The Happiest Man on Earth | Book Review | 2020 | Eddie Jaku

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Germany in 1920, Eddie Jaku endured the harrowing ordeal of imprisonment in the Buchenwald and Auschwitz concentration camps during World War II. He survived the Holocaust to relocate to Australia with his family in 1950 in the pursuit of a new beginning. In Australia, Eddie became a pivotal figure in the Jewish community, contributing significantly to its cultural and educational growth. He played a crucial role in founding the Sydney Jewish Museum, an institution dedicated to preserving the memory of the Holocaust. The museum also promotes the dual values of humanity and tolerance. In recognition of his tireless efforts, Eddie was honored with the Order of Australia medal in 2013.

In addition to his contributions to memorializing history, Eddie actively shares his Holocaust experiences. He has captivated audiences worldwide through his public speaking engagements, including a widely viewed TEDx talk. Jaku has used his art of storytelling to embody the resilience of the human spirit. He is also a staunch proponent of remembrance, education, and peace.

SYNOPSIS (MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS)

Eddie Jaku was born into a Jewish family in Leipzig, Germany, a city known for its long-standing tolerance toward Jews. Like many other Jewish families in Leipzig, the Jaku family was also deeply integrated into the fabric of the German society. The family had a strong sense of national identity that took precedence over their religious affiliation.

In 1933, Germany’s political landscape shifted dramatically with Adolf Hitler’s appointment as the Chancellor. Hitler’s remarkable rise to power marked the beginning of widespread antisemitic policies. These policies would profoundly impact the lives of Jewish families across the nation, including the Jakus. Their first impact on Eddie’s family was when they were prohibited from celebrating his bar mitzvah at Leipzig’s grand synagogue. He even got expelled from high school solely because of his Jewish heritage.

In an attempt to circumvent the growing discrimination, Eddie’s father arranged for him to continue his engineering education under a false identity in Tuttlingen, far from their home in Leipzig. For five years, Eddie pursued his studies in isolation, away from his family and community.

1938 was a significant year in Eddie’s life when he came back to Leipzig to surprise his parents after five years. His visit coincided with Kristallnacht, a violent anti-Jewish pogrom. He was the victim of a brutal attack, subsequently getting arrested for no fault of his. This event led to his confinement in the Buchenwald concentration camp. There, Eddie, along with many other middle-class Jews, endured routine torture and humiliation. It was in Buchenwald that Eddie developed a deep friendship with Kurt Hirschfeld, a bond that would prove crucial to his survival.

An unexpected turn of events occurred when one of the soldiers at Buchenwald recognized Eddie from his engineering school and facilitated his transfer to a manufacturing job. Eddie’s father seized this opportunity to orchestrate a daring escape to the Belgian border, enabling Eddie to find temporary safety in Brussels. However, this respite was short-lived, as Eddie was soon detained by the Belgian gendarmerie for being an illegal alien. Consequently, he was placed in a refugee camp.

The outbreak of the Second World War and the subsequent German invasion of Belgium and France added to Eddie’s woes. The chaotic evacuation of Dunkirk thwarted his attempts to flee to England, prompting him to embark on a desperate journey southward. He was eventually arrested as a suspected German spy and interned in Gurs, a French concentration camp.

Things went from bad to worse for him when he was selected for deportation to Auschwitz as part of a deal between Phillipe Petain’s Vichy regime and the Nazis. Displaying remarkable resilience and ingenuity, Eddie managed to escape en route to Auschwitz, eventually reuniting with his family in Brussels. However, this reunion was brief as the family was discovered and arrested in 1943, leading to their deportation to Auschwitz.

At the Auschwitz concentration camp, Eddie was chosen for slave labor by Dr Josef Mengele, also known as the Angel of Death. His parents suffered a brutal death in the gas chambers. The camp’s inhuman conditions meant that he had to grapple against starvation, disease, and violence on a daily basis. Yet, Eddie’s mechanical skills and his enduring friendship with Hirschfeld gave him a semblance of solace amidst the camp’s horrors.

The closing stages of the War saw Eddie and the other prisoners forced into a “death march” toward Germany. Demonstrating extraordinary courage, Eddie managed to escape and was eventually rescued by American troops. After a period of recovery, he was reunited with his sister and Kurt in Brussels.

In 1946, Eddie’s life took a positive turn when he married fellow Jewish survivor, Flore Molho. The couple decided to emigrate to Australia in 1950, in the hope of a fresh start. In Sydney, Eddie forged a successful career, first in medical instrument manufacturing and later in auto mechanics and real estate.

WHAT WE LIKED ABOUT THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH

Despite the unimaginable atrocities he experienced, Eddie chose to share his story not from a place of bitterness, but as a testament to the toughness of the human spirit. Throughout the book, Jaku has a matter-of-fact tone, for he believes that happiness is the “best revenge”. He rejects the idea that he should hold onto negative emotions like anger or resentment.

His public discourses, which began in the 1970s and continued well into his nineties, served as both personal therapy and a means to educate others about the Holocaust. He constantly emphasized the dangers of hatred and the importance of compassion and understanding. He was a hundred years old when he wrote The Happiest Man on Earth.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER ABOUT THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH

Many readers may find this book disturbing because it is the distressing memoir of a Holocaust survivor.

QUOTES

My dear new friend, I have lived for a century and I know what it is to stare evil in the face. I have seen the very worst in mankind. The horrors of the death camps, the Nazis effort to exterminate my life and the lives of all my people. But I now consider myself the happiest man on earth. Through all of my years, I have learned this: Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful.

As a boy, I truly believed that I was part of the most enlightened, most cultured, most sophisticated—certainly the most educated—society in the whole world. How wrong I was.

I never lost sight of what it was to be civilized. I knew that there would be no point surviving if I had to become an evil man to do it. I never hurt another prisoner, I never stole another man’s bread, and I did all I could to help my fellow man.

It makes me very sad to think of what all those educated, professional men and women might have achieved if they had been able to live. I believe we would have cured cancer by now.

With a simple act of kindness, you can save another person from despair, and that might just save their life. And this is the greatest miracle of all.

CONCLUSION