adolfo Kaminsky, a forger with a mission. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:16
I am the daughter of a forger,
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Eu sou filha de um falsário,
00:19
not just any forger ...
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não apenas qualquer falsário...
00:21
When you hear the word "forger," you often understand "mercenary."
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Quando se ouve a palavra "falsário", normalmente entende-se "mercenário".
00:24
You understand "forged currency," "forged pictures."
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Entende-se "notas falsas", "fotos falsas".
00:28
My father is no such man.
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Meu pai não é tal homem.
00:30
For 30 years of his life,
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Por 30 anos de sua vida,
00:31
he made false papers --
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ele falsificou documentos.
00:34
never for himself, always for other people,
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Nunca para si mesmo, sempre para os outros,
00:36
and to come to the aid of the persecuted and the oppressed.
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e para ajudar os perseguidos e oprimidos.
00:40
Let me introduce him.
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Permita-me apresentá-lo.
00:42
Here is my father at age 19.
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Este é meu pai aos 19 anos de idade.
00:45
It all began for him during World War II,
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Tudo começou durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial,
00:49
when at age 17 he found himself thrust
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quando aos 17 anos de idade ele encontrava-se
00:51
into a forged documents workshop.
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numa fábrica de documentos falsos.
00:53
He quickly became the false papers expert of the Resistance.
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Ele rapidamente se tornou o expert em documentos falsos da Resistência.
00:57
And it's not a banal story --
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E esta não é uma história banal.
00:59
after the liberation he continued
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Depois da liberação, ele continuou
01:02
to make false papers until the '70s.
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a produzir documentos falsos até os anos 70.
01:05
When I was a child
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Quando eu era criança,
01:07
I knew nothing about this, of course.
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não fazia a mínima ideia disso, é claro.
01:09
This is me in the middle making faces.
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Esta sou eu, no meio, fazendo caras.
01:11
I grew up in the Paris suburbs
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Cresci no subúrbio de Paris
01:14
and I was the youngest of three children.
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e era a mais nova de três filhos.
01:18
I had a "normal" dad like everybody else,
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Eu tinha um pai "normal", como todo mundo,
01:20
apart from the fact that he was 30 years older than ...
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sem falar no fato que ele era 30 anos mais velho que ...
01:22
well, he was basically old enough to be my grandfather.
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enfim, ele tinha idade suficiente para ser meu avô.
01:26
Anyway, he was a photographer and a street educator,
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De qualquer forma, ele era um fotógrafo e um educador,
01:29
and he always taught us to obey the law very strictly.
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e sempre nos ensinou a obedecer estritamente as leis.
01:33
And, of course, he never talked about his past life
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E, é claro, ele nunca falava sobre sua vida passada,
01:35
when he was a forger.
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quando ele era um falsário.
01:37
There was, however, an incident I'm going to tell you about,
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Aconteceu, porém, um incidente sobre o qual vou lhes contar agora,
01:40
that perhaps could have led me suspect something.
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que talvez deveria ter-me feito desconfiar de algo.
01:43
I was in high school and got a bad grade,
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Eu estava no Ensino Médio e tirei uma nota baixa,
01:46
a rare event for me,
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um evento raro para mim,
01:48
so I decided to hide it from my parents.
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então eu decidi esconder o fato dos meus pais.
01:51
In order to do that, I set out to forge their signature.
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Para fazer isso, eu decidi falsificar suas assinaturas.
01:54
I started working on my mother's signature,
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Comecei com a assinatura da minha mãe,
01:58
because my father's is absolutely impossible to forge.
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porque a do meu pai era absolutamente impossível de falsificar.
02:00
So, I got working. I took some sheets of paper
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Então, comecei o trabalho. Peguei algumas folhas de papel
02:03
and started practicing, practicing, practicing,
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e comecei a praticar, praticar, praticar,
02:06
until I reached what I thought was a steady hand,
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até conseguir firmar bem a mão,
02:08
and went into action.
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e entrei em ação.
02:10
Later, while checking my school bag,
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Depois, quando estava checando minha mochila,
02:12
my mother got hold of my school assignment and immediately saw that the signature was forged.
