Holocaust survivor writer Eddie Jack dies in Sydney aged 101

0


[ad_1]

Canberra – Last year, Holocaust survivor Eddie Jacques, who published the bestselling memoir ‘Happiest Man on Earth’, died in Sydney, a leader of the Jewish community said. He was 101 years old.

“Eddie Jacques was a light and a hope not only for our community but for the world,” Darren Burke, executive director of the Jewish Parliament of New South Wales, said in a statement. Declared.

“He will always be memorable with the joy that follows him and his constant resilience in the face of adversity,” added Burke.

Jac died on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison paid tribute to Jack’s decision to “make his life a testament to how hope and love can overcome despair and hate”.

“He will be sadly missed, especially by our Jewish community. He was a source of inspiration and joy, ”added Morrison.

Jewish and Hungarian mothers also survived the Holocaust and came to Australia as stateless children in 1950, said Treasury Secretary Josh Frydenberg, “Australia has lost a giant.

advertising

“He has dedicated his life to educating others about the dangers of intolerance and the importance of hope,” Frydenberg said in a statement.

“Afraid of the past, he just couldn’t wait to tell his story for generations,” Frydenberg added.

In his 2019 Sydney address, Jacques said: Hate can destroy your enemies, but it is also a disease that destroys you. “

“Happiness does not fall from the sky. It’s in your hands. I am doing all I can to make this world a better place for everyone, ”he said.

Jak was born in April 1920 in Leipzig, Germany, under the name Abraham “Adi” Jakubowies. Many of his parents and large family did not survive the war.

Because he was Jewish, he left school in 1933 at the age of 13, but was able to qualify for precision engineering in 1938 and complete his high school education in another city.

Jacques tells him that his diplomas escaped the gas chambers in the years that followed because he worked as a slave.

advertising

He was sent to concentration camps such as Buchenwald and Auschwitz, where he escaped. There, his parents were gassed on their arrival.

When the Allies approached, he escaped from what he suspected to be the Auschwitz death march as a prisoner. He went into hiding for months before finding the US military starving and sick with cholera and typhoid fever.

In 1946 he married his Jewish wife Flor, who claimed to be a Christian and waged a relatively peaceful war in Paris, and settled in Australia in 1950.

The husband worked in a garage in Sydney and the wife sewed before going into real estate together.

With an Auschwitz prisoner number tattooed on his left arm, he also volunteered at the Sydney Jewish Museum, sharing his experience and outlook on life with visitors.

“When someone went to talk to Eddie, it really felt like his whole outlook on life had changed,” museum CEO Norman Serigman told Nine Network Television.

advertising

“I realized I was the luckiest man on the planet,” Jak said upon the birth of his eldest son, Andre.

He is survived by his wife of 75 years, his sons Andre and Michael, four grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Copyright 2021 AP communication. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

[ad_2]

Share.

Leave A Reply