A Message from Arnold Mittelman After a career in not-for-profit and commercial theater spanning more than 40 years I was honored in 2007 to found the National Jewish Theater / Foundation and in 2010 to assume leadership of its Holocaust Theater International...
The Happiest Man on Earth
Author(s): Mark St. Germain
This true, triumphant story brings the extraordinary journey of Eddie Jaku to life. Eddie was born Abraham Jakubowicz in Germany in 1920. He survived WWII, twice a prisoner in concentration camps for being Jewish, and deported out of Belgium because he was a German. On November 9, 1938, during the terrifying violence of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Eddie was beaten by SS thugs, arrested, and sent to a concentration camp with thousands of other Jews across Germany. Every day of the next seven years of his life, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors in Buchenwald, Auschwitz, and finally on a forced death march during the Third Reich’s final days. He endured innumerable harrowing experiences while navigating and evading multiple Nazi concentration camps. The Nazis took everything from Eddie—his family, his friends, and his country. But they did not break his spirit. Eddie’s story is one of unimaginable grief and tragic loss, yet it is a testament to the indomitable spirit of the human soul. Defying all odds, he declared himself "The Happiest Man on Earth," as evidenced by his resilience and determination to find light even in the darkest circumstances.
Format: Full-length play
Cast Size: 1M
Running Time: 85 minutes
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF), Shepherdstown, West Virginia, July 2024. U.K. debut at the Southwark Playhouse Borough, London; November 20–December 14, 2024; directed by Ron Lagomarsino.
Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF), Shepherdstown, West Virginia, July 2024. U.K. debut at the Southwark Playhouse Borough, London; November 20–December 14, 2024; directed by Ron Lagomarsino.
Original Source Material: Based on the memoir by Eddie Jaku, The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor.
Nationality of Author: U.S.
Original Language: English
Production Rights Holder:
Experience(s) Chronicled: Concentration and Extermination Camps | Survivors and Subsequent Generations | The Ghettos | Reactions to the Holocaust | Liberation | Germany, Hitler and the Growth of Nazism
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Jewish Theater Foundation presented its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alfred Uhry. The presentation took place as part of the Lincoln Center Library event on January 27th 2025 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
Lifetime Achievement Award
On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.