WEBVTT - Tibor Rubin’s Medicine (Part 2) 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:23.796 Pushkin. I'm Malcolm Glawell and this is Medal of Honor. 0:00:23.916 --> 0:00:27.636 Stories of Courage our podcast about the heroes who have 0:00:27.676 --> 0:00:33.476 won America's highest military decoration. In the last episode, we 0:00:33.516 --> 0:00:37.316 met Tyber Rubin, or Ted as he renamed himself. Born 0:00:37.316 --> 0:00:40.716 in Hungary, he survived a Nazi concentration camp when he 0:00:40.756 --> 0:00:44.356 was just a teen. He was liberated by American gis 0:00:44.636 --> 0:00:48.076 and made a vow that someday, God willing, he would 0:00:48.076 --> 0:00:51.476 become one of them, and he did. He joined the 0:00:51.556 --> 0:00:55.196 US Army and was sent to Korea. When we last 0:00:55.236 --> 0:00:58.076 saw him there, he had held off an entire enemy 0:00:58.156 --> 0:01:03.116 force by himself at night. He survived, but he was 0:01:03.276 --> 0:01:06.556 horrified by what he had done. He hadn't gone to 0:01:06.596 --> 0:01:10.316 the army to kill people, he wanted to say of them. 0:01:10.756 --> 0:01:13.356 But on the day after Ted's one man stand, his 0:01:13.516 --> 0:01:17.516 commanding officer surveyed the scene. He knew that Ted's battle 0:01:17.956 --> 0:01:21.596 was more than just a bloodbath. He hadn't only safeguarded 0:01:21.836 --> 0:01:24.916 a valuable cache of weapons. He had kept the enemy 0:01:24.956 --> 0:01:28.036 from reaching the main and only road, the one that 0:01:28.116 --> 0:01:33.636 led directly to the US troops. Yes, he had taken lives, 0:01:34.276 --> 0:01:35.956 but he had saved countless more. 0:01:37.836 --> 0:01:40.596 I kept down town. I say, hey, Hevvy, if you 0:01:40.716 --> 0:01:43.836 don't kill them, you're gonna get killed. Not only you 0:01:43.876 --> 0:01:48.556 get killed, your friend said. Everybody said, that's what it shall. 0:01:49.836 --> 0:01:52.596 The CEO thought he deserved the Medal of Honor, but 0:01:52.716 --> 0:01:57.916 one thing stood in the way. Ted's supervisory officer, Sergeant A, 0:01:58.196 --> 0:02:01.076 the bigoted man who'd put him in that hopeless position 0:02:01.156 --> 0:02:03.676 on the ridge in the first place. So even though 0:02:03.716 --> 0:02:07.156 the CEO ordered Sergeant A to write up the paperwork 0:02:07.356 --> 0:02:10.556 to recommend Ted for the Medal of Honor, Sergeant A 0:02:10.756 --> 0:02:13.956 never did. He wasn't going to see a Jewish soldier 0:02:13.956 --> 0:02:17.396 get that kind of recognition, Not on my watch, he said. 0:02:18.156 --> 0:02:22.716 And Ted kept getting sent into the worst imaginable situations. 0:02:23.236 --> 0:02:25.236 Sergeant A made sure of that. 0:02:25.916 --> 0:02:29.756 Every time he needed a volunteer, so called valanteer, they 0:02:29.796 --> 0:02:32.876 always called for me. Say get me that fucking sort 0:02:32.916 --> 0:02:35.436 of a bitch having got a jew That was me, 0:02:35.916 --> 0:02:39.116 So perishon. I forget my real name. I figured in 0:02:39.236 --> 0:02:41.556 the corn I said, I'm a bitch ruck it's me. 0:02:42.076 --> 0:02:42.116 No. 0:02:42.236 --> 0:02:44.036 I was only twenty year old. 0:02:43.796 --> 0:02:44.036 You know. 0:02:45.076 --> 0:02:48.316 It became clear to everyone that Sergeant A wouldn't be 0:02:48.396 --> 0:02:50.836 happy until he had gotten Ted killed. 0:02:51.436 --> 0:02:53.036 He actually made a hero out. 0:02:52.956 --> 0:02:56.956 Of me, because every dangerous mission Ted got sent on 0:02:57.476 --> 0:03:02.836 just showcased his bravery, his resourcefulness, and his compassion. Even 0:03:02.876 --> 0:03:06.956 more than that, Ted never lost his optimism, his hope, 0:03:07.476 --> 0:03:10.596 his belief in the goodness of others. He risked his 0:03:10.676 --> 0:03:13.516 life to rescue a fellow soldier, Leonard Ham, from the 0:03:13.516 --> 0:03:19.396 battlefield against Sergeant A's orders. Re saved him. Then Sergeant 0:03:19.436 --> 0:03:22.236 A