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Eddie Jaku

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German Holocaust survivor (1920–2021)

Eddie JakuOAM
BornAbraham Jakubowicz
(1920-04-14)14 April 1920
Leipzig, Saxony, Germany
Died12 October 2021(2021-10-12) (aged 101)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Known for

Edward Jaku OAM (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. Eddie had a sister Johanna (Henni) who also survived the Holocaust, and he changed his name to Edward (Eddie) as a tribute to his sister, who called him Eddie as an affectionate nickname.

Biography

Jaku recounts that as a boy in Leipzig, Germany, he truly believed that he was part of "the most enlightened, the most cultured, the most sophisticated society in the whole world". His outlook changed following the rise of Nazis, when he was initially expelled from his school for being Jewish. His father organised an alias for him with false ID papers, and he was sent to an engineering college far away from Leipzig for his own safety. One night in 1938, he came back to visit for his parents' wedding anniversary only to find the house deserted. It was the night of the antisemitic pogrom, Kristallnacht, and he was taken from his bed by stormtroopers and sent to a concentration camp in Buchenwald. Here a former classmate recognised him and recommended him to the camp's leaders as a skilled tool maker. He was released to go and work in a factory, but his father managed to intercept him and they escaped as refugees to Belgium.

Eddie was eventually recaptured several times and, along with his parents and sister, ended up in Auschwitz, where his parents were immediately sent to the gas chambers. His skill as an engineer made him valuable to the Nazi regime and his life was spared. Most of his extended family perished during the war, although his sister Henni survived.

After the war, he returned to Belgium, where he met and married another Jewish survivor, Flore Molho, with whom he had two sons, Michael and Andre. He vowed that he would now "walk from German soil and never come back to the land that had given me everything and taken everything away from me." In 1950 he emigrated to Australia with his wife and first child, Michael. His second child, Andre, was born in Australia.

Jaku served as a volunteer at the Sydney Jewish Museum from November 1992 until its closure due to COVID-19 in March 2020. He gave visitors a first-hand account of surviving the Holocaust. He gave a lecture in 2019 about his life experience during a TEDX Conference in Sydney.

An obituary was published by the BBC.

Death

Jaku died in Sydney on 12 October 2021, aged 101.

His wife Flore died on 6 July 2022, also in Sydney, at age 98.

Honours

Association Award Year Results
Australian Government Medal of the Order of Australia 2013 Honoured
New South Wales Government Australian Senior of the Year 2020 Nominated
Australian Publishers Association Australian Book Industry Award (for The Happiest Man on Earth) 2021 Honoured

References

  1. "Mr Edward Jaku". It's an Honour. Archived from the original on 26 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  2. McGuirk, Rod (12 October 2021). "Holocaust survivor and author Eddie Jaku dies in Sydney, aged 101". timesofisrael.com. Jaku died on Tuesday
  3. ^ "Eddie Jaku obituary". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  4. Jaku, Eddie (2020). The Happiest Man On Earth. Australia: MacMillan Australia. pp. 1–135. ISBN 978-1760980085.
  5. Benjamin, Henry (13 April 2020). "Happy 100th Eddie!". J-Wire. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  6. Jaku, Eddie (May 2019), A Holocaust survivor's blueprint for happiness, retrieved 28 January 2022
  7. "Eddie Jaku: Holocaust survivor and peace campaigner dies aged 101". BBC News. 12 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  8. Ibrahim, Tony (12 October 2021). "Eddie Jaku, holocaust survivor who called himself 'the happiest man on Earth' dies aged 101". Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  9. "Eddie Jaku: Holocaust survivor and peace campaigner dies aged 101". BBC News. 12 October 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  10. Doherty, Ben (12 October 2021). "'Beacon of hope': Holocaust survivor and peace campaigner Eddie Jaku dies at 101". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  11. "Holocaust survivor-author Eddie Jaku dies in Sydney aged 101". euronews. Associated Press (AP). 12 October 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  12. https://www.nswjbd.org/vale-flore-jaku/
  13. "'Phosphorescence' wins 2021 ABIA Book of the Year". Books+Publishing. 28 April 2021. Archived from the original on 29 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.

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