WEBVTT - Tibor Rubin’s Medicine (Part 1) 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Pushkin. 0:00:21.676 --> 0:00:24.716 It was nineteen fifty one, and a young American serviceman 0:00:24.796 --> 0:00:27.796 named Johnny lay dying on the dirty floor of a 0:00:27.876 --> 0:00:31.396 mud walled hut. He was a prisoner of war, one 0:00:31.436 --> 0:00:34.076 of thousands of US soldiers who had the bad luck 0:00:34.116 --> 0:00:36.916 to be here, a Chinese run camp in the far 0:00:37.036 --> 0:00:41.396 north of Korea. Death was everywhere in the camp, death 0:00:41.436 --> 0:00:46.556 from dysentery and pneumonia and starvation, deaths from untreated battle 0:00:46.596 --> 0:00:51.516 wounds left to faster, and deaths like Johnny, a soldier 0:00:51.596 --> 0:00:55.556 exhausted after months of abuse and captivity, unable to eat 0:00:55.796 --> 0:00:59.676 or move, slowly abandoning the will to live. The other 0:00:59.716 --> 0:01:04.756 POWs called it ghivapitis. There was someone else in the 0:01:04.876 --> 0:01:07.876 room with Johnny, a scrawny twenty one year old soldier 0:01:08.116 --> 0:01:10.716 with a thick head of hair and an even thicker 0:01:10.916 --> 0:01:15.076 Eastern European accent. He knelt beside Johnny and said, the 0:01:15.156 --> 0:01:18.876 Red Cross has just dropped off their newest medicine. I'll 0:01:18.876 --> 0:01:21.556 give it to you, but in turn, you have to 0:01:21.556 --> 0:01:25.316 pull yourself together. You can't give up. Then he gave 0:01:25.396 --> 0:01:30.316 Johnny a small brown pill. The other prisoners in the 0:01:30.316 --> 0:01:32.956 camp had noticed this man with the medicine. Something was 0:01:32.996 --> 0:01:36.236 different about him. When they couldn't stand up and were 0:01:36.276 --> 0:01:39.396 lying in their own filth, he washed them clean. He 0:01:39.476 --> 0:01:42.196 picked the light off them when they couldn't do it themselves. 0:01:42.516 --> 0:01:45.076 He sneaked bits of food to men who were dying 0:01:45.116 --> 0:01:48.996 of hunger, and he made them smile. He cracked jokes 0:01:49.116 --> 0:01:51.796 and clowned around. He reminded them of the great life 0:01:51.836 --> 0:01:54.916 waiting for them back home in America. They just had 0:01:54.956 --> 0:01:58.636 to live long enough to make it there. That guy 0:01:58.676 --> 0:02:02.116 with the accent wasn't a doctor, or a clergyman, or 0:02:02.156 --> 0:02:05.756 even an officer. He didn't have any influence or special training. 0:02:06.276 --> 0:02:10.436 What he did have was experience, experience in a camp 0:02:10.636 --> 0:02:13.876 even worse than this one, a place he'd lived when 0:02:13.916 --> 0:02:17.316 he was just fourteen years old, a Nazi death can 0:02:20.436 --> 0:02:23.156 I'm Malcolm Gladwell and this is Medal of Honor Stories 0:02:23.196 --> 0:02:26.716 of Courage. The Medal of Honor is the highest military 0:02:26.756 --> 0:02:31.316 decoration in the United States, awarded for gallantry and bravery 0:02:31.396 --> 0:02:33.996 in combat at the risk of life, above and beyond 0:02:33.996 --> 0:02:37.636 the call of duty. Each candidate must be approved all 0:02:37.676 --> 0:02:40.276 the way up the chain of command, from the supervisory 0:02:40.316 --> 0:02:43.916 officer in the field to the White House This show 0:02:44.436 --> 0:02:47.556 is about those heroes, what they did, what it meant, 0:02:47.956 --> 0:02:50.676 and what their stories tell us about the nature of 0:02:50.796 --> 0:02:56.636 courage and sacrifice. Today's episode is about Taibor Rubin, the 0:02:56.676 --> 0:03:00.316 only Holocaust survivor to win the Medal of Honor. His 0:03:00.396 --> 0:03:03.916 story is about more than courage and bravery. It's about 0:03:03.956 --> 0:03:08.436 compassion and the simple truth that sometimes hope is the 0:03:08.476 --> 0:03:30.276 most powerful defense we have. Tybar Ruben was born in 0:03:30.356 --> 0:03:33.716 nineteen twenty nine in a small town in Hungary. He 0:03:33.796 --> 0:03:37.156 had a loving family with four older siblings and a 0:03:37.196 --> 0:03:40.556 little sister. He