sent Ted into the forest alone on a deadly 0:03:22.316 --> 0:03:26.516 scouting mission. He zigzagged from tree to tree, trying to 0:03:26.556 --> 0:03:30.076 stay hidden, but suddenly right in front of him were 0:03:30.116 --> 0:03:35.036 three armed North Korean soldiers. Once again Ted was outnumbered, 0:03:35.716 --> 0:03:38.956 but then he noticed something. They were holding a white flag. 0:03:39.916 --> 0:03:42.596 One of them, a lieutenant, asked Ted who he was. 0:03:43.276 --> 0:03:45.916 Ted's mind raised. If they knew he was a private, 0:03:46.276 --> 0:03:49.956 a soldier of minimal importance, they might kill him, so 0:03:50.036 --> 0:03:53.036 he lied. He said he was a commanding officer, a major, 0:03:53.396 --> 0:03:55.876 and he didn't stop there. He told them that North 0:03:55.916 --> 0:03:59.356 Korea had lost the war. Kim Olsung was in Tokyo 0:03:59.756 --> 0:04:02.916 right that very moment, in peace stocks with General MacArthur, 0:04:03.596 --> 0:04:07.036 and that's how he got two full companies of enemy soldiers, 0:04:07.476 --> 0:04:12.196 several hundred men to surrender to him. 0:04:12.476 --> 0:04:14.996 It was a miracle. You know what I meant. I 0:04:15.196 --> 0:04:19.636 was stocking broken anguish. There was stocking broken English. I 0:04:19.796 --> 0:04:23.036 was a sharp looking soldiers. I told them our Major 0:04:23.156 --> 0:04:27.916 Rubin and they gave up. They captured over four hundred 0:04:28.316 --> 0:04:30.556 prisoner with horter firing anything. 0:04:31.836 --> 0:04:35.236 The North Korean soldiers lay down their arms and Ted 0:04:35.316 --> 0:04:37.836 told them to wait where they were until they could 0:04:37.836 --> 0:04:41.356 bring reinforcements. He ran back to camp with the news. 0:04:41.716 --> 0:04:45.956 Once again, nobody believed him until they went out and 0:04:46.036 --> 0:04:52.196 saw the hundreds of unarmed surrendered North Korean soldiers, and 0:04:52.276 --> 0:04:54.876 once again Sergeant A was told to fill up the 0:04:54.876 --> 0:04:58.276 paperwork for a medal of honor, and because of Bigot 0:04:58.316 --> 0:05:01.236 is nothing if not predictable, he did no such thing. 0:05:02.636 --> 0:05:06.156 Then came the worst battle Ted's units saw. Unbeknownst to 0:05:06.196 --> 0:05:09.116 the American troops on the ground, the Chinese had entered 0:05:09.196 --> 0:05:13.636 the war, sending thousands of soldiers to join the North Koreans. 0:05:14.356 --> 0:05:18.036 Three US Army battalions, including Ted's, were sent to the 0:05:18.076 --> 0:05:23.836 small city of Unsand, where the attacks were constant and merciless. 0:05:24.556 --> 0:05:27.636 Ted was there behind a line defended by a single 0:05:27.716 --> 0:05:31.836 machine gun way out in the open. One machine gunner 0:05:32.076 --> 0:05:36.316 after another was killed while operating it. Three men died, 0:05:37.076 --> 0:05:39.636 and then nobody wanted to go out and hold the 0:05:39.676 --> 0:05:40.356 line anymore. 0:05:40.996 --> 0:05:45.396 Nobody wanted to get on and because it was dangerous. 0:05:44.996 --> 0:05:48.676 But it was necessary to save their lives. So Ted 0:05:49.276 --> 0:05:50.036 stepped forward. 0:05:50.756 --> 0:05:53.996 And I'm not because I'm a hero or anything, but 0:05:54.156 --> 0:05:57.676 I figured that's the only thing we have left, so 0:05:57.876 --> 0:05:59.476 that's slow them down. 0:06:00.516 --> 0:06:03.916 Ted held the position until the ammunition was gone. He 0:06:03.996 --> 0:06:07.636 took shrapnel to his hand, his chest, his leg, but 0:06:07.716 --> 0:06:12.436 he wouldn't leave his position. Meanwhile, Sergeant A had retreated 0:06:12.476 --> 0:06:15.756 behind the lines, telling no one and taking no one 0:06:15.836 --> 0:06:19.956 with him. He'd run away to safety. The good news 0:06:19.996 --> 0:06:23.036 for Ted was that his tormentor was finally gone. More 0:06:23.036 --> 0:06:27.156 reason for optimism, right, But in fact Ted's run of 0:06:27.276 --> 0:06:33.716 luck was about to end. The Americans were massively outnumbered. 