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

By Eddie Jaku

A nonfiction book by Eddie Jaku, who was 100 years old when the book was published. The memior recounts Eddie’s life from his idyllic childhood in Germany to his experiences in Auschwitz and his survival of the horrors of the Holocast.  Through a combination of resilience, shrewdness, and sheer luck, Eddie lives to see the Nazis defeated and the camps liberated in 1945, but only after losing most of his family and friends to Adolf Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Though Eddie does not spare the details of the horrors that he has seen and endured, his final message is one of hope: Happiness, he believes, is the “best revenge,” and so he refuses to harbor any feelings of hatred or vengeance—which, he argues, are a kind of prison for the soul. 
This book was made into a play. Chris will lead the discussion.