adored parents, who took care of him 0:03:40.676 --> 0:03:43.196 a nice house. As a kid, he was always getting 0:03:43.196 --> 0:03:47.316 into scrapes, playing soccer with his big brother Emory, typical 0:03:47.396 --> 0:03:50.996 kid stuff. It wasn't fancy, but life was pretty good, 0:03:52.116 --> 0:03:55.876 except that Taibor was Jewish and the Third Reich was 0:03:55.876 --> 0:03:59.196 on the rise in nearby Germany. By the end of 0:03:59.236 --> 0:04:03.876 the nineteen thirties, the Hungarian government had begun emulating the Nazis, 0:04:04.436 --> 0:04:07.676 denying Jews equal rights under the law. There were jobs 0:04:07.756 --> 0:04:12.156 they couldn't hold. I didn't marry Christians. Then in nineteen forty 0:04:12.596 --> 0:04:17.596 Hungary formally joined the Axis Alliance. Even so, Hungarian Jews 0:04:17.676 --> 0:04:21.396 were more protected than Jews in other access countries. The 0:04:21.436 --> 0:04:25.756 government refused to deport its Jewish citizens to concentration camps, 0:04:25.916 --> 0:04:30.356 despite pressure from their Nazi allies, so the Ruben family 0:04:30.476 --> 0:04:34.636 felt relatively safe in their home country, even as things turned. 0:04:35.356 --> 0:04:38.756 After all, Tiber's father was a decorated soldier of the 0:04:38.796 --> 0:04:41.676 First World War. He was a patriot. More than that, 0:04:42.076 --> 0:04:46.236 the Rubens believed in the essential goodness of people. They 0:04:46.276 --> 0:04:50.476 taught Tibor and his siblings to act with compassion, even 0:04:50.516 --> 0:04:54.476 when everything in his life argued against it. Tiber never 0:04:54.596 --> 0:04:58.396 let go of that lesson. Here he is talking about 0:04:58.436 --> 0:05:00.836 them in that super thick Hungarian accent. 0:05:00.876 --> 0:05:03.916 I told you about I might ever seen used to 0:05:04.116 --> 0:05:09.156 all these stylars. Don't say anything bad about anybody. You 0:05:09.196 --> 0:05:13.956 don't know anything good. You don't ever hurt anybody because 0:05:14.116 --> 0:05:17.516 maybe we have a different religion. But according to the 0:05:17.516 --> 0:05:21.996 good Lord that's your brothers. 0:05:21.916 --> 0:05:26.236 Everything changed. In March of nineteen forty four, the Nazis 0:05:26.276 --> 0:05:30.196 seized power in Hungary. Almost immediately, plans were drawn up 0:05:30.356 --> 0:05:33.556 for the transportation of the country's Jews, about half a 0:05:33.596 --> 0:05:38.996 million people, to extermination camps. The Hungarian authorities didn't stand 0:05:39.036 --> 0:05:41.516 in the way of the plan, and as the Nazis 0:05:41.596 --> 0:05:44.676 began rounding up Jews or just killing them on the spot, 0:05:45.276 --> 0:05:48.596 it became clear that the world wasn't working according to 0:05:48.636 --> 0:05:54.116 the Reuben family values. Soon Taibar was hearing whispered conversations 0:05:54.156 --> 0:05:58.116 between his parents. Refugees were coming through their little village 0:05:58.316 --> 0:06:02.196 on the run from the Nazis. The world was getting darker. 0:06:03.756 --> 0:06:06.676 Emory was twenty, and their parents worried he would be 0:06:06.716 --> 0:06:10.356 pressed into military service, so this sent him across the 0:06:10.356 --> 0:06:14.556 border to Czechoslovakia, where an aunt lived. She had arranged 0:06:14.556 --> 0:06:17.236 for Emory to hide with a friend who was a gentile. 0:06:17.916 --> 0:06:21.196 Tiber worshiped his brother and was paniced to watch him go, 0:06:21.596 --> 0:06:25.716 but Emory promised Tiber he'd be back soon. Just a 0:06:25.756 --> 0:06:28.556 few months later, a group of Polish men were passing 0:06:28.556 --> 0:06:32.516 through town on the run for Switzerland. Tiber's parents met 0:06:32.516 --> 0:06:36.556 with the men and made a wrenching decision Tiber should 0:06:36.676 --> 0:06:39.996 leave with them. He had to try to escape what 0:06:40.116 --> 0:06:42.996 was coming. They sent their son off with a group 0:06:43.036 --> 0:06:47.276 of total strangers. They were that desperate to save him. 0:06:47.716 --> 0:06:53.316 Tiber was fourteen. After days of trekking, the group reached 0:06:53.356 --> 0:06:56.396 the Swiss border, only to be captured by the Nazis. 