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He's 98 And Surprisingly, He's The Happiest Man On Earth
He's 98 And Surprisingly, He's The Happiest Man On Earth
00:00 / 53:42 minutes interview
HE'S 98 AND SURPRISINGLY, HE'S THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH
DESCRIPTION
When you meet 98-year-old Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku, it’s hard not to be happy.
He’s full of life, advice and stories about a world few people remember. A world few people can imagine. A world many people want to forget about. But not Eddie Jaku. Because that dark world ended up giving him the biggest gift he could have asked for; the gift of life.
On the 10th of November 1938, Eddie Jaku’s world changed forever when a group of Nazi’s knocked on his front door.
Eddie was a Jew living in Germany, and for the next 12 years he was in and out of concentration camps, including Auschwitz. He lost his mother and father and escaped and wad caught, countless times.
At 98, soon to be 99 in April, Eddie is a remarkable storyteller. And on this episode of No Filter, he tells Mia everything he remembers.
REAL LIFE
Eddie spent more than a year as a prisoner in Auschwitz. This is his survival story.
By
BELINDA JEPSEN
Senior Features Writer
APRIL 13, 2020
Today, April 14, 2020, Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku turns 100.
The below story was originally published in 2019, and has been updated to mark his birthday.
In the early hours of the morning, Eddie Jaku would make his way home from his shift at a Brussels cigarette factory; an hour-long walk through the pitch-black streets, otherwise empty due to the wartime curfew. As a Jewish man in Nazi-occupied Belgium, it was a job Eddie could only hold in secret, shielded by the cover of night, one given to him – at great risk – by the factory’s compassionate owner, a Christian by the name of Tannenbaum.
Each night Eddie would make this trip, back to the small house in which his family lived, hidden. They’d rented the attic from the owner; another act of compassion from a stranger, another stroke of luck.
But on the morning of October 17, 1942, their luck ran out.
“Somebody denounced us,” Jaku told Mamamia‘s No Filter podcast. “I come back at ten-past-three in the morning. No lights. I thought everybody’s asleep. [But] My parents, my sister were taken already; they’re waiting for me. And this time it is to Auschwitz.”
More than seven decades on, Eddie Jaku bears the tattoo of an Auschwitz prisoner, a serial number etched into his forearm – 1 7 2 3 3 8 – blurred ink that now serves as a reminder of the horrors he witnessed during his 15 months at the notorious death camp and of the loss of his parents.
“When we arrived, we met the biggest butcher who ever lived. His name was Dr Josef Mengele. He says to my father ‘this way’, to me ‘that way’, and I saw my father going on a truck. So I went behind him, I bent down, and I was nearly at the truck when one good man, one good soldier, says, ‘Hey, you! Didn’t he tell you to go this side?’ So he said to me, ‘Your father goes into the truck and you walk into the camp.’ I never saw my father again. My father, 52, and my mum, 43, died that night in a gas chamber. It was 20 minutes before they suffocated.”
Eddie, an engineering student before the war, survived by virtue of his skills. He was made a workshop manager in charge of keeping 200 machines in operation, and was for two months sent to work directly for Mengele, who tasked him with making a small operating table. Mengele would later become known as The Angel of Death, due to the horrific medical experiments he performed on Jewish prisoners during the war.
For more of Eddie’s incredible survival story, listen to No Filter below or subscribe in your preferred podcast app. Click here for podcast. 《《Click
Each night after his forced labour, Eddie would return to the block he shared with 400 other prisoners.
“We’d sleep on four layers of timber, ten between columns, like herrings. Nobody can turn; if one wants to turn all have to turn, we’re so close. We sleep all in our shirt or naked, and it’s a cold. It can be eight below zero. If one of the ten goes to the toilet, when he comes back he has to shake number one and number 10 [the people on the outside of the row]. They get up and crawl into the middle,” he said. “If they didn’t shake, [those two would be] dead the morning. Frozen to death.
“We’d have 15 to 20 people every night dead from cold. Not from hunger, not from sickness – from cold. Why? Because people came back from the toilet and didn’t know their duty to shake. Or they didn’t care. People don’t care.”
That’s why Eddie shares his story every week at the Sydney Jewish Museum. He hopes that by showing people – especially young people – the power of compassion and empathy, that we might avoid atrocities like those endured during the Holocaust.
“I tell you, if the six million Jews were not killed – and this is my honest belief – we wouldn’t have today breast cancer, Parkinson’s disease. These were men and women that never will be replaced,” he said.
“But I [will be] happy until I drop dead. I will teach children how to be happy, and make this world a better place for everyone.”
He's 98 And Surprisingly, He's The Happiest Man On Earth
He's 98 And Surprisingly, He's The Happiest Man On Earth
00:00 / 53:42 minutes interview
HE'S 98 AND SURPRISINGLY, HE'S THE HAPPIEST MAN ON EARTH
DESCRIPTION
When you meet 98-year-old Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku, it’s hard not to be happy.
