Jeffrey Wright Instagram – Martin Greenfield, born Maximilian Grünfeld – easily one of the most remarkable and special humans I have ever met. Easily. He made the suits for Boardwalk Empire, as well as for multiple Presidents, The Rat Pack et al. Since our first meeting in 2013, I think about him from time to time. The man just glowed and was, of course, natty always – clean as fresh water. See where he learned the beginnings of his trade and the art of survival. Beautiful man. He died today at 95. RIP.
From his obit in today’s NYTimes…
“For years, none of them knew the origins of his expertise: a beating in Auschwitz.
As a teenager, Mr. Greenfield was Maximilian Grünfeld, a skinny Jewish prisoner whose job was to wash the clothes of Nazi guards at the concentration camp. In the laundry room one day, he accidentally ripped the collar of a guard’s shirt. The man whipped Max in response, then hurled the garment back at the boy.
After a fellow prisoner taught Max how to sew, he mended the collar, but then decided to keep the shirt, sliding it under the striped shirt of his prison uniform.
Max ripped another guard’s uniform. This time, it was deliberate. He was creating a clandestine wardrobe that would help him survive the Holocaust.
‘The day I first wore that shirt,” Mr. Greenfield wrote seven decades later, ‘was the day I learned clothes possess power.’” | Posted on 21/Mar/2024 08:24:34