0:06:56.996 --> 0:07:01.636 They were sent to a concentration camp named Matausen in Austria. 0:07:02.676 --> 0:07:05.716 It looked like a stone fortress on a hill. It 0:07:05.716 --> 0:07:09.316 had been constructed carefully, not just to house Jews, but 0:07:09.436 --> 0:07:14.676 political prisoners, conscientious objectors, enemy soldiers from almost every country 0:07:14.916 --> 0:07:18.556 in German occupied Europe. It had some of the harshest 0:07:18.636 --> 0:07:22.796 conditions and one of the highest death rates of any 0:07:23.396 --> 0:07:26.756 of the Nazi camps. I don't need to tell you 0:07:26.876 --> 0:07:30.876 how bad concentration camps were. No food, no hope, hard 0:07:30.916 --> 0:07:34.716 labor guards who would shoot inmates for sport. The living 0:07:34.876 --> 0:07:38.996 and the dying crammed into the same putrid spaces. Tiber 0:07:39.196 --> 0:07:41.956 was just a terrified kid when he arrived at the camp. 0:07:42.076 --> 0:07:45.796 An SS officer told him none of you Jews will 0:07:45.796 --> 0:07:46.796 make it out of here alive. 0:07:47.836 --> 0:07:52.076 So many people died there every day, for so many people, 0:07:52.356 --> 0:07:56.916 mountain of people dead. They didn't even have time to 0:07:56.956 --> 0:08:00.916 burn them. You know, the life over. There was no future, 0:08:01.556 --> 0:08:04.916 nothing to look forward. Just then I gonna be next. 0:08:06.236 --> 0:08:09.916 But Tiber was smart and resourceful and learned the ways 0:08:09.916 --> 0:08:12.556 of the camp. One prisoner taught him to pick the 0:08:12.636 --> 0:08:15.956 lice off every single day so he wouldn't get typhus. 0:08:16.596 --> 0:08:19.196 When Tiber got sick from the rotted potatoes and dirty 0:08:19.196 --> 0:08:21.636 water they were feeding him, a man in his bunk 0:08:21.716 --> 0:08:25.516 made him eat charcoal to settle his stomach. The Polish 0:08:25.596 --> 0:08:27.996 guys he had traveled with showed him how to steal 0:08:28.076 --> 0:08:31.316 food from the officer's garbage dump. He thought of himself 0:08:31.516 --> 0:08:35.156 like a rat, cunning, quick and silent, doing whatever he 0:08:35.196 --> 0:08:35.996 could to survive. 0:08:36.796 --> 0:08:38.916 We rush an't no human beIN anymore. 0:08:39.916 --> 0:08:43.996 He tried not to make connections with other prisoners. Friendships 0:08:44.196 --> 0:08:48.236 felt dangerous. Other teenagers could be unruly and get them 0:08:48.276 --> 0:08:52.356 all into trouble. Plus the friends he made seemed inevitably 0:08:52.716 --> 0:08:56.596 to die, even in the crowded bunk rooms. He became 0:08:56.676 --> 0:09:05.036 more and more isolated alone. Then one evening, during roll call, 0:09:05.556 --> 0:09:09.956 he saw a familiar face across the prison yard. Tiber stared. 0:09:10.636 --> 0:09:14.356 He couldn't believe it. It was his brother, Emery. He 0:09:14.436 --> 0:09:16.956 pushed his way through the other prisoners to get to him. 0:09:17.236 --> 0:09:20.556 Emory and Tiber hugged. They held hands all through that 0:09:20.676 --> 0:09:24.716 role call. It seemed like a miracle. Tiber felt like 0:09:24.796 --> 0:09:27.876 he knew who he was again. A little bit of 0:09:27.916 --> 0:09:33.396 his humanity was restored. Emory had been caught in Czechoslovakia 0:09:33.596 --> 0:09:37.956 and had spent months doing forced hard labor. Then, without warning, 0:09:38.516 --> 0:09:41.836 he'd been loaded on a train to Matthausen. Emory was 0:09:41.876 --> 0:09:44.836 assigned to a different barracks than Tybor, and because he 0:09:44.916 --> 0:09:48.436 was a carpenter, he was often sent on construction projects 0:09:48.636 --> 0:09:53.116 outside Mathausen itself. The brothers rarely saw each other, but 0:09:53.316 --> 0:09:57.836 just knowing Emory was there reminded Tibor that he was loved, 0:09:58.236 --> 0:10:04.076 and that kept him going. The famous Viennese psychiatrist and 0:10:04.156 --> 0:10:08.916 Auschwitz survivor Victor Frankel would later write about this exact phenomenon. 