The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku

Author:Eddie Jaku [Jaku, Eddie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781760980085
Google: Dfd-zQEACAAJ
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia Pty, Limited
Published: 2020-07-27T14:00:00+00:00

There were also many regular people caught up in the Nazi way against their will. Sometimes I would be working at the factory and one of the guards would whisper to me, ‘What time is your toilet break?’ and then when I took my break, I would find a tin of porridge and milk waiting for me in the stall. It was not much, but it gave me strength, and it gave me hope that there were still good people in the world.

But it was sometimes hard for the good Germans to make themselves known. They had to know that they could trust you. If they were caught helping a Jew, it would mean death for them too. The oppressors were just as afraid as the oppressed. This is fascism – a system that makes victims of everybody.

There was one man in particular, who worked delivering food to the prisoners at the IG Farben factory, who I became friends with. His name was Krauss and as the months passed, we got to know each other very well. He was a civilian, not a Nazi, and when he could, he would sneak me scraps of extra food. They would drive the food in, serve the gruel out of a barrel while we all lined up with our little tin cup, and then drive out the empty drums. The food was horrible, but every extra scrap I could get brought me a little closer to survival.

One time, he got me alone and told me that he had a plan to help me escape. He had made an arrangement for the delivery driver to paint one of the drums of food with a big yellow stripe. This drum would be specially modified, with a chain on the inside. When it was empty, I was to climb inside and pull down the chain very hard to seal the drum. Then the drum would be loaded onto the truck. He would put me on the rear left corner of the truck and when he had left the camp and the coast was clear, he would whistle, indicating that we were halfway between Auschwitz and the factory. Then, I would use my weight to roll the drum off the truck as it went around the corner.

We worked very hard on the plan. On the day, I was very nervous but excited as I climbed into the drum. I held onto the chain for dear life, holding my breath, not making a sound as the drum was loaded onto the truck. I heard the truck start and felt it begin to move and, sure enough, as it was going fast, I heard the driver start to whistle, which was my signal to throw myself at the side of the barrel and roll off the truck.

The drum fell and started rolling downhill, with me inside it, going around and around like a turbine. I held onto the chain very tight as the barrel went faster and faster until it finally hit a tree and stopped abruptly.

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