Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku, who published his memoir “The Happiest Man in the World” last year, passed away on Tuesday, October 12, in Sydney at the age of 101. A German Jew living in Australia, survived the horrific “Night of Crystals” in 1938, was imprisoned in the Buchenwald and Auschwitz concentration camps, was rescued by the nicknamed “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele, and resisted the Death March in the winter of 1945.
The announcement of his death was made by the Executive Director of the Jewish Council of New South Wales, Darren Barck: “Eddie Jaku was a beacon of light and hope not only for our community, but for the whole world. the joy that followed and his constant resistance in the face of adversity. “
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison also paid tribute and praised Jaku’s decision to “make his life a testament to how hope and love can defeat despair and hatred.” “It will be sorely missed, especially in our Jewish community. It was inspiration and joy, ”he added.
Treasurer and leader of the Australian Liberal Party, Josh Friedenberg, whose Jewish-Hungarian mother was also a Holocaust survivor and came to Australia in 1950 as a stateless child, in turn said that “Australia has lost a giant”: “He dedicated his life to telling to others about the danger of intolerance and the importance of hope, ”stressed Friedenberg. “Marked by the past, he just looked to the future. Let his story be told to future generations, ”he concluded.
In his biography, published a few months after he turned 100, Jaku tells his story and the obstacles he faced in life. “I have lived a century and I know what it means to face evil. I saw the worst in humanity, the horrors of the death camps, the Nazi attempts to destroy my life and the lives of all my people. I’m the happiest person on Earth, ”he said.
Yaku was born Abraham Yakubovets in April 1920 in the German city of Leipzig. His parents and many other family members did not survive World War II.
