Jack Hausman, who is 101 years old, has seen a lot in his lifetime. He fought in World War II eight decades ago, came home, and took over the family business while continuing to be a pacifist throughout.
However, a wave of recollections left him crying when he was recently presented with France’s Legion of Honor for his wartime heroism in his tiny New York home.
Hausman, surrounded by friends and family in his 80-year-old home, broke down in tears and spoke of his anguish “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 honor the dwindling number of surviving American veterans who fought in the European theater.
The men Hausman wanted to honor on a radiant afternoon in late April, as he himself was honored 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.”