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minha mãe pegou meu dever de casa e imediatamente viu que a assinatura era falsa.
02:16
She yelled at me like she never had before.
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Era gritou comigo como nunca havia feito antes.
02:18
I went to hide in my bedroom, under the blankets,
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Eu fui me esconder no meu quarto, embaixo das cobertas,
02:21
and then I waited for my father to come back from work
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e esperei meu pai voltar do trabalho
02:24
with, one could say, much apprehension.
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com, pode-se dizer, muita apreensão.
02:26
I heard him come in.
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Eu o ouvi entrando.
02:28
I remained under the blankets. He entered my room,
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Permaneci embaixo das cobertas. Ele entrou no meu quarto,
02:31
sat on the corner of the bed,
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sentou no canto da cama.
02:33
and he was silent, so I pulled the blanket from my head,
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Ele estava calado, então eu puxei o cobertor da minha cabeça
02:36
and when he saw me he started laughing.
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e quando ele me viu, pôs-se a rir.
02:39
He was laughing so hard, he could not stop and he was holding my assignment in his hand.
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Ele estava rindo tanto, que não conseguia parar. Ele estava segurando minha tarefa.
02:42
Then he said, "But really, Sarah, you could have worked harder! Can't you see it's really too small?"
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Então disse, "Mas sério, Sarah, você poderia ter feito um trabalho melhor! Não vê que ela é muito pequena?"
02:47
Indeed, it's rather small.
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De fato, é bem pequena.
02:52
I was born in Algeria.
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Eu nasci na Argélia.
02:54
There I would hear people say my father was a "moudjahid"
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Lá eu ouvia as pessoas dizerem que meu pai era um "moudjahid",
02:58
and that means "fighter."
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que significa "lutador".
02:59
Later on, in France, I loved eavesdropping on grownups' conversations,
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Mais tarde, na França, eu adorava escutar as conversas dos adultos
03:03
and I would hear all sorts of stories about my father's previous life,
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e ouvia todo tipo de histórias sobre o passado do meu pai,
03:06
especially that he had "done" World War II,
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especialmente que ele havia "participado" da Segunda Guerra Mundial,
03:09
that he had "done" the Algerian war.
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que ele havia "participado" da guerra da Argélia.
03:11
And in my head I would be thinking that "doing" a war meant being a soldier.
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E, na minha cabeça, pensava que "participar" de uma guerra significava ter sido um soldado.
03:14
But knowing my father, and how he kept saying that he was a pacifist and non-violent,
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Mas, conhecendo meu pai, e como ele falava que era um pacifista e contra violência,
03:18
I found it very hard to picture him with a helmet and gun.
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eu não conseguia imaginar meu pai de capacete e fuzil.
03:21
And indeed, I was very far from the mark.
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E, de fato, eu estava completamente errada.
03:23
One day, while my father was working on a file
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Um dia meu pai estava preparando a documentação
03:27
for us to obtain French nationality,
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para que obtivéssemos a nacionalidade francesa.
03:30
I happened to see some documents
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Eu vi alguns dos documentos
03:32
that caught my attention.
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que chamaram a minha atenção.
03:34
These are real!
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Estes são os verdadeiros!
03:36
These are mine, I was born an Argentinean.
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Estes são meus, eu nasci na Argentina!
03:39
But the document I happened to see
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Mas o documento que vi
03:40
that would help us build a case for the authorities
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que ajudaria nosso processo com as autoridades
03:42
was a document from the army
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era um documento do exército
03:45
that thanked my father for his work
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que agradecia meu pai pelo seu trabalho
03:48
on behalf of the secret services.
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para o serviço secreto.
03:50
And then, suddenly, I went "wow!"
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E, imediatamente, eu me espantei!
03:53
My father, a secret agent?
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Meu pai, um agente secreto?!
03:55
It was very James Bond.
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Era como o James Bond, enfim...
03:57
I wanted to ask him questions, which he didn't answer.
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Eu queira perguntar, mas ele nunca dava pistas.
04:02
And later, I told myself that
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E depois eu cheguei a conclusão
04:05
one day I would have to question him.
