Description:

He's been called "America's greatest living tailor" and "the most interesting man in the world." Now, for the first time, Holocaust survivor Martin Greenfield tells his incredible life story. Taken from his Czechoslovakian home at age fifteen and transported to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz with his family, Greenfield came face to face with "Angel of Death" Dr. Joseph Mengele and was divided forever from his parents, sisters, and baby brother.

In haunting, powerful prose, Greenfield remembers his desperation and fear as a teenager alone in the death camp—and how an SS soldier's shirt dramatically altered the course of his life. He learned how to sew; and when he began wearing the shirt under his prisoner uniform, he learned that clothes possess great power and could even help save his life.

Measure of a Man is the story of a man who suffered unimaginable horror and emerged with a dream of success. From sweeping floors at a New York clothing factory to founding America’s premier custom suit company, Greenfield built a fashion empire. Now 86 years old and working with his sons, Greenfield has dressed the famous and powerful of D.C. and Hollywood, including Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, celebrities Paul Newman, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jimmy Fallon, and the stars of Martin Scorsese's films.

Written with soul-baring honesty and, at times, a wry sense of humor, Measure of a Man is a memoir unlike any other—one that will inspire hope and renew faith in the resilience of man.

Review

"In 1956, Martin Greenfield was a twentysomething Czech immigrant working as a tailor at the well-regarded Brooklyn suit maker GGG Clothes. Greenfield had gotten in the door, in 1947, with the help of a fellow immigrant friend and eventually worked his way from the lowly post of 'floor boy' to trusted confidante of owner William P. Goldman, who took a shine to his competitive spirit. GGG was a favorite label of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the young tailor couldn’t help himself from passing advice on foreign policy to the Oval Office via the pockets of the president’s new suits. If Eisenhower wanted to end the Suez Canal crisis, Greenfield suggested in a note, why not give Secretary of State John Dulles a two-week vacation? Eisenhower eventually shared his tailor’s hubris with the D.C. press corps for a few laughs. The anecdote is one of many in Greenfield’s new memoir that demonstrates the extraordinary experience he had with capital-H history in the back half of the 20th century."
—Vanity Fair

"It's a remarkable book."
—Nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin

"I dare you to read Holocaust survivor Martin Greenfield's story and not burst into tears. [...] Every once in a while a book is written that you'll never forget, and leaves you telling all your family and friends about. Martin Greenfield's Measure of a Man: From Auschwitz Survivor to Presidents' Tailor is one of those books."
—The Daily Surge

From the Inside Flap

The first time Martin Greenfield took up needle and thread was at Auschwitz, to mend the shirt of the SS guard who had just beaten him. Today, he is recognized as "America's greatest living tailor," the man who dresses presidents and movie stars.

Measure of a Man is Greenfield's story. More than an unforgettable account of survival and triumph, it's the testimony of a man who came of age amid the darkest evil in modern history but never lost hope.

The Nazis came for the Jews in Greenfield's Carpathian village in 1944. Separated from his parents and siblings as soon as they arrived at Auschwitz, Martin was the only one of his family to survive the Holocaust. "Where was God?" he asked the rabbi who arrived with Eisenhower's liberating army a year
later at Buchenwald.

Greenfield arrived in America in 1947, nineteen years old and penniless. He went to work as a floor boy at a Brooklyn clothing factory and quickly became a virtuoso tailor, making suits for the president and the biggest names in Hollywood. Within thirty years he owned the firm.

His insistence on the highest standards, his humility, and his humor have made Martin Greenfield the clothier—and inevitably the friend—of many of the greatest legends of American politics, entertainment, and sports. He has passed foreign policy advice to Eisenhower on notes tucked into his suit pockets, encouraged a disillusioned Paul Newman on the brink of abandoning his acting career, and coaxed both Bill Clinton and Carmelo Anthony into tails.

Throughout his long and improbable career, Greenfield has never lost his sense of gratitude for the country that plucked him out of hell and enabled him to build a new home and family. "America is dreams," he writes. "In Yiddish, we have a proverb—'Heaven and hell can both be had in this world.' But America is the only place I know that lets you turn your hell into a heaven. It did for me."