0:06:34.476 --> 0:06:39.756 First came defeat, then came capture. Ted and a straggling 0:06:39.796 --> 0:06:42.916 group of survivors were rounded up by the Chinese command 0:06:43.356 --> 0:06:47.836 and marched north. Initially there were a handful of soldiers 0:06:47.836 --> 0:06:54.596 in the line with Ted. Soon they were hundreds. It 0:06:54.716 --> 0:06:58.356 was November nineteen fifty, the start of a particularly brutal winter. 0:06:59.076 --> 0:07:02.036 Ted took breaks from marching to remove his boots and 0:07:02.156 --> 0:07:05.956 massage his toes. He had seen toes turn black and 0:07:06.116 --> 0:07:10.116 fall off from frostbite at Mathhausen. The lessons from the 0:07:10.196 --> 0:07:13.836 camp were coming back to him. The men walked for 0:07:13.956 --> 0:07:17.716 days through knee deep snow. Finally they saw it, a 0:07:17.836 --> 0:07:21.796 dozen single story shacks with a creek running past them, 0:07:21.836 --> 0:07:25.836 surrounded by loops of barbed wire. They had arrived at 0:07:25.836 --> 0:07:28.476 the place they would soon call death Valley. 0:07:29.356 --> 0:07:32.796 Why they collected dead welly because the guys started dying dead. 0:07:34.836 --> 0:07:37.316 Ted couldn't have known, but he was heading into a 0:07:37.316 --> 0:07:42.356 system of notoriously brutal pow camps. Of the American servicemen 0:07:42.516 --> 0:07:47.756 who went into these camps, thirty eight percent would die. 0:07:47.836 --> 0:07:50.756 If the American soldiers thought they had seen death and 0:07:50.876 --> 0:07:55.316 cruelty in combat, they hadn't seen anything like what was coming. 0:07:56.396 --> 0:08:00.876 But Ted had more on that after this quick break. 0:08:13.276 --> 0:08:17.276 When you become captured, you become a nothing that can't 0:08:17.316 --> 0:08:20.236 take you out. Any second they shoot you, and that's it. 0:08:20.436 --> 0:08:23.516 You're just the dead man that can beat you up. 0:08:23.756 --> 0:08:27.116 I guess start of you that can finish you. And 0:08:27.236 --> 0:08:28.556 you know more a Yoman bin. 0:08:30.636 --> 0:08:34.836 Life in pow Camp five was like this. You got 0:08:34.876 --> 0:08:37.956 two tiny cups of grain twice a day, and when 0:08:37.956 --> 0:08:41.596 it was cooked in water please note clean water not available, 0:08:41.916 --> 0:08:45.356 it turned into a porridge that kept a soldier hovering 0:08:45.956 --> 0:08:49.876 just above the starvation point. There was no hospital for 0:08:49.956 --> 0:08:52.316 all the wounded and sick. Well. There was something they 0:08:52.396 --> 0:08:55.316 called the hospital, but if you went in, you didn't 0:08:55.316 --> 0:08:58.956 come out. Soldiers knew to avoid it at all costs. 0:08:59.796 --> 0:09:05.036 The three thousand prisoners had dysentery, pneumonia, untreated wounds, and 0:09:05.076 --> 0:09:08.276 they had the dreaded and give up itis, what they 0:09:08.316 --> 0:09:12.116 called it when an inmate would just stop eating, stop moving, 0:09:12.436 --> 0:09:17.716 and seemingly lose the will to live. Winter was viciously cold, 0:09:17.916 --> 0:09:20.556 and the prisoners were dressed in rags that didn't keep 0:09:20.556 --> 0:09:24.916 out the chill. They stood in the snow shivering while 0:09:24.956 --> 0:09:29.716 the captors did roll call. Everyone was starving. They would 0:09:29.756 --> 0:09:34.516 sleep squeeze next to each other like sardines. Often they'd 0:09:34.516 --> 0:09:36.956 wake up next to someone who had died in the night. 