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que um dia teria de questioná-lo.
04:07
And then I became a mother and had a son,
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E depois eu tive um filho,
04:10
and finally decided it was time -- that he absolutely had to talk to us.
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e finalmente decidi que era tempo, que ele teria de nos contar.
04:13
I had become a mother
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Eu me tornara mãe
04:15
and he was celebrating his 77th birthday,
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e ele estava celebrando 77 anos
04:17
and suddenly I was very, very afraid.
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e, de repente, eu estava com muito, muito medo.
04:19
I feared he'd go
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Eu temia que ele se fosse
04:21
and take his silences with him,
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e levasse consigo o seu silêncio,
04:23
and take his secrets with him.
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e levasse consigo seus segredos.
04:25
I managed to convince him that it was important for us,
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Eu consegui convencê-lo que isto era importante para nós,
04:28
but possibly also for other people
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mas possivelmente para outras pessoas também,
04:29
that he shared his story.
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que ele compartilhasse sua história.
04:31
He decided to tell it to me
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Ele decidiu me contar
04:33
and I made a book,
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e escrevi um livro,
04:34
from which I'm going to read you some excerpts later.
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do qual vou ler algumas partes daqui a pouco.
04:37
So, his story. My father was born in Argentina.
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Então, a história dele. Meu pai nasceu na Argentina.
04:40
His parents were of Russian descent.
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Seus pais eram de origem russa.
04:42
The whole family came to settle in France in the '30s.
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A família inteira veio para a França na década de 30.
04:46
His parents were Jewish, Russian and above all, very poor.
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Seus pais eram judeus, russos e, acima de tudo, muito pobres.
04:50
So at the age of 14 my father had to work.
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De forma que com 14 anos meu pai teve de trabalhar.
04:53
And with his only diploma,
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E com o único diploma que tinha,
04:55
his primary education certificate,
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seu certificado de ensino fundamental,
04:56
he found himself working at a dyer - dry cleaner.
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ele conseguiu emprego como tintureiro.
04:58
That's where he discovered something totally magical,
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Foi lá que ele descobriu algo totalmente mágico,
05:02
and when he talks about it, it's fascinating --
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e quando ele fala sobre isso, é fascinante.
05:03
it's the magic of dyeing chemistry.
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É a mágica da química da tintura.
05:06
During that time the war was happening
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Enquanto a guerra acontecia
05:08
and his mother was killed when he was 15.
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sua mãe foi morta quando ele tinha 15 anos.
05:11
This coincided with the time when
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Isto coincidiu com o tempo em que ele
05:13
he threw himself body and soul into chemistry
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embarcou de corpo e alma na química,
05:15
because it was the only consolation for his sadness.
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pois este era o único consolo para a sua tristeza.
05:18
All day he would ask many questions to his boss
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Ele perguntava o tempo todo pro seu chefe muitas coisas,
05:22
to learn, to accumulate more and more knowledge,
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para aprender, para acumular mais e mais conhecimento,
05:24
and at night, when no one was looking,
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e, de noite, quando ninguém estava olhando,
05:26
he'd put his experience to practice.
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ele botava em prática sua experiência.
05:28
He was mostly interested in ink bleaching.
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Ele se interessava mais por descoloração de tintas.
05:33
All this to tell you
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Tudo isso para contar-lhes
05:35
that if my father became a forger, actually,
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que meu pai se tornou um falsário, na verdade,
05:38
it was almost by accident.
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quase que por acidente.
05:40
His family was Jewish, so they were hounded.
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Sua família era judia, então eles foram perseguidos.
05:42
Finally they were all arrested and taken to the Drancy camp
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Finalmente eles todos foram presos e levados pro campo de Drancy
05:45
and they managed to get out at the last minute thanks to their Argentinean papers.
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e conseguiram sair no último minuto por causa dos documentos argentinos.
05:49
Well, they were out,
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Bem, foram soltos,
05:50
but they were always in danger. The big "Jew" stamp was still on their papers.
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mas sempre estavam em perigo. Sempre havia o enorme carimbo de "judeu" em seus documentos.
05:53
It was my grandfather who decided they needed false documents.
