US WWII veteran, 101, honoured by France
NEW YORK: In his 101 years on Earth, Jack Hausman has seen a lot: eight decades ago he endured the battlefields of World War II before returning home and taking over the family business, all the while remaining a lifelong pacifist.
But when he was honoured recently in his small New York home with France’s Legion of Honor for his wartime service, a flood of memories left him sobbing.
His voice breaking with emotion and tears streaming down his cheeks, Hausman, surrounded by friends and family members in his home of 80 years, expressed the pain he felt “for those who are no longer here today.”
As the 80th anniversary of the Allies’ D-Day landing in Normandy approaches on June 6 – and that of Nazi Germany’s surrender the following May 8 – French embassy officials in the United States have been doing their best to honour the dwindling number of surviving American veterans who fought in the European theater.
The men Hausman wanted to honour on a radiant afternoon in late April, as he himself was honoured by the acting French consul in New York, were the 250 members of his regiment of US army engineers and sappers who fought alongside legendary General George Patton in Algeria, Italy, southern France, Central Europe and the Rhineland from 1943 to 1945.
“You’ve made me an important guy,” the Brooklyn-born Hausman said, his voice slightly quaking – but with a mischievous gleam in his eye that brought laughter to his two daughters, both in their 70s, as well as his grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends.
“I felt that I was accepting this for 250 men,” he told acting French consul Damien Laban.
“They did all the hard work. I was included. But believe me, they worked hard. And I... wouldn’t accept the award without them.”
He was fully deserving, replied Laban, because of his “role in liberating France and Europe during World War II.” –