Eddie Jaku No. 72338

Eddie Jaku was born in Leipzig to a loving family that “regarded themselves as Germans first and foremost, and Jewish only in their home.”

In October 1943, he and his family were arrested. Eddie endured the gruelling train ride to Auschwitz, where his mother, aged 43, and father, 50, were murdered in a gas chamber. Eddie survived, being marked as an ‘economically indispensable Jew’. He was tattooed with the number 72338.

“In Auschwitz, you had to remember your number, if you didn’t remember and they would call your number you would get two lashes. My block supervisor didn’t know my name, he knew my number and that’s how he called me.”

Eddie also survived a death march in January 1945, hiding in a cave in the forest and eating slugs and snails. He was rescued by an American tank in June. Eddie married Flore Molho in Belgium, and the couple left for Australia in 1950 with their son, Michael.

“No one can understand what Auschwitz means. I can’t understand it myself. I know if there is a paradise after this life, they will say, ‘You can come here because you have been in hell.’”

Eddie was photographed by Katherine Griffiths in 2016.