Tailor to presidents

Martin Greenfield survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald (though his family did not), and made his way to the U.S. to become a premier tailor.
Soon after the liberation, Greenfield and another teenage survivor set out to kill the wife of the mayor, who had previously had Greenfield beaten for trying to eat food intended for her pet rabbits. When they found her, she was carrying her newborn baby, and Greenfield relented; he has described that moment as when he "became human again".
Years ago I noticed tattooed numbers on the wrist of my Houston tailor. It's not a moment you forget.

2 comments:

raven said...

He should have killed and eaten the rabbits. Turnabout is fair play and all, yes?

E Hines said...

There was, years ago, a television program called Queen for a Day, a contest show where the winner would get something greatly wished for but beyond reach other than through some lottery-like outcome such as winning a game show contest.

On one episode, the winner was an aging survivor of the holocaust, and her prize as Queen for a Day was to have her Auschwitz tattoo removed.

Eric Hines