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Foi meu avô que decidiu que eles precisavam de documentos falsos.
05:56
My father had been instilled with such respect for the law
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Meu pai tinha tanto respeito pela lei
05:59
that although he was being persecuted,
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que muito embora ele estivesse sendo perseguido,
06:01
he'd never thought of false papers.
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ele nunca pensou em falsificar documentos.
06:03
But it was he who went to meet a man from the Resistance.
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Mas foi ele quem encontrou-se com um homem da Resistência.
06:06
In those times documents had hard covers,
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Naquela época, documentos tinham capas duras,
06:09
they were filled in by hand,
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eles eram preenchidos a mão
06:10
and they stated your job.
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e constava sua profissão.
06:13
In order to survive, he needed
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Para sobreviver, ele precisava
06:16
to be working. He asked the man
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trabalhar. Ele pediu ao homem
06:18
to write "dyer."
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para escrever "tintureiro".
06:19
Suddenly the man looked very, very interested.
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De repente, o homem ficou muito muito interessado.
06:22
As a "dyer," do you know how to bleach ink marks?
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Como assim "tintureiro", você sabe como apagar tintas?
06:26
Of course he knew.
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Claro que ele sabia.
06:28
And suddenly the man started explaining that
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E logo o homem explicou que
06:30
actually the whole Resistance had a huge problem:
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de fato a Resistência inteira tinha um problema enorme:
06:32
even the top experts
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mesmo os melhores experts
06:35
could not manage to bleach an ink, called "indelible,"
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não tinham conseguido apagar uma tinta chamada "permanente"
06:39
the "Waterman" blue ink.
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a tinta da "Mancha d'água" azul.
06:41
And my father immediately replied that he knew exactly
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E imediatamente meu pai respondeu que sabia exatamente
06:45
how to bleach it.
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como apagá-la.
06:46
Now, of course, the man was very impressed with this young man of 17
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Agora, é claro, o homem estava impressionado com aquele jovem de 17 anos
06:49
who could immediately give him the formula, so he recruited him.
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que poderia imediatamente dar a fórmula, então o recrutou.
06:53
And actually, without knowing it, my father had invented something
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E, de fato, sem saber, meu pai inventou algo que
06:56
we can find in every schoolchild's pencil case:
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podemos encontrar em todo estojo de criança:
06:59
the so-called "correction pen."
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o "corretivo".
07:02
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
07:07
But it was only the beginning.
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Mas isto era apenas o começo.
07:09
That's my father.
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Este é o meu pai.
07:10
As soon as he got to the lab,
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Logo que chegou ao laboratório,
07:12
even though he was the youngest,
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embora ele fosse o mais novo,
07:13
he immediately saw that there was a problem with the making of forged documents.
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ele imediatamente viu que existia um problema em falsificar documentos.
07:16
All the movements stopped at falsifying.
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Tudo se limitava a falsificar.
07:19
But demand was ever-growing
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Mas a demanda só crescia
07:22
and it was difficult to tamper with existing documents.
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e era difícil alterar os documentos existentes.
07:24
He told himself it was necessary to make them from scratch.
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Ele então decidiu que era necessário confeccioná-los.
07:26
He started a press. He started photoengraving.
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Começou a imprimir. Começou a trabalhar com fotografia.
07:29
He started making rubber stamps.
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Começou a fazer selos.
07:30
He started inventing all kind of things --
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Inventou todo tipo de coisa,
07:32
with some materials he invented a centrifuge using a bicycle wheel.
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com alguns materiais, ele inventou uma centrífuga usando uma roda de bicicleta.
07:35
Anyway, he had to do all this
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De qualquer forma, ele teve de fazer isso tudo
07:37
because he was completely obsessed with output.
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porque ele era completamente obcecado com o resultado.
07:40
He had made a simple calculation:
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Ele fez um cálculo simples:
07:42
In one hour he could make 30 forged documents.
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Ele falsificava 30 documentos em uma hora.
07:46
If he slept one hour, 30 people would die.
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Se ele dormisse uma hora, 30 pessoas morriam.