0:09:38.636 --> 0:09:43.116 For the American soldiers, this was an unimaginable nightmare. For Ted, 0:09:43.876 --> 0:09:48.116 it was all too familiar. Remember, he had been in 0:09:48.156 --> 0:09:52.116 a Nazi concentration camp just five years earlier. But there 0:09:52.116 --> 0:09:56.356 were key differences between Camp five and Mathausen. For one thing, 0:09:56.556 --> 0:10:00.476 they looked very different. At Mothhausen, the prison fortress had 0:10:00.476 --> 0:10:03.876 been designed to last. Camp five was just a series 0:10:03.916 --> 0:10:06.796 of hastily built mud huts. And Ted would tell you 0:10:07.116 --> 0:10:10.876 there was another key difference too. For the Nazis, mass 0:10:10.956 --> 0:10:14.436 murder was the whole point. But while the Chinese didn't 0:10:14.476 --> 0:10:19.076 necessarily care if a soldier died, death wasn't the ultimate 0:10:19.156 --> 0:10:25.356 goal indoctrination was. This was the Cold War communism versus democracy. 0:10:25.636 --> 0:10:29.036 The Chinese desperately wanted these Americans to buy into their 0:10:29.076 --> 0:10:33.036 way of life, even if it happened by force. Perhaps 0:10:33.036 --> 0:10:36.436 you've heard of the movie The Manchurian Candidate. It's a 0:10:36.476 --> 0:10:41.036 classic nineteen sixties film starring Frank Sinatra. The whole plot 0:10:41.276 --> 0:10:45.196 revolves around an American Gi, who is brainwashed in a 0:10:45.236 --> 0:10:49.916 North Korean pow camp. That Gi wins the Medal of Honor, 0:10:50.076 --> 0:10:53.276 and then because he's been brainwashed, he tries to kill 0:10:53.356 --> 0:10:58.156 the Conservative Party's presidential nominee. The film is a psychological 0:10:58.196 --> 0:11:02.636 thriller with a hefty dose of political satire and surrealism, 0:11:02.996 --> 0:11:04.076 and camp. 0:11:04.676 --> 0:11:07.676 His brain has not only been washed as they say, 0:11:07.916 --> 0:11:09.516 it has been dry clean. 0:11:12.956 --> 0:11:16.316 The gii's mother is in on the assassination plot. She's 0:11:16.356 --> 0:11:20.076 played by Angela Lansbury, who was at the time thirty seven. 0:11:20.756 --> 0:11:23.756 The actor playing her son was thirty five. It's all 0:11:23.756 --> 0:11:27.716 completely nuts anyway. This is all to say brainwashing, or 0:11:27.756 --> 0:11:31.556 the attempt at brainwashing, was an actual thing in the camps. 0:11:32.156 --> 0:11:35.356 In Camp five, the soldiers days were filled with information 0:11:35.556 --> 0:11:40.076 sessions lectures about the ills of American society. They could 0:11:40.076 --> 0:11:43.756 be tortured if they resisted their re education or engaged 0:11:43.796 --> 0:11:47.156 in debate with their captors. Agreeing with the doctrine, on 0:11:47.196 --> 0:11:50.876 the other hand, might get them cigarettes or food layered 0:11:50.916 --> 0:11:54.276 on top of the painful hunger, the cold, and the deprivation. 0:11:54.876 --> 0:11:58.036 The idea was to break the soldiers down and rebuild 0:11:58.036 --> 0:12:02.876 them as compliant comrades. But Ted had a way to 0:12:02.916 --> 0:12:07.636 avoid all of this misery. His Chinese captors realized, Hey, 0:12:07.956 --> 0:12:11.036 here's a guy who can't really speak English. Sorry, Ted, 0:12:11.716 --> 0:12:15.236 He's not even an American citizen. He's from Hungry, which 0:12:15.236 --> 0:12:18.236 is under the influence of the USSR, which is our 0:12:18.316 --> 0:12:22.116 communist ally. So they came to Ted and said comrade, 0:12:22.596 --> 0:12:25.156 you don't have to stay here. We'll send you home 0:12:25.196 --> 0:12:29.396 to hungry. The other soldiers were blown away by Ted's 0:12:29.556 --> 0:12:33.836 incredible good luck, and they were equally blown away when 0:12:33.876 --> 0:12:37.876 Ted said no, he would stay with his men, thank 0:12:37.916 --> 0:12:41.716 you very much. The other guys couldn't believe it. Why 0:12:41.716 --> 0:12:44.956 would anyone stay in this god forsaken place? But they 0:12:44.996 --> 0:12:48.876 didn't realize something essential about Ted. He hadn't become a 0:12:48.876 --> 0:12:51.876 soldier to gun down hundreds of men on a ridge 0:12:52.236 --> 0:12:55.676 to take life. He'd become a soldier to give life. 0:12:56.276 --> 0:12:59.196 And he realized that he could do that in the camp, 0:12:59.716 --> 0:13:02.676 not just keep people alive, but keep them human. 