"I Don't Copy. They Copy Me": The Holocaust Survivor Tailoring Luxury Suits for U.S. Presidents
Martin Greenfield (formerly Maximilian Grunfeld) lost his entire family at Auschwitz, yet this did not deter him from dreaming of a better future and working to achieve it. After the war, he immigrated to the U.S. and has been employed as the go-to tailor in the White House, responsible for crafting luxury suits for U.S. Presidents.
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Inset: Martin Greenfield #VALUE!
From Tragedy to Triumph: The story of Martin Greenfield – a Jewish Holocaust survivor who lost his entire family and immigrated to the U.S. after the war – is making waves online following a special video produced about his life.
For a year and two months, Martin endured the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland – where his family perished, leaving him alone in the world. "In Auschwitz, you don't have a name, just a number. On my second day there, I was given a number and sent to a Jewish tailor who asked me: 'Are you a tailor?' I replied: 'No, but I would be happy for you to teach me the craft.' And he did."
When the war ended, Greenfield was liberated from Auschwitz by General Dwight Eisenhower, who was then the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. "I was fifteen and a half," Greenfield recalls. "When I saw Eisenhower, I shook his hand, cried, and said: 'You saved my life.'"
Greenfield arrived in the U.S. in September 1947 and began working as a tailor until one day he approached his boss and said: "Listen, I was liberated by Eisenhower, and I want us to tailor a luxury suit for him exactly like the one I'm wearing." This was his way of expressing gratitude to his savior.
And so it was. His boss loved the idea, and since they tailored that first suit for Eisenhower (who by then had become President) – Greenfield became the preferred 'house tailor' for U.S. Presidents.
According to him, every White House president 'went through him,' and he took care to dress them with taste and understanding – a skill Greenfield expressed as a gift from Heaven. As an amusing anecdote, he mentioned that when he wanted to tailor a suit for the current U.S. President, Barack Obama, and was met with a request to copy the measurements of a suit he wore at his inauguration, Greenfield firmly replied: "I don't copy any of my suits. All the suits I tailor are my own ideas, and others copy them from me. The next day Obama invited me to the White House to take the measurements for his suit."
Watch the touching story of Martin, in English:
