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Cover of The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku

The Happiest Man on Earth

  • 200 pages · about 3 hours
  • First published 2020
  • 10 editions

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1 About this book

In this uplifting memoir in the vein of The Last Lecture and Man’s Search for Meaning, a Holocaust survivor pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom, and living his best possible life.

Born in Leipzig, Germany, into a Jewish family, Eddie Jaku was a teenager when his world was turned upside-down. On November 9, 1938, during the terrifying violence of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Eddie was beaten by SS thugs, arrested, and sent to a concentration camp with thousands of other Jews across Germany. Every day of the next seven years of his life, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors in Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and finally on a forced death march during the Third Reich’s final days. The Nazis took everything from Eddie—his family, his friends, and his country. But they did not break his spirit.

Against unbelievable odds, Eddie found the will to survive.

Good for readers who want: happiness, a true life story, and history.

  • Happiness
  • History Germany
  • Biography
  • Immigrants
  • History
  • Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
  • World War II
  • Holocaust survivors

2 About Eddie Jaku

1920–2021

Edward Jaku (born Abraham Salomon Jakubowicz; 14 April 1920 – 12 October 2021) was a survivor of several German concentration camps during World War II who wrote of his wartime experiences after emigrating to Australia. His memoir, called The Happiest Man on Earth, was published when he was 100 years old. It became an immediate best seller.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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