0:13:03.596 --> 0:13:06.756 I would help anybody. If I am Abro and my 0:13:06.916 --> 0:13:09.596 mother was a SEMBI I'll show my friend there was 0:13:09.636 --> 0:13:13.196 a semi. And that's one thing she teach us that 0:13:13.276 --> 0:13:18.676 I through help your fellow men, the regardless the black yellow, 0:13:19.916 --> 0:13:21.356 but they were a nationality. 0:13:22.756 --> 0:13:26.276 Ted had already endured the Holocaust. This would be a 0:13:26.356 --> 0:13:29.036 central fact of his life, as it was for all 0:13:29.036 --> 0:13:32.236 who survived it. But almost none of those fellow survivors 0:13:32.636 --> 0:13:37.316 had to live it again. Ted did, and then he 0:13:37.436 --> 0:13:40.276 chose to stay there and put what he had learned 0:13:40.756 --> 0:13:45.436 to work. He started mapping the camp. When the guards 0:13:45.436 --> 0:13:48.836 took the prisoners up the mountainto chop wood, Ted stared 0:13:48.876 --> 0:13:52.396 back at the prison buildings, scanning them. This is where 0:13:52.396 --> 0:13:56.276 the storehouses are, This is where the guards sleep. When 0:13:56.276 --> 0:13:58.956 they needed prisoners to bury dead bodies, and they were 0:13:58.996 --> 0:14:02.716 always dead bodies. Ted's hands shot up, I'll go. He 0:14:02.796 --> 0:14:05.716 took every opportunity to get the lay of the land. 0:14:06.396 --> 0:14:08.956 The moment he figured out where they were keeping the food, 0:14:09.356 --> 0:14:13.076 he started stealing it. Every night, he snuck into the 0:14:13.076 --> 0:14:16.596 storehouses and stuffed the legs of his uniform with bits 0:14:16.596 --> 0:14:19.956 of bread and meat or potatoes, whatever he could find. 0:14:20.716 --> 0:14:23.796 Then he brought his loot back and shared it with 0:14:24.036 --> 0:14:27.356 everyone he could. The men were grateful, but they were 0:14:27.476 --> 0:14:30.436 terrified on his behalf. They all understood that if Ted 0:14:30.476 --> 0:14:34.156 were caught, he would be killed. The men in his 0:14:34.276 --> 0:14:37.396 camp called him brave. Ted thinks it was something else. 0:14:38.436 --> 0:14:40.476 They have to be notch and I all of this 0:14:40.676 --> 0:14:44.396 was match, you know, rather than Jewish Michigan. 0:14:45.636 --> 0:14:49.436 I love that word with Sugarno. Leo Cormier was one 0:14:49.476 --> 0:14:52.636 of the men in Ted's hut. Years later, he remembered 0:14:52.676 --> 0:14:53.436 what Ted did. 0:14:54.276 --> 0:15:00.196 Theysed have grinding mills for flowering, stuffed his pants pull 0:15:00.236 --> 0:15:03.036 of flower to chank for all the guys in camp 0:15:03.116 --> 0:15:05.676 they eat. Yeah, he rested his wife in it, but 0:15:05.836 --> 0:15:09.476 I'm stealing out flower, cut the neck off, and uh 0:15:09.796 --> 0:15:12.276 we didn't take grass and well regular grass and make 0:15:12.316 --> 0:15:12.916 soup out of it. 0:15:13.476 --> 0:15:15.556 And I shouldn't help a lot of guys or make 0:15:15.596 --> 0:15:17.036 sure they got their food rounding. 0:15:18.036 --> 0:15:20.796 Just like he learned back in Mathausen, Ted convinced his 0:15:20.876 --> 0:15:24.116 bunk mates to strip down and pick every single louse 0:15:24.156 --> 0:15:27.036 and bed bug off their bodies. He knew what would 0:15:27.076 --> 0:15:28.756 happen if they let the vermin take over. 0:15:29.396 --> 0:15:31.676 I seen them one night spend the whole night checking 0:15:31.756 --> 0:15:33.796 lice off one of the guys that then had the 0:15:33.876 --> 0:15:36.876 stunt to look to head up. And Ted's stayed there 0:15:36.916 --> 0:15:40.316 all night picking lice off the guy on that charcoal fire. 0:15:41.156 --> 0:15:44.636 So yeah, what now would do that a. 0:15:44.676 --> 0:15:45.356 Man like Ted? 0:15:45.956 --> 0:15:49.316 I was not just a soldier, not just a funny 0:15:49.356 --> 0:15:51.956 looking jew. I was there of and they need me, 0:15:52.396 --> 0:15:59.436 I feed them. I was dead handy man doctor nurse friend. 