6
FROM THE SHELF
OCTOBER 6�13, 2021
CHECKING OUT THE
WORLD OF BOOKS
‘The Happiest Man on Earth: The
Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor’
By Lisa Britton
Go! Magazine
s I slid the book off the
shelf, my daughter had an
immediate reaction.
“Really, Mom? That’s going to
make you cry,” she said with the
wisdom of a 14-year-old who
can’t believe her mom tears up
over books and movies.
I checked it out anyway.
The title seems to contradict
itself: “The Happiest Man on
Earth: The Beautiful Life of an
Auschwitz Survivor.”
I haven’t read an exhaustive
list of books about Auschwitz,
but I’ve read quite a few — and
I’d never equate the words
“happy” and “beautiful” with that
time in the world’s history.
But as I read the words of this
man, who is 101, I was awed by
his story.
It is not a happy story. He
endured horrors that I cannot
imagine. No matter how many
stories I read about the Holo-
caust, I can’t believe something
so awful, so evil, could possibly
happen.
Every chapter begins with his words of wisdom:
“Hug your mother.”
“One good friend is my whole world.”
“There are always miracles in the world, even when it
seems dark.”
“Love is the best medicine.”
A
Yet it did. And Eddie Jaku
lived to tell his tale.
After I zipped through this
book, I ordered my own copy
from the local bookstore. It is a
story I need to read again, and
I want my children to read it
as well.
It is sad, of course, but we
should never lose the ability
to ache over human suff ering.
I hope I always tear up when I
read about how prisoners were
divided into two lines — one des-
tined to work for the concentra-
tion camp, and the other doomed
to death in the gas chambers.
So many times family members
were separated and I can’t imag-
ine the heartbreak and horror of
watching my loved ones walk to
an uncertain — or certain — fate.
Even now, as I think about
these atrocities, my stomach
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aches and my vision grows
blurry.
Jaku used the phrase “hap-
piest man” in his title. As he tells
his story, he shares his wisdom
of how he survived emotionally
— and it was not by becoming
angry and bitter.
He will never forgive Hitler, he
says — that wouldn’t be fair to
himself or the 6 million people
who died in the Holocaust at the
hands of the Nazis.
But he is not angry. He saw
fi rsthand what anger can make
a person do — anger can lead
to the hatred and violence that
caused Germans to turn on
their fellow countrymen, many
Jewish citizens, to beat and kill
and imprison.
Throughout the book Jaku
uses words to combat the Nazi
regime — words such as love,
kindness, hope. Every chapter
begins with his words of wisdom:
“Hug your mother.”
“One good friend is my whole
world.”
“There are always miracles in
Lisa Britton/Go! Magazine
the world, even when it seems
dark.”
“Love is the best medicine.”
I am so glad Jaku shared his
story with the world. It will stay
with me forever.