Tibor Rubin
Encyclopedia
Tibor "Ted" Rubin is a Hungarian
-born Holocaust survivor who emigrated to the United States
in 1948 and received the Medal of Honor
for his actions in the Korean War
by President George W. Bush
on September 23, 2005. Rubin is a resident of Garden Grove, California
.
Rubin was repeatedly nominated for various medals and awards, but was overlooked because of anti-Semitism
by a superior: according to the Washington Post, "in affidavits filed in support of Rubin's nomination, fellow soldiers said their sergeant was an anti-Semite who gave Rubin dangerous assignments in hopes of getting him killed."
, a Hungarian town with a Jewish population of 120 families, the son of a shoemaker and one of six children. At age 13, he was transported to the Mauthausen concentration camp
in Austria and liberated two years later by American troops. Both his parents and two of his sisters perished in the Holocaust.
In 1949, he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army, both as an assumed shortcut to citizenship and, he hoped, to attend the Army’s butcher school in Chicago. Knowing hardly any English, he failed the language test, but tried again in 1950 and passed, with some judicious help from two fellow test-takers.
Rubin found himself fighting on the frontlines in Korea with I Company, Eighth Regiment, First Cavalry Division. There he encountered an allegedly anti-Semitic sergeant who consistently "volunteered" Rubin for the most dangerous patrols and missions. This was attested to by lengthy affidavits submitted by nearly a dozen men who served under him, mostly self-described "country boys" from the South and Midwest.
On one such mission, according to the testimonies of his comrades, Rubin secured a route of retreat for his company by single-handedly defending a hill for 24 hours against waves of North Korean soldiers. For this and other acts of bravery, Rubin was three times recommended for the Medal of Honor by two of his commanding officers. Both were killed in action shortly after, but not before ordering Rubin's sergeant to begin the necessary paperwork to secure the medals for Rubin. Some of Rubin’s fellow GIs were present when the order was issued, and all are convinced that the sergeant deliberately ignored the orders. "I really believe, in my heart, that [the sergeant] would have jeopardized his own safety rather than assist in any way whatsoever in the awarding of the medal to a person of Jewish descent," wrote Corporal Harold Speakman in a notarized affidavit.
camp.
Faced with constant hunger, filth and disease, most of the GIs simply gave up. "No one wanted to help anyone. Everybody was for himself," wrote Sergeant Leo A. Cormier Jr., a fellow prisoner.
The exception was Rubin. Almost every evening, he would sneak out of the camp to steal food from Chinese and North Korean supply depots, knowing that he would be shot if caught. "He shared the food evenly among the GIs," Cormier wrote. "He also took care of us, nursed us, carried us to the latrine... He did many good deeds, which he told us were mitzvah
s in the Jewish tradition... He was a very religious Jew and helping his fellow men was the most important thing to him." The survivors of the camp credited Rubin with keeping them alive.
Rubin refused his captors' repeated offers of repatriation to Hungary, by then behind the Iron Curtain
.
Citation:
) established a review of Medal of Honor nominations for servicemen of the Jewish faith or extraction whose nominations may have been derailed because of antisemitism.
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
-born Holocaust survivor who emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1948 and received the Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
for his actions in the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
by President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
on September 23, 2005. Rubin is a resident of Garden Grove, California
Garden Grove, California
Garden Grove is a city located in northern Orange County, California. The population was 170,883 at the 2010 census. State Route 22, also known as the Garden Grove Freeway, passes through the city running east-west. The city is known outside the Southern California area for being the home of Robert H...
.
Rubin was repeatedly nominated for various medals and awards, but was overlooked because of anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
by a superior: according to the Washington Post, "in affidavits filed in support of Rubin's nomination, fellow soldiers said their sergeant was an anti-Semite who gave Rubin dangerous assignments in hopes of getting him killed."
Childhood in Hungary
Rubin was born in PásztóPásztó
Pásztó is a town in Nógrád county, Hungary.- External links :*...
