Tibor Rubin in US Army combat uniform, circa 1949. Photo by Army News Service, retrieved from the Department of Defense.

This Medal of Honor story is a little different. Tibor Rubin was not awarded the Medal for action in World War II, but for action during the Korean War, nor was Rubin a WWII veteran. Born to Jewish parents in Hungary in 1929, Rubin was one of six children—three sons and three daughters. His father, Ferenc, was a veteran of World War I, and his mother, Rosa, was Ferenc’s third wife. By early 1944, Rubin’s older brother Miklós had been conscripted for forced labor, and his brother Emery (originally spelled Imre) had left with a friend to avoid similar conscription. Emery and his friend were captured at a train station and sent to a forced labor camp, then to the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Rubin’s father wished to avoid that same fate for his third son, and in March, at not yet 15 years old, Rubin left his home in Hungary to attempt to reach Switzerland and safety. In the company of Polish men who were on the run from Nazis, Rubin was captured near the border of Italy and Switzerland two weeks into the trip. Rubin was deported to Mauthausen, and though his brother Emery was there, it wasn’t until the winter that the brothers were reunited. Sometime in 1944, Ferenc, Rosa, and Rubin’s sisters, Edith and Ilonka, were sent to Auschwitz. Irene managed to survive the war in Budapest. Rubin’s parents were less fortunate; they and Edith perished in Auschwitz in 1944. (Some sources say Ferenc was transferred to Buchenwald and died there.)

At Mauthausen, prisoners experienced various types of mistreatments, from medical experiments, to heavy manual labor, and even forced physical exercise, all meant to wear down prisoners. Here, young Jewish prisoners are forced to play leapfrog. Image from the Bundesarchiv: Bundesarchiv, Bild 192-048 / CC-BY-SA 3.0.

On May 5, 1945, Rubin and Emery were liberated by the US Army. They reunited with Irene in their hometown of Pásztó, but deciding to leave Hungary, the three went to a displaced persons camp in Pocking, Germany. It took three years before Tibor was able to immigrate to the United States. He went alone in 1948 aboard the SS Marine Flasher, settling in New York. Emery immigrated the following year, while Irene used the identity of a deceased Czech woman to immigrate first to Canada, and then the United States. Edith, freed from Auschwitz in exchange for medical supplies from Sweden, immigrated there after the war. Miklós had escaped forced labor and joined the Czech resistance during the war. He also immigrated to the United States some years later.

Grateful to the country that liberated him from Mauthausen, Rubin wanted to join the US Army to give back, a promise he had made to himself at liberation—to become a “GI Joe.” His first attempt ended in disappointment when he failed the required English exam. Undeterred, Rubin tried again in 1949, and with a little “help” from some fellow test takers, he managed to pass the exam and enlist in the US Army.

In June 1950, war broke out in Korea. The country was divided at the 38th parallel in 1945, and two governments were formed. Tension continued to rise over the next five years until North Korean forces crossed the border into South Korea on June 25, 1950, and fighting began. In July, the United Nations agreed to provide military assistance to South Korean forces to push Northern forces out and restore peace. US forces, already in Korea, began participation in July. Rubin, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, turned a US Army soldier (though not yet a US citizen) found himself on the front lines in Korea.

Part of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, First Cavalry Division, Rubin was under the leadership of a sergeant who fellow soldiers described as a “vicious anti-Semite,” and who regularly gave Rubin the most dangerous assignments. During one, Rubin defended a hill solo for 24 hours, holding off a steady flow of North Korean forces. He was recommended for the Medal of Honor by several officers, but his sergeant refused to put the paperwork in. Affidavits from men in his unit swore that the sergeant was purposefully trying to get Rubin killed and denied numerous recommendations for the Medal of Honor and other valor awards due to Rubin’s religion.

By the fall of 1950, Rubin’s unit was nearly decimated from fighting, and Rubin had been wounded several times. Most of the men were captured or killed, including Rubin, who became a prisoner of war under communist forces on November 2. Unlike many of his fellow prisoners who struggled to adapt to their situation, such deprivation was not new to Rubin, and he had the experience to know how to survive. Prisoners reported that Rubin would sneak out of the camp at night and steal food from enemy supply depots. He knew the risk—he would be shot if caught—but Rubin understood that to do nothing was certain death. At one point during his imprisonment, the forces holding Rubin learned that he was still a Hungarian citizen. Since Hungary was by that time communist, they offered to return him to his “People’s Republic,” but Rubin refused.

Remaining imprisoned, Rubin was always looking out for the needs of his fellow prisoners. Performing “mitzvahs,” or good deeds, was important to him. In an oral history, Rubin explained that he knew survival was “mind over matter,” even going so far as to convince a fellow POW to keep fighting to survive by bribing him with “medicine” if he promised to not give up. Three times a day he gave the man goat droppings disguised as pills. Convinced he was receiving actual medicine, and with Rubin’s encouragement, the soldier found the strength to stay alive, and did.

Rubin, lying down with a blanket over him, talks to reporters upon his release from the Communist prisoner of war camp. Although life in the camp was difficult, he told reporters from Stars and Stripes that the Chinese treated him much better than the Germans had. Photo used with permission from Stars and Stripes: Frank Praytor/ [image:8D72CDBD-BEC6-4C86-BA5D-193E8BC25875-436-0000BB67BBD10FDE/unknown.png]1953, 2021 Stars and Stripes, All Rights Reserved.

After two and a half years of imprisonment, Rubin and his fellow prisoners were freed on April 21, 1953. Twice a prisoner, Rubin at just 24-years-old had spent nearly four years of his young life surviving in dreadful camp conditions. But his experiences as a prisoner at Mauthausen prepared him in a unique way to survive being a prisoner of war just five years later. That knowledge, and the will to survive while caring for his fellow POWs, is credited with keeping more than 40 American prisoners alive.

On November 27, 1953, Tibor Rubin became a US citizen. He was living in California and working at his brother’s liquor store in Los Angeles. Ten years later he married, and two children followed, but there was still no recognition for his self-sacrifice and bravery during the war. In the 1980s, men who had served with Rubin and who had become his friends, began to protest to the US Army about the lack of recognition for his bravery. Congressmen took interest in the issue and began to take steps to have Rubin recognized. In 2002, the National Defense Authorization Act, inspired by efforts to have the Medal of Honor awarded to Korean War veteran Leonard Kravitz, called for the review of war records of Jewish and Hispanic American personnel. From World War II through Vietnam, records were reviewed to determine if any met criteria for the Medal of Honor, but had been denied due to racism. One of the veterans reviewed was Rubin.