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.

As he told The AJN when The Happiest Man on Earth was first published, he didn’t want to write a book. But the publishers refused to take ‘no’ for an answer.

“I wanted this book to not only be about my life, but to be about how you can teach your children how to be in the future,” he explained in 2020 when the book was released.

What struck many, and what the stage production seeks to preserve, was not only the horror of his experiences, but the philosophy he drew from them. Despite losing his parents, extended family and homeland, Eddie Jaku refused to live with hatred. Instead, he chose gratitude and kindness, insisting that happiness, even after trauma, could be a conscious decision.

“Happiness is a choice,” he would often say. It’s a line that anchors both the book and the theatrical adaptation.

In Australia, Jaku became a tireless educator, speaking regularly to schoolchildren, students and community groups. He urged young people to stand up to prejudice, to reject indifference, and to value compassion above all else.

That moral clarity underpins St Germain’s adaptation, which has been widely praised by critics.

Announcing the Australian season, Rabbi Alon Meltzer of Shalom Collective said the production felt especially timely.

“This piece of theatre was always going to be a needed piece on Australia’s grandest stage,” Meltzer said. “Eddie was a local hero, a giant of a personality. The importance of learning about the Holocaust — and the importance of rising above trauma to aspire and hope for a better world — is a message the world has always needed to hear, but even more so in the aftermath of the antisemitic terror attack in Bondi.”

Eddie Jaku passed away in 2021, but his final public messages continue to resonate. He urged people to love more openly, to reject hatred, and never to forget where prejudice can lead. In one of his last recorded reflections, he offered a simple instruction that now feels like a legacy: tell your parents you love them.

As The Happiest Man on Earth returns home to Sydney, it does so as a continuation of Eddie Jaku’s life’s work, reminding audiences that even after the darkest chapters of history, light remains possible.

The Happiest Man on Earth will be at The Playhouse, Sydney Opera House from May 12-17. For tickets, visit sydneyoperahouse.com