, a Hungarian town with a Jewish population of 120 families, the son of a shoemaker and one of six children. At age 13, he was transported to the Mauthausen concentration camp
Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp
Mauthausen Concentration Camp grew to become a large group of Nazi concentration camps that was built around the villages of Mauthausen and Gusen in Upper Austria, roughly east of the city of Linz.Initially a single camp at Mauthausen, it expanded over time and by the summer of 1940, the...
in Austria and liberated two years later by American troops. Both his parents and two of his sisters perished in the Holocaust.
Emigration to the United States
Rubin came to the United States in 1948, settled in New York and worked first as a shoemaker and then as a butcher.In 1949, he tried to enlist in the U.S. Army, both as an assumed shortcut to citizenship and, he hoped, to attend the Army’s butcher school in Chicago. Knowing hardly any English, he failed the language test, but tried again in 1950 and passed, with some judicious help from two fellow test-takers.
Antisemitism in the army
By July of that year, Private First ClassPrivate First Class
Private First Class is a military rank held by junior enlisted persons.- Singapore :The rank of Private First Class in the Singapore Armed Forces lies between the ranks of Private and Lance-Corporal . It is usually held by conscript soldiers midway through their national service term...
Rubin found himself fighting on the frontlines in Korea with I Company, Eighth Regiment, First Cavalry Division. There he encountered an allegedly anti-Semitic sergeant who consistently "volunteered" Rubin for the most dangerous patrols and missions. This was attested to by lengthy affidavits submitted by nearly a dozen men who served under him, mostly self-described "country boys" from the South and Midwest.
On one such mission, according to the testimonies of his comrades, Rubin secured a route of retreat for his company by single-handedly defending a hill for 24 hours against waves of North Korean soldiers. For this and other acts of bravery, Rubin was three times recommended for the Medal of Honor by two of his commanding officers. Both were killed in action shortly after, but not before ordering Rubin's sergeant to begin the necessary paperwork to secure the medals for Rubin. Some of Rubin’s fellow GIs were present when the order was issued, and all are convinced that the sergeant deliberately ignored the orders. "I really believe, in my heart, that [the sergeant] would have jeopardized his own safety rather than assist in any way whatsoever in the awarding of the medal to a person of Jewish descent," wrote Corporal Harold Speakman in a notarized affidavit.
Chinese POW camp
Toward the end of October 1950, massive Chinese troop concentrations crossed the border into North Korea and attacked the unprepared Americans. After most of his regiment had been wiped out, the severely wounded Rubin was captured and spent the next 30 months in a prisoner of warPrisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
camp.
Faced with constant hunger, filth and disease, most of the GIs simply gave up. "No one wanted to help anyone. Everybody was for himself," wrote Sergeant Leo A. Cormier Jr., a fellow prisoner.
The exception was Rubin. Almost every evening, he would sneak out of the camp to steal food from Chinese and North Korean supply depots, knowing that he would be shot if caught. "He shared the food evenly among the GIs," Cormier wrote. "He also took care of us, nursed us, carried us to the latrine... He did many good deeds, which he told us were mitzvah
Mitzvah
The primary meaning of the Hebrew word refers to precepts and commandments as commanded by God...
s in the Jewish tradition... He was a very religious Jew and helping his fellow men was the most important thing to him." The survivors of the camp credited Rubin with keeping them alive.
Rubin refused his captors' repeated offers of repatriation to Hungary, by then behind the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
.
Medal of Honor citation
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty:
Corporal Tibor Rubin distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism during the period from July 23, 1950, to April 20, 1953, while serving as a rifleman with Company I, 8th Cavalry RegimentU.S. 8th Cavalry RegimentThe 8th Cavalry Regiment was constituted 28 July 1866 and organized as a regiment on 21 September 1866 at Camp Reynolds, Angel Island, California. Enlisted personnel were "composed chiefly of men enlisted on the Pacific Coast, and included many of the class styled 'Forty-niners'; men who had worked...