0:10:09.476 --> 0:10:12.076 He said that those in the death camps who lost 0:10:12.116 --> 0:10:14.596 their faith in the future would die a kind of 0:10:14.636 --> 0:10:19.036 emotional death. The loss of hope would hasten the loss 0:10:19.036 --> 0:10:21.716 of the will to live. He wrote that it was 0:10:21.796 --> 0:10:26.836 quote possible to practice the art of living even in 0:10:26.876 --> 0:10:30.556 a concentration camp. Frankel believed that if we react to 0:10:30.636 --> 0:10:36.676 terrible circumstances with courage and kindness and unselfishness, then life 0:10:36.756 --> 0:10:40.076 can take on a deeper meaning, even in the face 0:10:40.116 --> 0:10:45.676 of inhumanity. Emory's arrival was at Beacon of Hope for Tibor. 0:10:46.316 --> 0:10:49.116 He held on to it and to the lesson. It 0:10:49.196 --> 0:10:56.236 taught him that faith in the future was powerful. Tiber 0:10:56.396 --> 0:10:59.516 was in Matthausen for more than a year, amidst the death, 0:10:59.956 --> 0:11:05.036 hatred and Squalor. Winter was viciously cold, and the prisoners 0:11:05.156 --> 0:11:07.396 were dressed in rags that didn't keep out the chill. 0:11:08.076 --> 0:11:11.556 They stood in the snow oh shivering while their captors 0:11:11.596 --> 0:11:15.716 did roll call. Everyone was starving. They would sleep squeeze 0:11:15.756 --> 0:11:19.596 next to each other like sardines. Often they would wake 0:11:19.676 --> 0:11:21.996 up next to someone who had died in the night. 0:11:22.956 --> 0:11:28.556 That's where Tiber turned fifteen. Time ground on, But then 0:11:28.876 --> 0:11:33.036 Tiber started to hear whispers, rumors spreading. The Germans were 0:11:33.076 --> 0:11:36.036 losing the war. The Allies were on the way, but 0:11:36.116 --> 0:11:39.756 Tiber wasn't sure what to believe. Until one day, in 0:11:39.796 --> 0:11:43.116 a palenteen forty five, the prisoners heard the drone of 0:11:43.156 --> 0:11:47.476 Allied plains overhead work at the camp ground to a halt. 0:11:47.676 --> 0:11:50.556 As first some then all of the Sas commands started 0:11:50.596 --> 0:11:53.396 to flee. They had tried to destroy evidence of what 0:11:53.436 --> 0:11:57.156 they had done, dismantling the installations for mass killing and 0:11:57.276 --> 0:12:04.436 burning incriminating documents. By May third, the German soldiers were gone. 0:12:04.516 --> 0:12:07.796 Two days later, the inmates heard the rattle of tanks. 0:12:08.476 --> 0:12:10.356 The Americans had arrived. 0:12:11.236 --> 0:12:16.396 One day, five tanks showed up that bregg down the gate. 0:12:17.036 --> 0:12:21.716 When we see the American troops in, everybody was crying 0:12:22.396 --> 0:12:25.116 the paper and the kids their feet. 0:12:25.596 --> 0:12:27.516 We called them the gi Josh. 0:12:28.876 --> 0:12:31.476 One of the soldiers who was there that day remembered 0:12:31.516 --> 0:12:33.996 what it was like to liberate the camp. His name 0:12:34.076 --> 0:12:37.516 was Charles Sandler. He was in the eleventh Armored Division 0:12:37.676 --> 0:12:40.756 of the US Army. Here he is talking about his 0:12:40.836 --> 0:12:44.196 experiences in an interview from the nineteen eighties. 0:12:45.036 --> 0:12:48.836 After picture, there huge monument. This was not just a shack. 0:12:49.596 --> 0:12:53.756 Mauthhausen Camp proper was like a huge castle on a 0:12:53.876 --> 0:12:58.156 high ground, a very permanent, but order concentration camp. I'd 0:12:58.196 --> 0:13:00.996 say it was a beautiful structure. As we approached, one 0:13:00.996 --> 0:13:07.636 of the strongest impressions, which I still very clearly recall, 0:13:08.556 --> 0:13:11.276 was that of the scentse What we smell was the 0:13:11.356 --> 0:13:16.916 smell of death, of bodies rotting, hundreds of bodies stacked 0:13:16.956 --> 0:13:20.716 like cord wood, bodies still in the crematoria. 