He’s full of life, advice and stories about a world few people remember. A world few people can imagine. A world many people want to forget about. But not Eddie Jaku. Because that dark world ended up giving him the biggest gift he could have asked for; the gift of life.
On the 10th of November 1938, Eddie Jaku’s world changed forever when a group of Nazi’s knocked on his front door.
Eddie was a Jew living in Germany, and for the next 12 years he was in and out of concentration camps, including Auschwitz. He lost his mother and father and escaped and wad caught, countless times.
At 98, soon to be 99 in April, Eddie is a remarkable storyteller. And on this episode of No Filter, he tells Mia everything he remembers.
REAL LIFE
Eddie spent more than a year as a prisoner in Auschwitz. This is his survival story.
By
BELINDA JEPSEN
Senior Features Writer
APRIL 13, 2020
Today, April 14, 2020, Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku turns 100.
The below story was originally published in 2019, and has been updated to mark his birthday.
In the early hours of the morning, Eddie Jaku would make his way home from his shift at a Brussels cigarette factory; an hour-long walk through the pitch-black streets, otherwise empty due to the wartime curfew. As a Jewish man in Nazi-occupied Belgium, it was a job Eddie could only hold in secret, shielded by the cover of night, one given to him – at great risk – by the factory’s compassionate owner, a Christian by the name of Tannenbaum.
Each night Eddie would make this trip, back to the small house in which his family lived, hidden. They’d rented the attic from the owner; another act of compassion from a stranger, another stroke of luck.
But on the morning of October 17, 1942, their luck ran out.
“Somebody denounced us,” Jaku told Mamamia‘s No Filter podcast. “I come back at ten-past-three in the morning. No lights. I thought everybody’s asleep. [But] My parents, my sister were taken already; they’re waiting for me. And this time it is to Auschwitz.”
More than seven decades on, Eddie Jaku bears the tattoo of an Auschwitz prisoner, a serial number etched into his forearm – 1 7 2 3 3 8 – blurred ink that now serves as a reminder of the horrors he witnessed during his 15 months at the notorious death camp and of the loss of his parents.
“When we arrived, we met the biggest butcher who ever lived. His name was Dr Josef Mengele. He says to my father ‘this way’, to me ‘that way’, and I saw my father going on a truck. So I went behind him, I bent down, and I was nearly at the truck when one good man, one good soldier, says, ‘Hey, you! Didn’t he tell you to go this side?’ So he said to me, ‘Your father goes into the truck and you walk into the camp.’ I never saw my father again. My father, 52, and my mum, 43, died that night in a gas chamber. It was 20 minutes before they suffocated.”
Eddie, an engineering student before the war, survived by virtue of his skills. He was made a workshop manager in charge of keeping 200 machines in operation, and was for two months sent to work directly for Mengele, who tasked him with making a small operating table. Mengele would later become known as The Angel of Death, due to the horrific medical experiments he performed on Jewish prisoners during the war.
For more of Eddie’s incredible survival story, listen to No Filter below or subscribe in your preferred podcast app. Click here for podcast. 《《Click
Each night after his forced labour, Eddie would return to the block he shared with 400 other prisoners.
“We’d sleep on four layers of timber, ten between columns, like herrings. Nobody can turn; if one wants to turn all have to turn, we’re so close. We sleep all in our shirt or naked, and it’s a cold. It can be eight below zero. If one of the ten goes to the toilet, when he comes back he has to shake number one and number 10 [the people on the outside of the row]. They get up and crawl into the middle,” he said. “If they didn’t shake, [those two would be] dead the morning. Frozen to death.
“We’d have 15 to 20 people every night dead from cold. Not from hunger, not from sickness – from cold. Why? Because people came back from the toilet and didn’t know their duty to shake. Or they didn’t care. People don’t care.”
That’s why Eddie shares his story every week at the Sydney Jewish Museum. He hopes that by showing people – especially young people – the power of compassion and empathy, that we might avoid atrocities like those endured during the Holocaust.
“I tell you, if the six million Jews were not killed – and this is my honest belief – we wouldn’t have today breast cancer, Parkinson’s disease. These were men and women that never will be replaced,” he said.
“But I [will be] happy until I drop dead. I will teach children how to be happy, and make this world a better place for everyone.”
