In this week’s Word of Encouragement, I’d like to thank Ursula for her note that included a link to a powerful video interview with Eddie Jaku, a 101-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Truthfully, after hearing Eddie start the interview on the TODAY show by saying, “If I make can make one miserable person smile, I am happy,” I wasn’t sure there was any way to capture his spirit in my writing.
Born in Leipzig, Germany in 1920, Abraham Salomon Jakubowic enjoyed a big, loving family. However, Eddie was captured by the Germans in 1938. He escaped, was recaptured, and ultimately sent to Auschwitz.
He recalls, “My number was 172338…. When they tattooed the number on my arm, I was sentenced to a slow death, but first they wanted to kill my spirit.”
Yet, despite having “seen the very worst in mankind, the horrors of the death camps, the Nazi efforts to exterminate my life, and the lives of all my people,” Jaku’s indomitable spirit could not be extinguished.
After the war, he weighed a mere 28 kilograms and was gravely sick with cholera and typhoid. He recovered and went to Belgium, where he met and ultimately married his wife, Flore. And with the birth of his son, he realized that he was “the happiest man on Earth. My heart was healed and my happiness returned in abundance. Through all my years, I have learnt this: Every day I wake up is a happy day. Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. And happiness is something we can choose. It is up to you.”
At the ripe young age of 99, after giving a TEDx talk that was met with an enthusiastic standing ovation, he decided that he would publish his book, “The Happiest Man on Earth.” As the post-COVID world gets back on its feet, perhaps we can all apply some of the lessons that Eddie shared in his book.
For example, at his lowest moment, his friend Kurt Hirschfeld, convinced him to keep on living. “If I could survive one more day, an hour, a minute, then the pain would end and tomorrow would come.” As he reflected on his friendship with Kurt, he stated that “having even just one good friend can be your entire world. The best balm for the soul is friendship.”
Beyond this timeless advice, in his TEDx talk he also stated that, “I could not hate anyone, not even Hitler. Hate is a disease which may destroy your enemy, but will destroy you in the process. You may not like everyone, but that doesn’t give you the right to be nasty to them. I don’t love everyone, but I hate no one.” He also extolled the value of friendship and the fact that a shared soul is half a soul, but shared pleasure is double pleasure.
What has Eddie learned through his journey? “The greatest gift is to be loved by another person. Love saved me. My family saved me. Small acts of kindness last longer than a lifetime. When there is life there is hope. Where there is no hope, you are finished.”
As I thought about Eddie’s comments, I was reminded of the family members, friends and teachers who have been there for me when I needed a little nudge or encouragement to keep going. Who are the people in your life that have done that for you?
Collectively, we owe them a debt of gratitude. More importantly, maybe we can be like Eddie and offer others a sense of hope that we can come out of this pandemic better and stronger.
If you are wondering what that might look like, perhaps these words in Corinthians might help: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”
Oh, one final encouraging note. Eddie reminded us that that if you are healthy, you are a multi-millionaire. So here is some great news for a whole bunch of people reading this—SURPRISE! YOU’RE A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE!
