The Happiest Man on Earth arrives on stage

The Happiest Man on Earth, the remarkable life story of Holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku OAM, will arrive on Australia’s most prestigious stage in May this year, with its Australian premiere at the Sydney Opera House.

Adapted for the stage by acclaimed playwright Mark St Germain and performed by Anton Berezin, the production is based on Jaku’s international bestselling memoir, written late in his life after decades of public silence.

For Australian audiences, the production carries a particular resonance. Jaku was not only a survivor of the Holocaust, but a deeply familiar figure within Sydney’s Jewish and broader communities. He was a man who rebuilt his life in Australia and ultimately became one of the country’s most recognised voices of Holocaust education.

Born Abraham Jakubowicz in Germany in 1920, Jaku’s life was irrevocably altered on Kristallnacht in November 1938, when he was beaten, arrested and imprisoned for being Jewish. During World War II he survived imprisonment in Buchenwald and Auschwitz, endured a death march, escaped, and was eventually rescued by Allied soldiers in 1945.

For decades after the war, Jaku rarely spoke publicly about what he had endured. It was only later in life, encouraged by family and driven by a growing sense of responsibility, that he decided to put pen to paper. His memoir, The Happiest Man on Earth, was published when he was 100 years old, and quickly resonated with readers around the world.