0:15:59.476 --> 0:16:02.636 Ted desperately tried to keep POW's out of the so 0:16:02.796 --> 0:16:06.116 called hospital where the weakest were sent to die. So 0:16:06.156 --> 0:16:09.476 he'd find sick men and watch them carefully. He brought 0:16:09.516 --> 0:16:12.476 them hot water in his helmet and washed their wounds. 0:16:12.796 --> 0:16:14.596 When they were too weak to get up and were 0:16:14.676 --> 0:16:17.676 lying in their own filth, he cleaned them. He did 0:16:17.716 --> 0:16:18.236 that for Leo. 0:16:18.996 --> 0:16:19.796 He got so bad. 0:16:19.876 --> 0:16:23.436 I had dysentery and I couldn't go to the bathroom. 0:16:23.796 --> 0:16:25.836 Ted would kick me up. I don't want to hell. 0:16:25.876 --> 0:16:27.756 He got the shrink to carry me, but I don't 0:16:27.756 --> 0:16:30.876 really waiting about paid homes daily natty pounds on it. 0:16:31.476 --> 0:16:33.476 He cary me down to the river or wash me. 0:16:34.716 --> 0:16:38.556 So why did Ted do it? Maybe because he remembered 0:16:38.596 --> 0:16:41.676 the feeling of holding his brother's hand in the concentration 0:16:41.836 --> 0:16:45.636 camp and how that fleeting moment of connection restored his 0:16:45.756 --> 0:16:50.076 sense of humanity. Maybe because after all of those enemy 0:16:50.156 --> 0:16:52.956 soldiers he killed on the ridge, he wanted to even 0:16:53.036 --> 0:16:56.996 the tally make up for the lives he'd taken. But 0:16:57.076 --> 0:16:59.796 I think it's even bigger than that. It's because Ted 0:16:59.876 --> 0:17:03.756 Rubins saw the possibility of greatness in every single man 0:17:03.836 --> 0:17:04.356 he saved. 0:17:05.076 --> 0:17:07.676 They all be saved, and you save alife, you save 0:17:07.836 --> 0:17:08.476 maybe a nation. 0:17:09.756 --> 0:17:13.476 When you save a life, you save a nation. Ted 0:17:13.596 --> 0:17:16.916 didn't see men who were skin and bones, crusted in filth, 0:17:17.356 --> 0:17:22.076 beaten down. He saw future fathers, community leaders, people who 0:17:22.156 --> 0:17:24.596 had the potential to do good in the world. He 0:17:24.716 --> 0:17:27.716 saw the American life he had always dreamed about, even 0:17:27.796 --> 0:17:30.916 when the worst America had to offer spat in his face. 0:17:31.796 --> 0:17:34.076 So he put his own life on the line to 0:17:34.236 --> 0:17:36.996 safeguard that dream for everyone else. 0:17:37.796 --> 0:17:40.236 Oh my life to him, and you know I would 0:17:40.316 --> 0:17:42.356 have just perished in that clearing camp and the mid 0:17:42.476 --> 0:17:45.316 of Ted. Okay, I'm not sugar a lot quite a 0:17:45.316 --> 0:17:48.676 few other guys whom frown without Ted and gave them 0:17:48.756 --> 0:17:49.916 the courage to go on living. 0:17:51.316 --> 0:17:54.316 Which brings us back to Johnny. You remember him from 0:17:54.316 --> 0:17:56.956 the last episode. He was a dying soldier on the 0:17:57.036 --> 0:18:00.276 floor of the mud hut, the young serviceman with give 0:18:00.316 --> 0:18:03.796 up itis, too sick to move or eat or keep going. 0:18:04.596 --> 0:18:07.076 You don't want to eat. He was just giving off. 0:18:08.156 --> 0:18:11.436 I see, Johnny, I say a red Cross us. Yes, there, 0:18:11.916 --> 0:18:17.716 you bring us new medication. I will gave chamoum, but 0:18:18.036 --> 0:18:21.716 only one thing I ask you, And that's all you 0:18:21.876 --> 0:18:26.276 have to promise. Johnny, You've gonna help you shall because 0:18:26.316 --> 0:18:29.996 your parent's waiting for you. Your brother is she stare 0:18:30.076 --> 0:18:32.956 waiting for you. What's gonna be, Johnnie? You wanna die 0:18:33.236 --> 0:18:34.476 or you wanna help? You shed? 0:18:35.836 --> 0:18:39.436 Johnny promised to help himself, and Ted kept giving him 0:18:39.516 --> 0:18:42.996 that medicine. He visited Johnnie three times a day for 0:18:43.116 --> 0:18:46.996 a week, carrying those little brown pills. After five days, 0:18:47.356 --> 0:18:50.636 Johnny was sitting up and talking again. Two weeks later, 0:18:50.956 --> 0:18:54.276 he was on his feet thanks to the amazing medicine 0:18:54.516 --> 0:18:58.116 that Ted had given him. But here's the thing. There 0:18:58.316 --> 0:19:00.916 was no medicine in the camp. The Red Cross hadn't 0:19:00.956 --> 0:19:04.796 been there. Those little brown balls were And I think 0:19:04.876 --> 0:19:06.916 this is beautiful. So I'm sorry for what I'm about 0:19:06.916 --> 0:19:11.916 to say. Goat poop. Ted fed him goat shehit. He 0:19:11.996 --> 0:19:15.116 knew that what Johnny really needed was something to believe in. 0:19:15.876 --> 0:19:16.956 What the hell? It worked? 