Eddie Jaku was born as Abraham Jakubowicz in Leipzig, Germany, in the year 1920. He grew up as a Jewish child in Germany where his father used to tell him, “Abraham, I want you to always remember that there is more joy in giving than there is in taking.” In 1938 on Kristallnacht, Eddie was beaten, almost to death, by ten SS soldiers. And then the series of trying events began. He was then sent to Buchenwald. He escaped Germany and went to Belgium. When Hitler invaded Belgium, he was placed on a train to Auschwitz. He stole a hammer and screwdriver from the platform, and over the course of nine hours on the train, managed to unscrew the boards of the carriage and escape back to France and Belgium, where he reunited with his family, who also escaped from Germany.
But in 1943, the Gestapo discovered the hiding place of the family and put them all on a train to Auschwitz. Dr. Mengele sent both of Eddie’s parents to the gas chambers immediately; Eddie was sent to work. He was one of the few Jews who managed to escape the death camp, but then he was shot in the forest by a Polish farmer. He realized he had no choice but to return. And indeed, he returned to Auschwitz. A Jewish doctor took the bullet out of his calf, and then he was placed on the death march in January of 1945. After a few days with no food and no water, Eddie realized he would not be able to continue on, but he also knew that if you stopped, you got a bullet in your head. Eddie noticed a ditch. He managed to escape into the ditch, and he survived in the ditch for six months on raw snails. Until he was poisoned by the water flowing in a nearby creek, and couldn't stand anymore. He was deathly ill and began crawling to the nearby road, hoping that a Nazi soldier would detect him, shoot him and take him out of his misery. But he then saw an American tank and the U.S. soldiers lifted him up, wrapped him in a blanket and sent him to the hospital. They didn't think he would survive, but he did. Six weeks later, he was out of the hospital.
He bought a ticket to go back to Brussels, hoping maybe somebody of his family survived. He found his sister, Henni, who had also survived Auschwitz. A few months later, he met another young Jewish woman, a survivor by the name of Flora. They got married and relocated to Sydney, Australia, and in 1950, their first child was born. Eddie describes that until then, he was bitter and angry and depressed. But when his child was born, his happiness came back to him in abundance and he made a decision: “I'm going to live a happy life, full of gratitude and kindness. I'm going to be polite, sensitive, compassionate and empathetic, and I'm going to help bring kindness to the world.”
Last year, Eddie celebrated his one hundredth birthday, and following that birthday, he decided it's time to write a book. He published his first book and he titled it, “The Happiest Man on Earth.” It became an international bestseller. One story of that book touched me so deeply.
It was shortly after the Holocaust. He'd just lost most of his family. He was living in a flat in Belgium, and he opened a newspaper where he began to read about two Jewish girls who tried to commit suicide. They jumped off a bridge in Brussels. They tried to fall on a barge, but instead fell into the water. They survived, they were arrested, and they were put into a mental hospital. Eddie decided, “I have to help these two girls.” And despite the fact that he had nothing – he lost almost everything – he went to the hospital. The conditions were appalling, and he met these two girls and he realized that they are perfectly normal and balanced, intelligent and wonderful people. But they lost their entire family. They had been in Auschwitz and Birkenau. Everybody was murdered and they simply didn’t want to live. They did not have the stamina, the desire to continue to live, so they decided to take their lives. Eddie met with the head of the hospital, and said, “These girls don't belong here. Let me take care of them. Let me nurture them back to health. Besides that, the conditions here are horrific for anybody. If you come in normal, you leave three months later mad.” The man let him take them. Eddie raised them along with his sister, and he encouraged them. He fed them and he nurtured them. And being also a survivor of Auschwitz, he empathized with them. And finally, he managed to give them back that hope, vigor, inner fortitude and resilience they needed, and they went on to marry Jewish husbands and build beautiful families. Eddie, for life, maintained a connection with them.
“Then I finally managed,” Eddie writes, “to experience what my father told me as a youth. ‘Abraham, there's much more joy in giving than there is in taking.’ When I saw these two beautiful girls come back to life, I realized that even in the depths of darkness, you can see miracles. And if you don't see miracles, you can become the miracle and you can create the miracle by giving life and hope and kindling a flame of love and faith in the heart of darkness.”
Just this past year, Abraham Jakubowicz, Eddie Jaku, returned his soul to its Maker. On October 12, 2021, 6th Cheshvan 5782, this 101 year old hero of the Jewish people, hero of the world, passed away in Sydney.
But Eddie, the flame that you and your generation kindled in the midst of the deepest darkness will continue to burn forever and inspire us for eternity.