, 1st Cavalry Division in the Republic of Korea. While his unit was retreating to the Pusan Perimeter, Corporal Rubin was assigned to stay behind to keep open the vital Taegu-Pusan Road link used by his withdrawing unit. During the ensuing battle, overwhelming numbers of North Korean troops assaulted a hill defended solely by Corporal Rubin. He inflicted a staggering number of casualties on the attacking force during his personal 24-hour battle, single-handedly slowing the enemy advance and allowing the 8th Cavalry Regiment to complete its withdrawal successfully.
Following the breakout from the Pusan Perimeter, the 8th Cavalry Regiment proceeded northward and advanced into North Korea. During the advance, he helped capture several hundred North Korean soldiers. On October 30, 1950, Chinese forces attacked his unit at UnsanUnsanUnsan is a kun, or county, in eastern North Pyongan province, North Korea. Within the province, it borders Hyangsan in the east, Kujang and Nyongbyon in the south, and Tongchang and Taechon in the west...
, North Korea, during a massive nighttime assault. That night and throughout the next day, he manned a .30 caliber machine gun at the south end of the unit's line after three previous gunners became casualties. He continued to man his machine gun until his ammunition was exhausted. His determined stand slowed the pace of the enemy advance in his sector, permitting the remnants of his unit to retreat southward.
As the battle raged, Corporal Rubin was severely wounded and captured by the Chinese. Choosing to remain in the prison camp despite offers from the Chinese to return him to his native Hungary, Corporal Rubin disregarded his own personal safety and immediately began sneaking out of the camp at night in search of food for his comrades. Breaking into enemy food storehouses and gardens, he risked certain torture or death if caught. Corporal Rubin provided not only food to the starving Soldiers, but also desperately needed medical care and moral support for the sick and wounded of the POW camp.
His brave, selfless efforts were directly attributed to saving the lives of as many as forty of his fellow prisoners.
Jewish veterans
The Jewish War Veterans Act (officially the Leonard Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act of 2001, after another Jewish Army veteran in the Korean War, and uncle and namesake of Lenny KravitzLenny Kravitz
Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...
) established a review of Medal of Honor nominations for servicemen of the Jewish faith or extraction whose nominations may have been derailed because of antisemitism.
See also
- List of Medal of Honor recipients
- List of Korean War Medal of Honor recipients
- Jewish War Veterans of the United States of AmericaJewish War Veterans of the United States of AmericaThe Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America is an American Jewish veterans' organization, and the oldest veterans group in the United States. It has an estimated 37,000 members.-History and purpose:The Jewish War Veterans were established in 1896...
- List of Jewish Medal of Honor recipients
External links
- Jewish Vet Gets Medal of Honor 55 Years On, a September 23, 2005 article in the Washington Post
- Army Public Affairs Office press release on September 22, 2005
- Video of Cpl Rubin
- Remarks by President BushGeorge W. BushGeorge Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
(September 23, 2005) - Korean War Veteran Awarded Medal of Honor, from American Forces Information ServiceAmerican Forces Information ServiceThe American Forces Information Service was a United States Department of Defense-providing news service that supplied information about the U.S. military. Department of Defense Directive 5105.74 disestablished AFIS on October 1, 2008 and created the Defense Media Activity...
- President Presents Medal of Honor to Corporal Tibor "Ted" Rubin, a White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
press release - Prescott eNews Tibor Rubin: An Evening of Remembrance
- Prescott eNews Corporal Tibor Rubin visits the VA Medical Center in Prescott
- Mudville Gazette Ted Rubin, American Hero
- Jewish Journal Pentagon Reviews Jewish Veteran Files Were Tibor Rubin and 137 other soldiers denied the Medal of Honor because of anti-Semitism? May 17, 2002
- Congressional Resolution re Tibor Rubin
- Leonard Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act of 2001
- Tibor Rubin: An Unusual Hero of The Korean War
- An American Hero by Beth Reece
- Medal of Honor recipient just did duty by Nguyen Huy Vu, The Orange County Register, October 18, 2005 - Mr. Rubin recommends not harboring hatred even with all his suffering and loss: "If you feel hate for your fellow man ... you'll only hurt yourself..."