07:50
This sense of
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Este senso de
07:53
responsibility for other people's lives when he was just 17 --
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responsabilidade pela vida de outras pessoas, quando ele ainda tinha 17 anos,
07:56
and also his guilt for being a survivor,
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e também sua culpa por ser um sobrevivente,
07:59
since he had escaped the camp when his friends had not --
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já que havia escapado do campo quando seus amigos não haviam,
08:03
stayed with him all his life.
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ficou consigo sua vida inteira.
08:05
And this is maybe what explains why, for 30 years,
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E talvez isso explique porque, por 30 anos,
08:08
he continued to make false papers
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ele continuou a falsificar documentos
08:11
at the expense of all kinds of sacrifices.
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a preço de todo tipo de sacrifício.
08:13
I'd like to talk about those sacrifices,
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Eu gostaria de falar sobre estes sacrifícios,
08:14
because there were many.
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pois foram muitos.
08:16
There were obviously financial sacrifices
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Claro que houve sacrifícios financeiros,
08:18
because he always refused to be paid.
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pois ele sempre se recusou a ser pago.
08:20
To him, being paid would have meant being a mercenary.
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Para ele, ser pago significava ser um mercenário.
08:23
If he had accepted payment,
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Se aceitasse pagamento,
08:24
he wouldn't be able to say "yes" or "no"
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ele não seria capaz de dizer "sim" ou "não"
08:26
depending on what he deemed a just or unjust cause.
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dependendo no que ele julgasse ser um caso justo ou não.
08:28
So he was a photographer by day,
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Ele foi um fotógrafo durante o dia,
08:30
and a forger by night for 30 years.
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e um falsário durante a noite, por 30 anos.
08:32
He was broke all of the time.
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Ele estava na pior o tempo todo.
08:34
Then there were the emotional sacrifices:
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E também havia os sacrifícios emocionais:
08:37
How can one live with a woman while having so many secrets?
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Como alguém podia viver com uma mulher tendo tantos segredos?
08:40
How can one explain what one does at night in the lab, every single night?
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Como se pode explicar o que se faz no laboratório, todo santo dia?
08:44
Of course, there was another kind of sacrifice
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É claro, existia um outro tipo de sacrifício
08:47
involving his family that I understood much later.
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envolvendo sua família, que eu entendi bem mais tarde.
08:51
One day my father introduced me to my sister.
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Um dia meu pai me apresentou à minha irmã.
08:54
He also explained to me that I had a brother, too,
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Ele também explicou que eu tinha um irmão
08:58
and the first time I saw them I must have been three or four,
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e a primeira vez que eu os vi, eu devia ter três ou quatro anos de idade,
09:04
and they were 30 years older than me.
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e eles eram 30 anos mais velhos que eu.
09:06
They are both in their sixties now.
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Ambos estão com sessenta e poucos anos agora.
09:11
In order to write the book,
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Para escrever o livro,
09:14
I asked my sister questions. I wanted to know who my father was,
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eu interroguei a minha irmã. Eu queria saber quem meu pai era,
09:17
who was the father she had known.
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quem era o pai que ela conhecia.
09:19
She explained that the father that she'd had
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Ela me explicou que o pai que ela tinha tido
09:23
would tell them he'd come and pick them up on Sunday to go for a walk.
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lhes dizia que viria pegá-los no domingo para um passeio.
09:27
They would get all dressed up and wait for him,
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Eles se vestiam e esperavam por ele,
09:30
but he would almost never come.
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mas ele quase nunca vinha.
09:32
He'd say, "I'll call." He wouldn't call.
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Ele dizia, "Ligarei." Nunca ligava.
09:35
And then he would not come.
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E depois ele não vinha.
09:37
Then one day he totally disappeared.
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Então um dia ele desapareceu completamente.
09:40
Time passed,
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O tempo passou
09:42
and they thought he had surely forgotten them,
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e eles achavam que ele os havia esquecido,
09:45
at first.
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inicialmente.
09:46
Then as time passed,
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Depois o tempo passou
09:48
at the end of almost two years, they thought,
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e ao fim de dois anos, eles imaginaram,
09:50
"Well, perhaps our father has died."
