The Happiest Man on Earth
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Narrated by:
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Jacek Koman
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By:
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Eddie Jaku
About this listen
WINNER OF THE ABIA BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR 2021
Life can be beautiful if you make it beautiful. It is up to you.
Eddie Jaku always considered himself a German first, a Jew second. He was proud of his country. But all of that changed in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp.
Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, then in Auschwitz, then on a Nazi death march. He lost family, friends, his country.
Because he survived, Eddie made the vow to smile every day. He pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom and living his best possible life. He now believes he is the 'happiest man on earth'.
Published as Eddie turns 100, this is a powerful, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful memoir of how happiness can be found even in the darkest of times.
Now featuring an inspiring new Afterword
SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABA NIELSEN BOOK BOOKSELLERS' CHOICE - ADULT NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS FOR NON-FICTION 2021
LONGLISTED FOR MATT RICHELL AWARD FOR NEW WRITER OF THE YEAR 2021
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Critic reviews
"This simple, moving account of a remarkable life offers plenty to think about and reflect on...Highly recommended." (Canberra Weekly)
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In the spring of 1944 gendarmes forcibly removed Tibor “Max” Eisen and his family from their home, brought them to a brickyard, and eventually loaded them onto crowded cattle cars bound for Auschwitz-Birkenau. At 15 years of age, Eisen survived the selection process and he was inducted into the camp as a slave laborer. More than 70 years after the Nazi camps were liberated by the Allies, By Chance Alone details Eisen’s story of survival.
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A must read
- By Suszanne Guymer on 07-17-19
By: Max Eisen
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Our Crime Was Being Jewish
- Hundreds of Holocaust Survivors Tell Their Stories
- By: Anthony S. Pitch
- Narrated by: Malk Williams, Fenella Fudge
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Our Crime Was Being Jewish contains 576 vivid memories of 358 Holocaust survivors. These are the true, insider stories of victims, told in their own words. They include the experiences of teenagers who saw their parents and siblings sent to the gas chambers; of starving children beaten for trying to steal a morsel of food; of people who saw their friends commit suicide to save themselves from the daily agony they endured.
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Shocking, sad, a real eye opener!!
- By Jim on 08-31-17
By: Anthony S. Pitch
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Born Survivors
- Three Young Mothers and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance, and Hope
- By: Wendy Holden
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Eastern Europe, 1944: Three women believe they are pregnant, but are torn from their husbands before they can be certain. Rachel is sent to Auschwitz, unaware that her husband has been shot. Priska and her husband travel there together, but are immediately separated. Also at Auschwitz, Anka hopes in vain to be reunited with her husband. With the rest of their families gassed, these young wives are determined to hold on to all they have left-their lives, and those of their unborn babies.
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Just an incredible story!
- By PCF on 06-03-17
By: Wendy Holden
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Maybe You Will Survive
- A Holocaust Memoir
- By: Aron Goldfarb, Graham Diamond
- Narrated by: Laurence Dobiesz
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In Graham Diamond's collaboration with Aron Goldfarb, the reader feels the struggles of people trying to survive during the Holocaust. The author recounts his experiences in Poland during the Holocaust, when he escaped from a forced labour camp and, with his brother, hid in underground holes on the grounds of an estate controlled by the Gestapo.
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Not accurate in all ways
- By Dinner on 05-11-20
By: Aron Goldfarb, and others
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A Lucky Child
- A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy
- By: Thomas Buergenthal
- Narrated by: Thomas Buergenthal, Don Hagen
- Length: 5 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Thomas Buergenthal, now a Judge in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, tells his astonishing experiences as a young boy in his memoir, A Lucky Child. He arrived at Auschwitz at age 10 after surviving two ghettos and a labor camp. Separated first from his mother and then his father, Buergenthal managed by his wits and some remarkable strokes of luck to survive on his own. Almost two years after his liberation, Buergenthal was miraculously reunited with his mother and in 1951 arrived in the U.S. to start a new life.
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Compelling Account
- By Simone on 04-23-15
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Two Rings
- A Story of Love and War
- By: Millie Werber, Eve Keller
- Narrated by: Yelena Shmulenson, Eve Keller
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Trapped in Poland in 1941, like many Jews, Millie Werber went from the Radom Ghetto to slave labor in an armaments factory, survived Auschwitz, and toiled in a second factory until liberation came on April 1, 1945. She faced death many times but lived to marry a good man and fellow survivor. Meanwhile, she concealed a photograph in her closet and carried a secret in her heart.
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What a love story
- By Sbear on 11-19-18
By: Millie Werber, and others
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William & Rosalie
- A Holocaust Testimony (Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Series)
- By: William Schiff, Rosalie Schiff, Craig Hanley
- Narrated by: Michael Fischbein
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1941, newlyweds William and Rosalie Schiff are forcibly separated and sent on their individual odysseys through a surreal maze of hate. Terror in the Krakow ghetto, sadistic SS death games, cruel human medical experiments, eyewitness accounts of brutal murders of men, women, children, and even infants, and the menace of rape in occupied Poland make William & Rosalie an unusually explicit view of the chaos that World War II unleashed on the Jewish people.
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Speachless, I wont forget this book
- By Shad on 12-17-14
By: William Schiff, and others
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Harry Haft: Survivor of Auschwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano
- Religion, Theology and the Holocaust
- By: Alan Scott Haft
- Narrated by: Price Waldman
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Alan Scott Haft provides the first-hand testimony of his father, Harry Haft, a holocaust victim with a singular story of endurance, desperation, and unrequited love. Harry Haft was a 16-year-old Polish Jew when he entered a concentration camp in 1944. Forced to fight other Jews in bare-knuckle bouts for the perverse entertainment of SS officers, Harry quickly learned that his own survival depended on his ability to fight and win. Haft details the inhumanity of the "sport" in which he must perform in brutal contests for the officers.
