The Presidents' Tailor - From Auschwitz to the White House

Maxmilian Grünfeld learned to sew while mending shirts for SS soldiers in Auschwitz when he was fifteen. Four years later, he re-invented himself as the American Martin Greenfield, and was making suits for the former general and future US president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who liberated him from Buchenwald in 1945. The Presidents’ Tailor is a short documentary about how one man transformed into the other against all odds.

With his infectious smile, resourcefulness, and insistence on “quality with intrinsic value”, Martin Greenfield quickly rose from his humble beginnings as a floor boy at the GGG menswear factory in Brooklyn to become the highbrow tailor of choice for US presidents and celebrities alike. Together with his sons Jay and Tod, Martin built a bespoke menswear empire which now stands alone as a beacon in the once thriving men’s tailoring industry in New York City.

The Presidents’ Tailor interweaves scenes of daily life at Greenfield Clothiers with a journey into Martin’s past, when his son Jay and his children David and Amy retrace Martin’s footsteps across Europe, from his hometown Pavlovo in western Ukraine, to Auschwitz and Buchenwald, where the young Martin lost his entire family. We also travel to the White House with Martin and his wife Arlene, celebrate a Seder with family and friends, and witness moving tributes by longtime customers and dear friends Michael Bloomberg and Colin Powell at Martin’s 90th birthday spectacle.

The Presidents’ Tailor is a poignant tale of resilience, forgiveness and the fine art of bespoke menswear. It is also a reminder of the distinguished craftsmanship which once gave birth to the golden age of American manufacturing.