Eddie Jaku
·
TEDxSydney
A Holocaust survivor's blueprint for happiness
Transcript:-
Translated by Theresa Ranft
Reviewed by Tanya Cushman
My dear new friends ... (Laughter) My name is Eddie Jaku, and I'm standing in front of you today, a survivor of the Holocaust and a witness of the most tragic times in the history of mankind. I was a proud young German. I thought this was the best civilization that could be given to a young man like me. How wrong I was. On the 9th of November, 1938, I returned from boarding school where I had lived under a false name for five years because I was a Jew. I lived away from my family, like an orphan, getting an education and under enormous pressure and fear that somebody could find out that I was not Walter Shleiss who I pretended to be. I was in great danger. On that fateful night, I had arrived home, but my family had gone in hiding, and I was alone. I went to bed with my dog close by. At 5 a.m., on the 10th of November, 1938, ten Nazis broke down the door of our house. What they did to me, I am ashamed to tell you. It was so bad that I believed, "Eddie, you're going to die today." After, they made me witness the demolition of our 200-year-old house and murdering my beloved dog, Lulu, who had tried to protect me, in front of my eyes. I lost my dignity, my freedom, and my faith in humanity. I lost everything I lived for. I was reduced from a man to being nothing. What happened to my country where I was born in, the country of my ancestors, the country which produced [Schiller], Goethe, Beethoven, and Mozart? What had happened to my German friends who became murderers? At the time, none of us understood that "Kristallnacht" - the "Night of Broken Glass" where the fronts of Jewish-owned shops were smashed, and the shops looted, and homes and synagogues were set on fire - was only the beginning of the nightmare of much, much worse to come. That day, I was transported to my first concentration camp, Buchenwald, where I was kept with another 11,000 Jewish men for about five months. On the 2nd of May, 1939, I was released. My father picked me up and brought me to Aachen. After 10 hours driving, we made an arrangement with a smuggler to take us into Belgium. I spent two weeks there with my dad in an apartment until I was arrested by Belgium police as a German, not a Jew. and interned in a camp with 4,000 other Germans. On the 10th of May, 1940, the camp was liquidated. We split up in Dunkirk, and I continued on to Lyon. There, I was arrested by French police and sent to Gurs, a terrible camp with 6,000 Germans. After my internments at camps, I was finally transported to what became my hell on earth: Auschwitz. My parents and sister were also transported to Auschwitz, and I was never to see my parents again. I did not have a chance to say goodbye to my beloved mother, and I have missed her every day of my life. If you have the opportunity today, please go home and make sure you tell your mom how much you love her. Please do this for your new friend, Eddie. I was lucky enough, managed to escape what became known as the death march. and I hid in a forest, alone, for many months, before I was found by the American army. But I'm standing here today a happy man, who enjoys life with a wonderful wife and a beautiful family. I do not hate anyone. Hate is a disease which may destroy your enemy, but will also destroy you in the process. (Applause) I'm doing everything I can to make this world a better place for everyone, and I implore you all to do your best too. Let us ensure that this terrible tragedy, the worst in the history, may never happen again and also will never, ever be forgotten. After many years of hardship and hiding, on the 7th September, 1945, after a long journey by train, I entered back into Belgium without any papers. Very shortly after that, I met and married my wife, Flore, to whom I have been married for 73 years. (Cheers) (Applause) Thank you. At that time, I was not a happy man. (Laughter) (Chuckles) I did not enjoy being amongst people. That was until our first son, Michael, was born. At that time, my heart was healed and my happiness returned in abundance. I made the promise that from that day until the end of my life, I promised to be happy, smile, be polite, helpful, and kind. I also promised to never put my foot on German soil again. Today, I stand in front of you, a man who has kept all those promises. My greatest happiness comes from my family, my wife, two sons - Michael and Andre - my many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who all bring so much joy. Today, I teach and share happiness with everyone I meet. Happiness does not fall from the sky; it's in your hands. If you're healthy and happy, you're a millionaire. (Chuckles) Happiness also brings good health to the body and mind, and I attribute my 99 years of health mostly to the positive and happy attitude. (Applause) One flower is my garden; one good friend is my world. Young people today forget to stop. They're constantly running and don't know where they're running to. (Laughter) You should take time to be happy and enjoy life. There's a time to laugh and there's a time to cry. I see good things in life. Invite a friend or family member for a meal. Go for a walk. Tomorrow will come, but first enjoy today! (Applause) I wonder how people exist without friendship, without people to share their secrets, hopes, and dreams, to share good fortune or sad losses. In the sweetness of friendship, let there be laughter and sharing of pleasure, good times made better and bad times forgotten - due to the magic of friendship. For me, when I wake up, I'm happy because it is another day to enjoy. When I remember that I should have died a miserable death, but instead I'm alive, so I aim to help people who are down. I was at the bottom of the pit. So If I can make one miserable person smile, I'm happy. (Applause) Remember these words: Please do not walk in front of me - I may not be able to follow. Please do not walk behind me - I may not be able to lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend. (Applause) I will end my talk with a wish from my heart to all your hearts. May you always have lots of love to share, lots of good health to spare, and lots of good friends that care. Thank you for giving me the privilege of speaking to you today. Thank you. (Applause) (Cheers)
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