Corporal Tibor "Ted" Rubin, U.S. Army (Ret.), Medal of Honor Recipient, Garden City, CA

Tibor “Ted” Rubin was born in Paszto, Hungary, and was one of six children born to a shoemaker in a village of 120 Jewish families.  During the Nazi campaign to wipe out Hungary’s Jewish population, the 13-year-old Rubin was separated from his parents and siblings and transported to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria.  His parents and two sisters perished in other camps. After 14 months at Mauthausen, Rubin was liberated by American troops.  He later came to the United States in 1948 as a 19 year old and enlisted in the U.S. Army. 

During the Korean War, while his unit was retreating to the Pusan Perimeter, Cpl. Rubin was assigned to stay behind to keep open the vital Taegu-Pusan Road link used by withdrawing American forces. During the ensuing battle, overwhelming numbers of North Korean troops assaulted a hill defended solely by Cpl. Rubin. Single-handedly for 24 hours, he fought off wave after wave of enemy soldiers. During the war, he was also captured by the Chinese who offered to let Cpl. Rubin return to his native Hungary, but he chose to remain in the prison camp instead. Cpl. Rubin used what he had learned as a Holocaust survivor to aid his fellow comrades, stealing food and nursing his fellow wounded soldiers. In September 2005, President

Bush presented the 76-year-old Rubin with the Medal of Honor for the many sacrifices he made.