0:13:21.916 --> 0:13:24.756 The prisoners at least those who were strong enough to 0:13:24.796 --> 0:13:26.756 stand greeted the army with. 0:13:26.756 --> 0:13:33.636 Elation, well with unmistakable just never to be forgotten joy 0:13:33.716 --> 0:13:37.956 and screaming and hollering, and the gates were open. After 0:13:38.076 --> 0:13:43.596 picture a situation of fifteen thousand souls that were just 0:13:43.716 --> 0:13:49.556 beyond description, starving, beaten, abused, and they just wanted to 0:13:49.596 --> 0:13:52.276 break out a captivity. I could have been elected anything 0:13:52.316 --> 0:13:55.796 that day I will never forget, and they're always grateful 0:13:55.796 --> 0:14:00.236 that I had that opportunity of performing that small service. 0:14:01.516 --> 0:14:04.716 What Tiber noticed about the American soldiers was that they 0:14:04.756 --> 0:14:08.516 were more than fighters. He couldn't believe how kind and 0:14:08.556 --> 0:14:12.036 compassion that they were. They gave life, they weren't just 0:14:12.076 --> 0:14:12.796 taking it away. 0:14:13.636 --> 0:14:18.436 The medic pick us up filthy stink. They have to 0:14:18.676 --> 0:14:21.316 wash us and clean us, and to take care of 0:14:21.396 --> 0:14:24.836 was unbelievable. This was something you'll never forget. 0:14:26.516 --> 0:14:30.196 Tiber and Emory were skin and bones days away from death, 0:14:30.596 --> 0:14:33.436 but the Reuben brothers were two of the lucky ones. 0:14:34.236 --> 0:14:38.636 At least ninety five thousand people had died in Mohausen. 0:14:39.196 --> 0:14:42.556 Tiber and Emory returned home to their tiny town in Hungary. 0:14:43.596 --> 0:14:46.836 Their sister Irene had survived as well, and she found 0:14:46.916 --> 0:14:50.996 them there. Of the one hundred and twenty Jewish families 0:14:51.036 --> 0:14:57.676 in their town, members of just three had returned. Among 0:14:57.676 --> 0:15:01.196 the missing were Tiber's parents and his little sister, who 0:15:01.196 --> 0:15:05.716 had been only ten. Eventually, Emory told Tiber the news 0:15:06.356 --> 0:15:10.156 all three of them had been murdered at Auschwitz. When 0:15:10.196 --> 0:15:12.876 they divided the prisoners who could work from the ones 0:15:12.876 --> 0:15:16.396 who would immediately be killed. Tiber's mother had insisted on 0:15:16.476 --> 0:15:20.036 accompanying his little sister to the gash chamber. She didn't 0:15:20.076 --> 0:15:29.676 want her to die alone. His mother's sacrifice the American 0:15:29.756 --> 0:15:35.196 gis both set Tiber on his life's course of holding 0:15:35.316 --> 0:15:40.316 fast to what makes us human, even when inhumanity surrounds us. 0:15:41.716 --> 0:15:45.356 Hungary was occupied by the Russians, and the Reuben's siblings 0:15:45.516 --> 0:15:47.876 got out of the country as fast as they possibly 0:15:47.916 --> 0:15:51.236 could before the borders closed. They made it to a 0:15:51.276 --> 0:15:54.116 camp for displaced persons that was run by the United 0:15:54.196 --> 0:15:59.076 Nations and the US Army. Tiber spent three years there 0:15:59.156 --> 0:16:02.516 before he finally got his wish permission to move to 0:16:02.556 --> 0:16:06.996 the United States. In neen forty eight, he boarded a 0:16:06.996 --> 0:16:10.596 boat to New York. As the ship entered the harbor, 0:16:11.116 --> 0:16:14.556 Tiber went to the deck to see the Manhattan skyline. 0:16:14.636 --> 0:16:18.876 He opened his suitcase, and in a grand gesture, he 0:16:18.956 --> 0:16:23.036 threw his clothes from the old Country overboard. He watched 0:16:23.036 --> 0:16:26.036 them flutter down into the water. He was going to 0:16:26.076 --> 0:16:32.156 start fresh. Hope had sustained him in Mahausen and in 0:16:32.236 --> 0:16:35.156 the camps as he waited to start this new life. 0:16:35.716 --> 0:16:39.036 Or other survivors of the war might have bitterness or regret, 0:16:39.556 --> 0:16:44.596 Tiber instead had an unflappable optimism, faith in the future, 0:16:45.516 --> 0:16:48.956 and grand plans for his new life in the United States. 0:16:50.356 --> 0:16:52.396 Once he was there, he was going to fulfill a 0:16:52.476 --> 0:16:55.756 vow he'd made the day the American soldiers liberated Mauthausen. 