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"Bem, talvez nosso pai falecera."
09:53
And then I understood
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E depois eu entendi
09:55
that asking my father so many questions
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que fazer tantas perguntas ao meu pai
09:58
was stirring up a whole past he probably didn't feel like talking about
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estava mexendo num passado sobre o qual ele não queria falar,
10:01
because it was painful.
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pois era doloroso.
10:03
And while my half brother and sister thought they'd been abandoned,
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E enquanto meu meio-irmão e meio-irmã achavam que tinham sido abandonados,
10:07
orphaned,
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ficado orfãos,
10:09
my father was making false papers.
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meu pai estava fazendo documentos falsos.
10:11
And if he did not tell them, it was of course to protect them.
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E se ele não lhes contou, claro que foi para protegê-los.
10:15
After the liberation he made false papers
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Depois da liberação ele falsificou documentos
10:17
to allow the survivors of concentration camps to immigrate to Palestine
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para permitir aos sobreviventes dos campos de concentração emigrar para a Palestina
10:20
before the creation of Israel.
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antes da criação de Israel.
10:22
And then, as he was a staunch anti-colonialist,
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E como era um anticolonialista convicto,
10:24
he made false papers for Algerians during the Algerian war.
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ele falsificou documentos para argelinos durante a Guerra Argelina.
10:27
After the Algerian war,
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Depois da Guerra Argelina,
10:30
at the heart of the international resistance movements,
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no coração dos movimentos internacionais de resistência,
10:33
his name circulated
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o nome dele circulou
10:34
and the whole world came knocking at his door.
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e o mundo inteiro veio bater na porta dele.
10:37
In Africa there were countries fighting for their independence:
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Na África, havia países lutando por independência:
10:40
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Angola.
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Guiné, Guiné-Bissau, Angola.
10:43
And then my father connected with Nelson Mandela's anti-apartheid party.
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E então meu pai ligou-se ao partido contra o apartheid de Nelson Mandela.
10:48
He made false papers for persecuted black South Africans.
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Ele falsificou documentos para negros sul-africanos perseguidos.
10:51
There was also Latin America.
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Também havia a América Latina.
10:53
My father helped those who resisted dictatorships
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Meu pai ajudou aqueles que resistiam a ditaduras
10:56
in the Dominican Republic, Haiti,
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na República Dominicana, Haiti,
10:58
and then it was the turn of Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua,
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e depois foi a vez do Brasil, Argentina, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicarágua,
11:04
Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Chile and Mexico.
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Colômbia, Peru, Uruguai, Chile e México.
11:09
Then there was the Vietnam War.
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Depois veio a Guerra do Vietnã.
11:11
My father made false papers for the American deserters
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Meu pai falsificou documentos para os desertores americanos
11:13
who did not wish to take up arms against the Vietnamese.
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que não queriam lutar contra os vietnamitas.
11:16
Europe was not spared either.
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A Europa não ficou de fora, não.
11:18
My father made false papers for the dissidents
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Meu pai falsificou documentos para os dissidentes
11:21
against Franco in Spain, Salazar in Portugal,
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3758
contra Franco na Espanha, Salazar em Portugal,
11:24
against the colonels' dictatorship in Greece,
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4992
contra a ditadura dos coronéis na Grécia
11:29
and even in France.
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1707
e mesmo na França.
11:31
There, just once, it happened in May of 1968.
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Lá, aconteceu, apenas uma vez, em maio de 1968.
11:34
My father watched, benevolently, of course,
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Meu pai assistiu, benevolentemente, é claro,
11:37
the demonstrations of the month of May,
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às demonstrações do mês de maio,
11:40
but his heart was elsewhere, and so was his time
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mas seu coração estava em outro lugar, tal como o seu tempo,
11:42
because he had over 15 countries to serve.
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pois ele tinha mais de 15 países para servir.
11:45
Once, though, he agreed to make false papers
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Uma vez, porém, ele concordou em falsificar
11:48
for someone you might recognize.
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1943
para alguém que vocês reconheceriam.
