Saved by his father's WWI comrade
While performing slave labor at the Krupp factory, Jaku discovered that his overseer had been a prisoner of war alongside Jaku's father in 1918 and secretly sustained him with food.
E
Eddie Jaku
German
1920 – 2021
Edward Jaku 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.
On LuvemBooks, we've reviewed The Happiest Man on Earth.
1
Books ReviewedIn Eddie Jaku's own words
Eddie Jaku reflects on his memoir The Happiest Man on Earth, reading a passage on friendship and sharing his philosophy of hope.
Uploaded by Byron Writers Festival, 2022 · Watch on YouTube ·
Rejecting revenge in favor of justice
Jaku insists revenge has no valid place between humans because killing in retaliation only makes one a murderer too, arguing that legal justice must take its place.
Also in this interview
Eddie Jaku books in order
2 books; 1 reviewed on LuvemBooks. Dates and covers from Amazon.
2021Our review →
2022The Happiest Boy on EarthAmazon ↗
Ask LuvemBooks about Eddie Jaku
Eddie Jaku is represented on LuvemBooks by one reviewed title, The Happiest Man on Earth, a memoir in which he recounts his survival of Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps while insisting that happiness is a choice he made every single day after liberation. Writing from personal memory rather than historical distance, Jaku grounds his account in intimate, specific detail — the friendships that kept him alive, the rituals he adopted to rebuild a life in Australia — giving the book an unusually personal texture for Holocaust testimony. With an Amazon reader rating of 4.8 out of 5 from over 29,000 ratings, his single book has clearly found a wide and deeply engaged readership.
- Where should I start?
- With only one reviewed title on LuvemBooks, the answer is straightforward: begin with The Happiest Man on Earth. It is both a Holocaust memoir and a quietly argued case for living well in the aftermath of atrocity, and its relatively short length makes it accessible without feeling thin. The book's 4.8-star Amazon reader rating across more than 29,000 ratings is a reliable signal that it connects with an unusually broad range of readers, not just those who seek out Holocaust literature specifically.
- What's their writing style?
- Jaku writes in a warm, conversational register that reflects his background as a public speaker rather than a professional author — the prose feels like a very careful, considered talk rather than a literary performance. He moves between specific wartime anecdotes and short, aphoristic reflections on what those moments meant, giving the book a rhythm that alternates between testimony and wisdom. What makes his voice distinctive is the absence of bitterness: he acknowledges horror directly but consistently pivots toward what survived or was rebuilt, which gives the memoir an unusual emotional texture among Holocaust accounts.
- Books we've reviewed
- LuvemBooks has reviewed one title by Eddie Jaku: The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor, a Biography & Memoir that doubles as a sustained argument for choosing happiness after catastrophic loss, backed by an Amazon reader rating of 4.8 out of 5 from over 29,000 ratings.
- What genre do they write?
- Eddie Jaku wrote in the Biography & Memoir genre, specifically within the tradition of Holocaust testimony and survivor literature. His book is not purely a historical account, however — it blends personal memoir with philosophical reflection in a way that also places it alongside books about resilience, meaning-making, and how to live. Readers drawn to works like Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning often find Jaku's book covers similar emotional and philosophical territory.
- What should I read after The Happiest Man on Earth?
- Readers who connect with Jaku's blend of Holocaust testimony and philosophy about how to live often move on to Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, which covers similar ground from a psychoanalytic perspective. For more Holocaust memoir that centres survival and resilience, Elie Wiesel's Night is a natural companion. If it is Jaku's optimism and his argument for chosen happiness that resonated most, then works like The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu pursue that question from a very different angle but with comparable warmth.
Who is Eddie Jaku?
Where should I start?
What's their writing style?
Books we've reviewed
What genre do they write?
What should I read after The Happiest Man on Earth?
Who is Eddie Jaku?
Eddie Jaku, born Edward Jaku in Germany, was a Holocaust survivor who lived through Auschwitz and several other Nazi concentration camps during World War II. After the war he emigrated to Australia, where he became known for speaking publicly about his experiences for decades before committing them to the page. He published his memoir, The Happiest Man on Earth, at the age of 99, making his literary debut one of the most remarkable in recent memory. He passed away in 2021, shortly after the book brought his story to a global audience.
Follow up
What happened to Eddie Jaku during the war?
Why did Eddie Jaku call himself the happiest man on Earth?
Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review
Press Enter to ask. Answers come from our editorial Q&A — start typing to see related questions.
Authors Like Eddie Jaku
N
Nelson Mandela
Biography & Memoir
History
Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom shares Jaku's refusal of bitterness, documenting endurance under systemic brutality and political imprisonment while championing human dignity and reconciliation.
1 book reviewed
Alex Haley
Biography & Memoir
History
Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X also offers testimony grounded in atrocity, trading Jaku's determined warmth for the weight of Malcolm X's anger and systemic racism.
1 book reviewed
D
Dr. Owete S. Owete
Biography & Memoir
History
Dr. Owete S. Owete's Home Is Not Far shares the focus on family bonds and generational values, recording cultural identity and what a family stands for.
1 book reviewed
Yeonmi Park
Biography & Memoir
Yeonmi Park's In Order to Live shares a similar memoir arc, tracing a path from systematic dehumanization to hard-won gratitude without false comfort.
1 book reviewed
M
Maryanne Vollers
Biography & Memoir
Maryanne Vollers's In Order to Live shares the same narrative arc from systematic dehumanization to hard-won gratitude, detailing specific, named horrors without offering false comfort.
2 books reviewed
Glennon Doyle
Biography & Memoir
Glennon Doyle’s Untamed shares the core argument of choosing joy and self-authorship, presenting this message without the wartime concentration camp context.
1 book reviewed