0:16:56.716 --> 0:16:59.396 I made the promise if Lord helped me, if I 0:16:59.476 --> 0:17:02.996 ever go to America, I'm going to become a Geigel. 0:17:21.996 --> 0:17:26.636 Fast forward a couple of years. Tiber was twenty. I'm 0:17:26.636 --> 0:17:28.036 going to take a second here to tell you what 0:17:28.116 --> 0:17:30.476 he looked like so you can get a mental picture. 0:17:31.076 --> 0:17:34.316 He wasn't a super tall guy. A puberty spent eating 0:17:34.316 --> 0:17:37.556 dirty scraps and moldy bread will mess with your growth spurt. 0:17:38.116 --> 0:17:40.916 But he looked like a movie star, like a young 0:17:41.236 --> 0:17:44.836 Marlon Branda. He had gotten a series of jobs once 0:17:44.836 --> 0:17:47.796 he settled in Manhattan. He worked at a garment factory 0:17:47.916 --> 0:17:50.876 and in a slaughterhouse briefly. Then he got hired in 0:17:50.956 --> 0:17:55.036 a fancy grocery store on Broadway. He couldn't really speak English, 0:17:55.236 --> 0:17:57.836 but he charmed the ladies and buying whatever he was selling. 0:17:58.276 --> 0:18:01.316 He was an outrageous flirt, and right around this time 0:18:01.756 --> 0:18:05.556 he changed his name to the very American Ted. 0:18:06.276 --> 0:18:08.956 So I was in heaven. It's Loise Elmetti. 0:18:11.156 --> 0:18:13.676 Ted hadn't forgotten about his vow to join the army. 0:18:14.036 --> 0:18:16.876 In fact, he kept trying to join, but he kept 0:18:16.876 --> 0:18:20.516 failing the admissions test. He tried in New York twice, 0:18:20.876 --> 0:18:23.396 and then in the fall of nineteen forty nine, Ted 0:18:23.516 --> 0:18:28.756 moved west, ever optimistic about finding more opportunity. He settled 0:18:28.836 --> 0:18:32.396 in Oakland, California, where he went to the Army recruitment 0:18:32.436 --> 0:18:37.756 office again, and there he finally passed the entrance exam 0:18:37.996 --> 0:18:41.996 on his third try. He might have had a little 0:18:42.036 --> 0:18:45.716 extra help, not saying he cheated, but he could talk 0:18:45.756 --> 0:18:49.996 his way into pretty much anything, even in his broken English. 0:18:50.036 --> 0:18:53.716 He qualified for a sharpshooter badge, and his unit was 0:18:53.756 --> 0:18:57.956 sent to Okinawa for training, and then war was declared 0:18:57.996 --> 0:19:01.276 in Korea. The troops got ready to ship out for combat, 0:19:01.476 --> 0:19:04.196 but the captain told Ted he couldn't go with them 0:19:04.516 --> 0:19:07.196 because he wasn't a US citizen yet he had to 0:19:07.236 --> 0:19:08.756 go to a safe zone instead. 0:19:09.676 --> 0:19:12.956 He says, Captain, I cannot go, and he save his 0:19:13.036 --> 0:19:16.276 own because I made the promise, and when I make 0:19:16.356 --> 0:19:19.356 a promise, I have to keep it. You say you 0:19:19.436 --> 0:19:23.156 are your mind. I say, yes, have to go because 0:19:23.196 --> 0:19:28.876 I owed him to. The soldiers liberated me, saved my life. 0:19:28.996 --> 0:19:32.716 I was going to Korea with the regiment and I did. 0:19:35.276 --> 0:19:38.796 So. Ted had asked willingly to be sent with his 0:19:38.916 --> 0:19:42.556 unit to a war zone, and once he arrived in Korea, 0:19:42.956 --> 0:19:45.396 he got way more than his fair share of danger. 0:19:46.236 --> 0:19:49.716 This was because of one guy. We're gonna call him 0:19:49.996 --> 0:19:54.196 Sgeant A. In interviews, Ted never wanted to give this 0:19:54.236 --> 0:19:57.756 guy's real name. It's there in his service records, but 0:19:57.836 --> 0:20:01.076 it was important to Ted that he never identified him. 0:20:01.476 --> 0:20:04.156 I don't mention any name, because you said this is 0:20:04.716 --> 0:20:08.596 the man is dead. He cannot hurt me anymore. So 0:20:09.396 --> 0:20:10.396 mentioned his name. 0:20:11.556 --> 0:20:15.196 I'm going to respect Ted's wishes. Just trust me that 0:20:15.316 --> 0:20:21.436 Sergeant A. Was a real person. Unfortunately, Sergeant A was 0:20:21.436 --> 0:20:24.636 a foul mouthed World War II that from Texas and 0:20:24.756 --> 0:20:28.836 an equal opportunity bigot. He hated the South Korean troops 0:20:28.876 --> 0:20:35.076 who were