0:19:17.636 --> 0:19:20.836 So when he was completely recovered, event you sat on 0:19:20.956 --> 0:19:24.236 my bet. You make meat all the shit. But thank 0:19:24.356 --> 0:19:28.236 god I'm alive. He kiss me and everything. You are 0:19:28.396 --> 0:19:28.956 so happy. 0:19:29.956 --> 0:19:36.916 Ted's special medicine didn't save Johnny's life. Hope did. Finally, 0:19:36.996 --> 0:19:40.556 after thirty months in Camp five, the men started to 0:19:40.636 --> 0:19:41.036 go home. 0:19:41.396 --> 0:19:44.276 Red officers come forward to deliver another consignment of you 0:19:44.356 --> 0:19:47.356 and prisoners to the custody of Allied officials, a total 0:19:47.396 --> 0:19:48.636 of six hundred and eighty four. 0:19:49.396 --> 0:19:50.836 From then on, red. 0:19:50.756 --> 0:19:54.556 Ambulances disgorged the stark proof of man's inhumanity to man. 0:19:55.436 --> 0:19:58.116 The conflict was slowly reaching its end. 0:19:58.596 --> 0:20:01.876 Even as these fortunate ones turn their steps homeward, thousands 0:20:01.916 --> 0:20:05.076 of others remained to an unknown fate. But for those 0:20:05.156 --> 0:20:08.476 who can smile again, all America is thankful. 0:20:09.716 --> 0:20:12.836 They sent the sick home first, and by then Ted 0:20:12.996 --> 0:20:15.516 was one of them. That old shrapnel wound in his 0:20:15.596 --> 0:20:18.876 knee had become infected. He arrived in the US on 0:20:18.956 --> 0:20:22.996 a stretcher. Thousands of men had died in Camp five, 0:20:23.436 --> 0:20:26.476 but Ted had managed to save at least thirty of them. 0:20:27.116 --> 0:20:29.836 He had kept them alive, and he had kept Hope 0:20:29.836 --> 0:20:49.836 alive too. When Ted got back to the States, he 0:20:49.956 --> 0:20:54.116 became an American citizen. He reconnected with his siblings, who 0:20:54.196 --> 0:20:57.236 had finally gotten permission to immigrate to the US and 0:20:57.316 --> 0:20:59.956 who had been waiting for him. And in the final 0:21:00.036 --> 0:21:03.796 strange twist to his story, he became famous. His picture 0:21:03.876 --> 0:21:07.076 made the papers. Remember what I said about how handsome 0:21:07.116 --> 0:21:10.396 he was. Hollywood saw that too. He was invited to 0:21:10.476 --> 0:21:14.396 Premier's in publicity events, Starlet's on his arm. There was 0:21:14.476 --> 0:21:17.276 talk of turning his life story into a movie, but 0:21:17.436 --> 0:21:20.236 Ted was uninterested. He didn't want to talk about his 0:21:20.356 --> 0:21:24.956 experiences in Modhausen or in Korea. Like so many survivors 0:21:25.076 --> 0:21:28.436 of his generation, he preferred to put it behind him 0:21:29.036 --> 0:21:33.876 focus on his American life. He got married, he had kids, 0:21:34.436 --> 0:21:37.556 He settled down in California. He worked at his brother 0:21:37.716 --> 0:21:41.756 Emory's liquor store, And even though he had been told 0:21:41.796 --> 0:21:44.876 on two separate occasions on the battlefield that he had 0:21:44.916 --> 0:21:47.396 been recommended for the Medal of Honor, he had never 0:21:47.516 --> 0:21:50.876 thought about the fact that no medal had ever materialized. 