Eddie Jaku is an Auschwitz Survivor. After having went through all kinds of tortures and threats of dead and survived, he claimed he is the happiest man on earth.
‘Auschwitz was a death camp.
You never knew when you got up in the morning if you would come back to your bed – not that we had beds. We slept on crude bunks made of hard wooden planks that measured less than eight feet across. We slept through freezing nights, ten men to a row, without mattresses, without blankets, the only warmth coming from other people. We would sleep in a row, curved up like herrings packed in a jar, because this was the only way to survive. It was so cold, eight below zero, and we were forced to sleep naked, because if you were naked, you couldn’t escape.’
In Auschwitz, if you are weak then you are useless and would be killed immediately.
Having survived from the death camp, Eddie shared with us what he leaned about life.
- Hug you mother and tell her you love her now because you don’t know when you won’t able to do it anymore.
- Appreciate your good friends. Good friends can help you endure hardships in difficult life. When you are desperate, the hope rose by thinking about you still have good friends can help you survive.
- Tomorrow will come if you survive today. One step at a time. Don’t worry.
- You can find kindness everywhere, even from strangers.
- Education makes you useful and is a lifesaver.
- If you lose your morals, you lose yourself.
- The human body is the best machine ever made.
- Where there is life, there is hope. There are always miracles in the world, even when it seems dark.
- Love is the best medicine.
- Shared sorrow is half sorrow; share pleasure is double pleasure. Be happy.
‘Don’t blame others for your misfortunes…So I hate no one, not even Hitler. I do not forgive him. If I forgive, I am a traitor to the six million who died…’
‘I promised when I came out of the darkest hours of my life the I would be happy for the rest of my life and smile, because if you smile, the world smiles with you. Life is not always happiness. Sometimes, there are many hard days. But you must Rene bet that you are lucky to be alive – we are all lucky in this way. Every breath is a gift. Life is beautiful if you let it be. Happiness is in your hands.’
*: ‘The Happiest Man on Earth – the beautiful life of an Auschwitz Survivor,’ 2023, Eddie Jaku, HarperColinsPublishers
2023/4/8 The Happiest Man on Earth Damakey