serving alongside the Americans. He hated black people, Mexicans, Italians, 0:20:35.876 --> 0:20:38.316 though fortunately for those folks none of them were assigned 0:20:38.316 --> 0:20:42.596 to his company, and Sergeant A really hated Jews. He 0:20:42.676 --> 0:20:45.116 couldn't believe that he had the bad luck to get 0:20:45.156 --> 0:20:46.796 Ted assigned to his unit. 0:20:47.516 --> 0:20:50.796 He said, no, the US would be coming here to 0:20:50.876 --> 0:20:54.996 fight a war. I said, well, you're looking one of 0:20:55.036 --> 0:20:58.396 them because I'm here, So you see that. To me, there, 0:20:58.396 --> 0:21:01.596 you are a stupid as saroma, bitch, fucking jew I 0:21:01.636 --> 0:21:04.156 ever met. All of a sudden, I say, I have 0:21:04.316 --> 0:21:07.676 to show to him, I'm gonna be as good as him. 0:21:08.476 --> 0:21:12.396 This is exactly five thousand of Ted's refusal to let 0:21:12.436 --> 0:21:17.236 hatred chip away at his essential faith in humanity. One day, 0:21:17.516 --> 0:21:20.516 his company was ordered to join a formation several miles 0:21:20.556 --> 0:21:23.516 to the south. The enemy was coming their way and 0:21:23.556 --> 0:21:26.556 they needed to move to a safer location. There was 0:21:26.596 --> 0:21:29.796 a problem. They had more AMMO than they could transport. 0:21:30.276 --> 0:21:33.276 They needed to travel to the next position get some 0:21:33.356 --> 0:21:38.076 trucks and drive back to pick it up. Sergeant A yelled, 0:21:38.676 --> 0:21:40.676 find me the Hungarian. 0:21:40.836 --> 0:21:43.476 And he said that we have a lot of ammunition 0:21:43.716 --> 0:21:49.156 and rappens and everything. You're gonna be a guard and 0:21:49.276 --> 0:21:51.356 if she if we're gonna come back and pick it up. 0:21:52.796 --> 0:21:56.196 Ted was being left behind alone on top of a ridge, 0:21:56.436 --> 0:21:58.796 a ridge that was the only thing standing between the 0:21:58.876 --> 0:22:02.596 approaching enemy and the US troops. He was supposed to 0:22:02.676 --> 0:22:07.516 wait there and guard a giant pile of weapons by himself. 0:22:08.596 --> 0:22:11.156 This was not a good situation. It was obvious to 0:22:11.196 --> 0:22:13.996 everyone a single man wouldn't be able to keep an 0:22:14.076 --> 0:22:18.236 enemy patrol from taking the ammunition or from advancing on 0:22:18.316 --> 0:22:22.876 the company's new position. But Ted couldn't and wouldn't say no, 0:22:23.476 --> 0:22:26.036 and Sergeant A promised they would be back to get 0:22:26.116 --> 0:22:29.076 him before dark. Then the company packed. 0:22:28.876 --> 0:22:29.476 Up and left. 0:22:30.116 --> 0:22:34.316 The hours ticked by, the shadows grew longer. Ted kept 0:22:34.356 --> 0:22:37.556 looking at his watch, kept waiting, hoping to hear the 0:22:37.636 --> 0:22:45.116 rattle of trucks. Then it was dark. By midnight, it 0:22:45.156 --> 0:22:48.276 was clear to Ted that the trucks weren't coming, and 0:22:48.356 --> 0:22:51.636 he realized an entire enemy company could get to the 0:22:51.676 --> 0:22:54.636 top of this ridge. In a matter of minutes, it 0:22:54.676 --> 0:22:58.996 will be dozens against just him. To anyone else, the 0:22:59.036 --> 0:23:01.516 situation would have seemed truly hopeless. 0:23:01.836 --> 0:23:02.316 Not Ted. 0:23:03.076 --> 0:23:06.396 He looked at the giant pile of ammunition and started 0:23:06.436 --> 0:23:09.116 squirreling grenades into the foxholes along the ridge. 0:23:10.076 --> 0:23:11.836 Then I have my m one rifle. 0:23:12.316 --> 0:23:15.356 I lowered them down, a few of them and put 0:23:15.436 --> 0:23:16.316 in some mamination. 