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Human Cruelty and Love
- By Charles N. Erickson on 05-27-22
By: Alan Scott Haft
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My Friend Anne Frank
- The Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds
- By: Hannah Pick-Goslar, Dina Kraft
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1933, Hannah Pick-Goslar and her family fled Nazi Germany to live in Amsterdam, where she struck up a close friendship with her next-door neighbor, an outspoken and fun-loving young girl named Anne Frank. For several years, the inseparable pair enjoyed a carefree childhood of games, sleepovers, and treats with the other children in their neighborhood of Rivierenbuurt. But in 1942, Hannah and Anne's lives abruptly changed forever.
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the missing piece to Anne’s story and the complete picture of Hannah’s
- By Wilson on 07-13-23
By: Hannah Pick-Goslar, and others
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Invisible Jews
- Surviving the Holocaust in Poland
- By: Eddie Bielawski
- Narrated by: Norman Gilligan
- Length: 2 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Eddie Bielawski was born in the town of Wegrow in Poland in mid-1938. Not a propitious time and place for a Jewish child to be born. As a young child, he sees the Nazi army marching toward Russia. Day and night they marched - soldiers, trucks, tanks, and more soldiers, in a never-ending line - an invincible force. One night, his father had a dream. In this dream, he saw what he had to do: where to build the bunker, how to build it, and even its dimensions. This would be their Noah's Ark, saving them from the initial deluge.
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Surviving not the camps, but being in hiding!
- By Logophile on 04-26-18
By: Eddie Bielawski
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999
- The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz
- By: Heather Dune Macadam, Caroline Moorehead - foreword
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 13 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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On March 25, 1942, nearly a thousand young, unmarried Jewish women boarded a train in Poprad, Slovakia. Filled with a sense of adventure and national pride, they left their parents' homes wearing their best clothes and confidently waving good-bye. Believing they were going to work in a factory for a few months, they were eager to report for government service. Instead, the young women - many of them teenagers - were sent to Auschwitz. Their government paid 500 Reich Marks (about $200) apiece for Nazis to take them as slave labor. Of those 999 innocent deportees, only a few survived.
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I don’t think you can ever fully understand
- By Shelley on 02-25-20
By: Heather Dune Macadam, and others
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On the Run in Nazi Berlin
- A Memoir
- By: Bert Lewyn, Bev Saltzman Lewyn - contributor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Suzanne Toren
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Berlin, 1942. The Gestapo arrest 18-year-old Bert Lewyn and his parents, sending the latter to their deaths and Bert to work in a factory making guns for the Nazi war effort. Miraculously tipped off the morning the Gestapo round up all the Jews who work in the factories, Bert goes underground. He finds shelter sometimes with compassionate civilians, sometimes with people who find his skills useful and sometimes in the cellars of bombed-out buildings.
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NOT YOUR USUAL STORY ABOUT THE NAZIS...FANTASTIC!
- By Steve on 03-21-19
By: Bert Lewyn, and others
What listeners say about The Happiest Man on Earth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-31-20
A must for everyone to hear
A harrowing story with lessons that everyone can heed. Fantastically written and performed. Very much recommend.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-15-21
Wonderful inspiring true life story
I've never before heard of the terrible suffering of the Jews, disabled and human misfits as deemed in the Nazi Germany, in such passionate and truely horrific detail. Many other cruel events have happened before and since the holocaust, but the holocaust is a modern day event that must never be forgotten. Thank you Eddie Jaku for creating an enduring memory for us all.
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- Joshua
- 06-09-21
Goodness me!
I've read a few holocaust survivour books, this one is arguably the best.
The reason, for me it takes the listener full circle through the emotional spectrum.
Very good listen, worth the credit for sure!
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- debbie
- 09-11-20
should be 10 stars
A hopeful book for such a dark time. Excellent , wish it was longer. Worth the credit
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- mathew
- 07-06-22
exceptional experience
love ,family , persistence, courage
I am grateful to have listened to the man's life
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- Rachelle Leslie
- 08-16-22
Inspiring & heartfelt!
It took me 2 days to listen to this book! Eddie is a pleasure to listen too - some of the stories are horrifying but Eddies attitude and perseverance is inspiring! A truly incredible man with a very important message!
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- Oltimer
- 08-26-22
The last 2 chapters are the key
For me I could only appreciate the message of kindness and Eddies life story after hearing the last two chapters. The horrors of holocaust were not in my focus when reading this book as I studied this material before. I reached for this book for insights on how he overcame the traumas. Only after reading the last two chapters the gaps in comprehension of his wisdom were filled. I would have loved to know more about his journey.
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- Infragelis
- 08-20-20
As good as it gets - 6 stars
Resilient. Loving. Graceful. Tragic. Loving. Memorable. Beautiful. This book truly is life changing. Simply breathtaking. What a gentleman.
This should be compulsory reading in schools.
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- George
- 03-13-21
Makes one appreciate what we take for granted
Powerful story and a profound message. Makes you stop to smell the coffee and reflect on your own life. History as told by the people who were there is extremely insightful and powerful. I am so glad I read this book.
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- Jean Soh
- 11-06-22
Inspiring and moving
A book that reached deep into my heart, a history we should never forget and a reminder of what it takes to make the world a better place, start with “kindness”
A message that I will hold in my heart, “Do not live in anger and hatred”
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