Salomon Smolianoff

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Salomon Smolianoff (* 1899 in Kremenchuk , Ukraine ; † 1976 in Porto Alegre , Brazil ) was a Russian forger and Holocaust survivor who, as a Jewish prisoner, played an important role in the Bernhard Campaign in Sachsenhausen concentration camp . The fate of Salomon Smolianoff is portrayed under the name Salomon "Salli" Sorowitsch in the film The Forgers . The plot of the film is based on the memories of Adolf Burger . In February 2008, the film won the Oscar in the categoryBest foreign language film .

Life

Salomon Smolianoff was born into a Jewish family in Kremenchuk . He studied art in Russia but was forced to leave the country in 1922 because his parents were on the wrong side in the Russian Revolution . Smolianoff traveled through Europe and finally tried to gain a foothold in Berlin. When he met a professional forger in Berlin, he decided to become a forger himself and began to imitate British pound notes because he found it difficult to live on his income as an artist. In 1936 he was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison, after which he was sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp . There he made himself useful to the Waffen SS by painting portraits and paintings. In 1944 he was transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp as part of Aktion Bernhard. The Bernhard Aktion is considered to be the largest counterfeiting campaign in history, with which the Nazis tried to flood the British money market with counterfeit money and thus bring the economy to a collapse.

Smolianoff emigrated to Uruguay after the end of World War II , where the police soon wanted him. He then emigrated to Brazil in the 1950s, where he stayed until the end of his life. Smolianoff died in Porto Alegre in 1976.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Smolianoff Interpol Wanted Bulletin (1 of 1) on: lawrencemalkin.com (Engl.)
  2. ↑ Karl Markovics in an article in: The Sydney Morning Herald. May 9, 2008.
  3. ↑ a b Smolianoff's Tale to the Interrogator (1 of 7). on: lawrencemalkin.com (Engl.)
  4. ↑ The counterfeiter. ( Memento of March 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: Jüdische Zeitung. March 2007. (Interview with Adolf Burger)
personal data
SURNAME Smolianoff, Solomon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian forger and Holocaust survivor
DATE OF BIRTH 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Kremenchuk , Ukraine
DATE OF DEATH 1976
Place of death Porto Alegre , Brazil