The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor

by Eddie Jaku

If you have the opportunity today, please go home and tell your mother how much you love her. Do this for your mother. And do it for your new friend, Eddie, who cannot tell it to his mother.

This is the most important thing I have ever learned: the greatest thing you will ever do is be loved by another person.

Having even just one good friend means that the world takes on new meaning. One good friend can be your entire world.

Education is a lifesaver.

He was just weak and probably as scared as I was. He let his fear overtake his morals. And I know that for every cruel person in the world, there is a kind one.

I have a belief that if you have good morale, if you can hang onto hope, your body can do miraculous things. Tomorrow will come. When you’re dead, you’re dead, but where there is life, there is hope. Why not give hope a chance? It costs you nothing!

With a simple act of kindness, you can save another person from despair, and that might just save their life. And this is the greatest miracle of all.

If you had told me while I was being tortured and starved in the concentration camps that soon I would be so lucky, I would never have believed you.

Each year, Flore and I celebrate our wedding anniversary on 20 April – Hitler’s birthday. We are still here; Hitler is down there. Sometimes, when we are sitting in the evening in front of the television with a cup of tea and a biscuit, I think, aren’t we lucky? In my mind, this is really the best revenge, and it is the only revenge I am interested in – to be the happiest man on Earth.

Anger leads to fear, which leads to hate, which leads to death.

But you must remember that you are lucky to be alive – we are all lucky in this way. Every breath is a gift. Life is beautiful if you let it be. Happiness is in your hands.