0:23:17.556 --> 0:23:19.996 He gathered as much machine gun ammo as he could 0:23:20.036 --> 0:23:24.196 handle and place that in strategic positions too. He needed 0:23:24.236 --> 0:23:26.716 to trick the North Koreans into believing that there was 0:23:26.756 --> 0:23:30.676 more than one soldier on guard. Then he waited for 0:23:30.756 --> 0:23:35.636 the enemy to arrive. And arrived they did. The moon 0:23:35.756 --> 0:23:39.156 moved from behind a cloud, and Ted saw them a 0:23:39.316 --> 0:23:43.276 hundred or more North Korean soldiers silently scaling the hill. 0:23:43.956 --> 0:23:46.356 Then it was whistles and yells and the sound of 0:23:46.356 --> 0:23:51.476 a bugle. The onslaught had begun. Ted hurled grenades one 0:23:51.516 --> 0:23:54.076 after another as fast as he could pull the pins. 0:23:54.796 --> 0:23:57.836 Bone rattling blasts of motor shells came back at him. 0:23:58.116 --> 0:24:01.316 He crawled behind a machine gun and started firing into 0:24:01.316 --> 0:24:04.396 the darkness. Bullets zipped through the air in his direction. 0:24:05.236 --> 0:24:07.796 Then I should with my rifle. Then I should my 0:24:07.956 --> 0:24:13.596 carbine I throw, you'll become hysterica. I did it four 0:24:13.636 --> 0:24:21.156 and a half hours. I've been bananas. 0:24:19.436 --> 0:24:25.596 Four and a half hours, one man against one hundred. Finally, 0:24:25.836 --> 0:24:29.396 as dawn came, Ted heard the sound of American planes overhead. 0:24:29.836 --> 0:24:32.996 What was left of the enemy scattered. The battle was over. 0:24:33.116 --> 0:24:36.516 He was alive, but still nobody was coming for him, 0:24:36.996 --> 0:24:41.076 so he started walking. He was shell shocked, moving like 0:24:41.116 --> 0:24:44.676 a zombie down the dusty road. When he finally reached 0:24:44.676 --> 0:24:48.476 his company, he told Sergeant A what had happened. Sergeant 0:24:48.516 --> 0:24:52.036 A didn't believe him, but Ted insisted that they go 0:24:52.156 --> 0:24:55.196 back and look. He wanted proof for his commanding officers 0:24:55.436 --> 0:24:59.916 and for himself. What they found was a pile of bodies. 0:25:00.556 --> 0:25:03.556 The far side of the hill was carpeted with dead 0:25:03.836 --> 0:25:08.076 and dying North Korean soldiers. Ted was horrified. He cried 0:25:08.076 --> 0:25:10.396 in a way that he had never cried before, not 0:25:10.476 --> 0:25:12.956 even when Emory had told him about his parents and 0:25:12.996 --> 0:25:13.796 his little sister. 0:25:14.756 --> 0:25:18.676 Then I have a guilt feeling what I did here. 0:25:19.596 --> 0:25:25.876 You know, I kill even the enemy, but I killed 0:25:25.996 --> 0:25:30.516 somebody's father brought there and all that, you know. 0:25:33.036 --> 0:25:35.876 But here's the irony right. He had become a soldier 0:25:36.156 --> 0:25:40.156 to save lives. His first reaction wasn't relief at having 0:25:40.196 --> 0:25:46.516 survived an unsurvivable situation. It was to see the terrible costs. 0:25:47.276 --> 0:25:50.996 Ted knew what war was, what soldiers did. He knew 0:25:50.996 --> 0:25:53.316 that they weren't just the life giving g I Joes 0:25:53.596 --> 0:25:57.236 who had saved him from death in Mohausen. They killed people, 0:25:57.756 --> 0:26:03.596 sometimes in a way that felt needless cruel. Up until 0:26:03.596 --> 0:26:06.836 this moment, Ted had convinced himself that he could get 0:26:06.876 --> 0:26:10.796 through the war with his moral code intact. Now he 0:26:10.876 --> 0:26:13.836 had to face what it actually meant to be a soldier, 0:26:14.476 --> 0:26:16.876 and he had to figure out a way to balance 0:26:16.916 --> 0:26:21.476 the scales. How he did would change not only Ted's life, 0:26:21.916 --> 0:26:27.756 but the lives of dozens of others. The Extraordinary Story 0:26:27.756 --> 0:26:31.436 of Ted Rubin continues next week on Medal of Honor, 0:26:31.836 --> 0:26:51.316 Stories of Courage. Medal of Honor Stories of Courage is 0:26:51.356 --> 0:26:55.716 written by Meredith Rollins and produced by Meredith Rollins, Constanza Gallardo, 0:26:56.196 --> 0:26:59.836 and Izzy Carter. The show is edited by Ben Daph Haffrey, 0:27:00.076 --> 0:27:04.596 sound design and additional music by Jake Gorski, recording engineering 0:27:04.596 --> 0:27:09.116 by Nita Lawrence, fact checking by Arthur Gombert's original music 0:27:09.356 --> 0:27:13.236 by Eric Phillips. Special thanks to the Congressional Medal of 0:27:13.316 --> 0:27:17.236 Honor Society and the Buffalo Jewish Federation. If you want 0:27:17.276 --> 0:27:19.836