0:21:51.556 --> 0:21:56.196 In fact, he had been recommended four times, four practically 0:21:56.276 --> 0:21:59.596 unheard of. Good Old Sergeant A had refused to file 0:21:59.636 --> 0:22:03.476 the paperwork for two of those recommendations, and two others 0:22:03.836 --> 0:22:06.236 from the battle at a Sane and from his heroism 0:22:06.276 --> 0:22:10.756 at Camp five, had gotten lost in a shuffle. But 0:22:10.876 --> 0:22:16.516 the men who remembered, including Leo Cormier, spent years advocating 0:22:16.596 --> 0:22:20.676 on his behalf. They knew what he deserved. Then in 0:22:20.756 --> 0:22:24.396 the nineteen nineties, the military started looking back through the records. 0:22:24.956 --> 0:22:27.876 They wanted to see if any Jewish serviceman had been 0:22:28.036 --> 0:22:32.556 overlooked because of anti Semitism. Right at the top of 0:22:32.636 --> 0:22:37.036 the list was Ted. In September of two thousand and five, 0:22:37.716 --> 0:22:41.636 he finally got his medal awarded by President George W. 0:22:41.916 --> 0:22:45.836 Bush, and by awarding the Medal of Honor to Corporal 0:22:45.876 --> 0:22:49.316 Reuben Today, the United States acknowledges the debt that time 0:22:49.436 --> 0:22:53.316 has not diminished. By repeatedly risking his own life to 0:22:53.356 --> 0:22:57.436 say brothers corporate, Ruben exemplified the highest ideals of military 0:22:57.556 --> 0:23:00.636 service and fulfilled a pledge to give something back to 0:23:00.716 --> 0:23:04.156 the country that had given him his freedom. And he 0:23:04.236 --> 0:23:06.396 knew that the America he thought for did not always 0:23:06.436 --> 0:23:10.116 live up to his highest ideals. Yet he had enough 0:23:10.156 --> 0:23:12.636 trust in America's promise to see his commitment through. 0:23:14.156 --> 0:23:17.236 Ted still didn't think he deserved a medal. Ted just 0:23:17.316 --> 0:23:20.036 did the thing he thought human beings were supposed to do. 0:23:21.156 --> 0:23:24.796 I said, listen, yesterday, I was just a schmock. Today 0:23:24.836 --> 0:23:28.236 they called mesaur and to get a medal of all, 0:23:28.636 --> 0:23:32.436 you know, that's a big thing. I never know that 0:23:32.556 --> 0:23:41.156 I gonna be a superchu. I'm joking. No, I'm not 0:23:41.356 --> 0:23:44.036 superd I'm just a regular guy. 0:23:45.676 --> 0:23:48.836 Between his actions in combat and at the camp. The 0:23:49.036 --> 0:23:51.516 Army puts the number of people that ted Reubin saved 0:23:51.836 --> 0:23:54.636 that close to one hundred. I think he was able 0:23:54.716 --> 0:23:57.796 to do that because he valued the humanity in every 0:23:57.876 --> 0:24:01.916 person he met, even those who treated him with bigotry 0:24:02.276 --> 0:24:05.716 or scorn, even those who saw him as a funny 0:24:05.876 --> 0:24:09.076 foreigner with a crazy accent and of religion, they didn't understand. 0:24:10.596 --> 0:24:13.116 He was taught the value of life when he was 0:24:13.196 --> 0:24:16.396 only fourteen, in a place that didn't value life at all. 0:24:17.116 --> 0:24:19.876 He learned the power of hope and compassion that he 0:24:19.996 --> 0:24:23.276 kept those lessons with him. They gave him strength, and 0:24:23.396 --> 0:24:28.036 with that strength he gave strength to others. Ted Rubin 0:24:28.116 --> 0:24:31.476 died in twenty fifteen at the age of eighty six. 0:24:32.436 --> 0:24:36.476 Proud of his service and proud most of all to 0:24:36.556 --> 0:24:39.476 be a citizen of the United States of America. 0:24:40.556 --> 0:24:43.596 It is the best count in the world, and I'm 0:24:43.756 --> 0:24:44.716 part of it now. 0:24:57.996 --> 0:25:01.116 Medal of Honor. Stories of Courage is written by Meredith 0:25:01.196 --> 0:25:06.076 Rollins and produced by Meredith Rollins, Constanza Gallardo, and Izzy Carter. 0:25:06.636 --> 0:25:09.676 The show was edited by Ben daph Haffrey, Round design 0:25:09.796 --> 0:25:14.396 and additional music by Jake Gorski. Recording engineering, by Nita Lawrence, 0:25:14.916 --> 0:25:19.356 fact checking by Arthur Gombert's original music by Eric Phillips. 0:25:20.116 --> 0:25:23.356 Special thanks to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and 0:25:23.436 --> 0:25:27.396 the book Single Handed by Daniel Cohen. If you want 0:25:27.436 --> 0:25:29.956