Stamford native writes book in hopes of finding father's stolen war medal
By Kat Russell, Reporter
Stamford Advocate
November 26, 2017
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/Stamford-native-writes-book-in-hopes-of-finding-12384531.php#photo-14606828
By Kat Russell, Reporter
Stamford Advocate
November 26, 2017
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/Stamford-native-writes-book-in-hopes-of-finding-12384531.php#photo-14606828
STAMFORD — It all started with an email about seven years ago.
Stamford native Eric Housman-Houston and Einat Amitay didn’t know each other, but they had a connection.
Amitay sent Houston an email after spending several years researching his father, Fred Hausman.
“She said, ‘you may not know this but your father is very famous in Israel,’” Houston said of her email. “I thought to myself, ‘this must be junk mail or something.”
But Amitay’s email mentioned, “And There Was Evening,” a children’s book Houston’s father had illustrated decades earlier.
“I remembered this book because my dad had found a copy at a tiny little book store in Israel in the early 1990s and brought it home to us,” said Houston, who now lives in New York. “He couldn’t believe it had been published.”
Unbeknownst to his father, the book was published in 1950 and gained widespread popularity, Houston said.
Amitay, who had spent years researching the book for a personal project on Kibbutz illustrators, was trying to learn about Hausman, a search that eventually led her to Houston.
That email, Houston said, began his own quest to tell his father’s story. Houston’s research culminated with him writing a book — “The Lost Artist” — that was recently published.
“I wanted to tell my father’s story, but I never thought I would,” Houston said. “His story was just too complex and foreign to me. But when Einat came to me with her story — with her search for my father — I was very moved. It just seemed like this story was too much to not want to tell.”
In 1934, the 13-year-old Hausman fled Nazi Germany on his own and headed to the Ben Shemen Youth Village in Palestine.
Born in 1921 in Bingen am Rhein, Germany, Houston said his father “saw the writing on the wall” as the Nazi party rose to power and violence against Jews escalated.
About seven years after escaping, Hausman enlisted in the British Army, eventually earning in 1944 the Distinguished Combat Medal — the highest honor awarded to a non-British citizen in the British Army.
But more than 50 years later, Houston claims his father’s medal was stolen by a British crime ring in the British Ministry of Defense and illegally sold at auction to a powerful British billionaire.
The book, Houston said, was his way of telling his father’s story and about the stolen medal with the hope of garnering support to reclaim it.
“That medal is the most important medal to the state of Israel,” he said. “And my father felt that medal should go to his grandchildren. When he was dying, his last request was for us to get his medal back.”
Houston’s book is available on Amazon. He said the proceeds will support his legal efforts to reclaim his father’s medal with any remaining funds donated to a charity for veterans.
“People have shown a lot of interest in my father’s story,” he said. “And there’s been a lot of interest in my father’s stolen medal. I didn’t write this book to make money. I wrote it because I wanted to tell my father’s story. I wanted people to know that these people — this crime ring — that stole my father’s medal were dishonoring his memory and those of other soldiers.”
kat.russell@stamfordadvocate.com
Stamford native Eric Housman-Houston and Einat Amitay didn’t know each other, but they had a connection.
Amitay sent Houston an email after spending several years researching his father, Fred Hausman.
“She said, ‘you may not know this but your father is very famous in Israel,’” Houston said of her email. “I thought to myself, ‘this must be junk mail or something.”
But Amitay’s email mentioned, “And There Was Evening,” a children’s book Houston’s father had illustrated decades earlier.
“I remembered this book because my dad had found a copy at a tiny little book store in Israel in the early 1990s and brought it home to us,” said Houston, who now lives in New York. “He couldn’t believe it had been published.”
Unbeknownst to his father, the book was published in 1950 and gained widespread popularity, Houston said.
Amitay, who had spent years researching the book for a personal project on Kibbutz illustrators, was trying to learn about Hausman, a search that eventually led her to Houston.
That email, Houston said, began his own quest to tell his father’s story. Houston’s research culminated with him writing a book — “The Lost Artist” — that was recently published.
“I wanted to tell my father’s story, but I never thought I would,” Houston said. “His story was just too complex and foreign to me. But when Einat came to me with her story — with her search for my father — I was very moved. It just seemed like this story was too much to not want to tell.”
In 1934, the 13-year-old Hausman fled Nazi Germany on his own and headed to the Ben Shemen Youth Village in Palestine.
Born in 1921 in Bingen am Rhein, Germany, Houston said his father “saw the writing on the wall” as the Nazi party rose to power and violence against Jews escalated.
About seven years after escaping, Hausman enlisted in the British Army, eventually earning in 1944 the Distinguished Combat Medal — the highest honor awarded to a non-British citizen in the British Army.
But more than 50 years later, Houston claims his father’s medal was stolen by a British crime ring in the British Ministry of Defense and illegally sold at auction to a powerful British billionaire.
The book, Houston said, was his way of telling his father’s story and about the stolen medal with the hope of garnering support to reclaim it.
“That medal is the most important medal to the state of Israel,” he said. “And my father felt that medal should go to his grandchildren. When he was dying, his last request was for us to get his medal back.”
Houston’s book is available on Amazon. He said the proceeds will support his legal efforts to reclaim his father’s medal with any remaining funds donated to a charity for veterans.
“People have shown a lot of interest in my father’s story,” he said. “And there’s been a lot of interest in my father’s stolen medal. I didn’t write this book to make money. I wrote it because I wanted to tell my father’s story. I wanted people to know that these people — this crime ring — that stole my father’s medal were dishonoring his memory and those of other soldiers.”
kat.russell@stamfordadvocate.com