11:50
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
11:53
He was much younger in those days,
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1620
Ele era muito mais jovem naquela época
11:54
and my father agreed to make false papers
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2150
e meu pai concordou em falsificar
11:56
to enable him to come back and speak at a meeting.
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para permiti-lo voltar e discursar em um encontro.
11:59
He told me that those false papers were the most media-relevant
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Ele me contou que aqueles documentos eram os mais relevantes para a mídia
12:04
and the least useful he'd had to make in all his life.
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e o menos útil que ele fez a vida inteira.
12:08
But, he agreed to do it,
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Mas ele o aceitou fazer,
12:09
even though Daniel Cohn-Bendit's life was not in danger,
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embora a vida de Daniel Cohn-Bendit não estivesse em perigo,
12:13
just because
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2194
só porque
12:15
it was a good opportunity
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era uma boa oportunidade
12:16
to mock the authorities,
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2484
de tirar sarro das autoridades
12:19
and to show them that there's nothing more porous than borders --
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e que não há nada mais poroso que fronteiras
12:22
and that ideas have no borders.
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e que ideias não têm fronteiras.
12:26
All my childhood,
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Toda a minha infância,
12:28
while my friends' dads would tell them Grimm's fairy tales,
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enquanto os pais dos meus amigos lhes contava contos de fadas,
12:32
my father would tell me stories about very unassuming heroes
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meu pai contava histórias de heróis discretos
12:36
with unshakeable utopias
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2916
com utopias inabaláveis,
12:39
who managed to make miracles.
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que fizeram milagres.
12:42
And those heroes did not need an army behind them.
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E aqueles heróis não precisaram de um exército por trás deles.
12:46
Anyhow, nobody would have followed them,
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De qualquer forma, ninguém os teriam seguido,
12:49
except for a handful [of] men and women of conviction and courage.
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exceto um punhado de homens e mulheres de convicção e coragem.
12:52
I understood much later
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1254
Mais tarde eu entendi
12:53
that actually it was his own story my father would tell me to get me to sleep.
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que na verdade era a sua própria história que meu pai me contava para que eu dormisse.
12:57
I asked him whether, considering the sacrifices he had to make,
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Eu o perguntei se, considerando os sacrifícios que ele teve de fazer,
13:00
he ever had any regrets.
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ele tinha algum arrependimento.
13:02
He said no.
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1730
Ele disse "Não!"
13:03
He told me that he would have been unable
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Ele me contou que seria incapaz de
13:06
to witness or submit to injustice without doing anything.
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testemunhar ou submeter-se à injustiça sem fazer nada.
13:08
He was persuaded, and he's still convinced
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Ele foi persuadido, ele ainda está convencido
13:12
that another world is possible --
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que um outro mundo é possível.
13:14
a world where no one would ever need a forger.
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Um mundo em que ninguém jamais necessitará de um falsário.
13:17
He's still dreaming about it.
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Ele ainda sonha com isso.
13:19
My father
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Meu pai
13:20
is here in the room today.
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está aqui na sala hoje.
13:22
His name is Adolfo Kaminsky and I'm going to ask him to stand up.
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Seu nome é Adolfo Kaminsky e eu quero pedir que ele se levante.
13:26
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
13:46
Thank you.
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Obrigada.
Translated by Rafael Eufrasio
Reviewed by Viviane Ferraz Matos

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Sarah Kaminsky - Actor and writer
Sarah Kaminsky writes about her father, Adolfo Kaminsky, a forger with a mission.

Why you should listen

Born in 1979 in Algeria, of an Argentinean father with Russian origins, and a Tuareg Algerian mother, Sarah Kaminsky arrived in France when she was 3 years old. Passionate about art since her childhood, she started learning the cello at age 4. As a teenager, she discovered two passions, which are still vibrant in her life: theater and writing. Since then, she's shared her time between her acting career and writing screenplays, plays or books.

In 2009, Sarah wrote a book worthy of the best spy novels, based on the true story of her father, Adolfo Kaminsky, genius-forger who committed his know-how and convictions to serve the French Resistance during World War II, saving thousands of Jewish families, and many others over the course of 30 years for various causes around the world.

More profile about the speaker
Sarah Kaminsky | Speaker | TED.com