Tibor Rubin’s Medicine (Part 2)

Speaker 1 Pushkin.

Speaker 2 This is an iHeart podcast.

Speaker 5 American Military University, where service members like you can access high-quality, affordable education built for your lifestyle.

Speaker 11 With online programs that fit around deployments, training, and unpredictable schedules, AMU makes it possible to earn your degree no matter where duty takes you.

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Speaker 31 org.

Speaker 42 In today's supercompetitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal.

Speaker 33 T-Mobile knows all about that.

Speaker 44 They're now the best network according to the experts at OoCla Speed Test, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

Speaker 49 That's your business, Supercharged.

Speaker 39 Learn more at supermobile.com.

Speaker 47 Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S.

Speaker 41 where you can see the sky.

Speaker 48 Best network based on analysis by OOCHLA of Speed Test Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

Speaker 29 I'm Malcolm Glabwell and this is Medal of Honor Stories of Courage, our podcast about the heroes who have won America's highest military decoration.

Speaker 4 In the last episode, we met Tiber Rubin, or Ted as he renamed himself.

Speaker 58 Born in Hungary, he survived a Nazi concentration camp when he was just a teen.

Speaker 61 He was liberated by American GIs and made a vow that someday, God willing, he would become one of them.

Speaker 62 And he did.

Speaker 9 He joined the U.S.

Speaker 13 Army and was sent to Korea.

Speaker 11 When we last saw him there, he had held off an entire enemy force by himself at night.

Speaker 63 He survived, but he was horrified by what he had done.

Speaker 37 He hadn't gone to the Army to kill people.

Speaker 65 He wanted to save them.

Speaker 4 But on the day after Ted's one-man stand, his commanding officer surveyed the scene.

Speaker 20 He knew that Ted's battle was more than just a bloodbath.

Speaker 54 He hadn't only safeguarded a valuable cache of weapons, he had kept the enemy from reaching the main and only road, the one that led directly to the U.S.

Speaker 4 troops.

Speaker 29 Yes, he had taken lives, but he had saved countless more.

Speaker 67 A captain told me to say, hey, Teddy, if you don't kill them, you're gonna get killed. Not only you get killed, your friends and everybody.
You see, that's what

Speaker 67 it's hell.

Speaker 68 The CO thought he deserved the Medal of Honor, but one thing stood in the way.

Speaker 4 Ted's supervisory officer, Sergeant A.

Speaker 69 The bigoted man who had put him in that hopeless position on the ridge in the first place.

Speaker 15 So even though the CO ordered Sergeant A.

Speaker 7 to write up the paperwork to recommend Ted for the Medal of Honor, Sergeant A.

Speaker 17 never did.

Speaker 66 He wasn't going to see a Jewish soldier get that kind of recognition.

Speaker 32 Not on my watch, he said.

Speaker 17 And Ted kept getting sent into the worst imaginable situations.

Speaker 16 Sergeant A made sure of that.

Speaker 67 Every time he needed a volunteer, a so-called volunteer, he always called for me and say, get me that fucking Saromovich Hungarian Joe. That was me.
So pretty soon I forget my real name.

Speaker 67 I figured when they call me a Sarumovich Huckinjo, that's me. I was only 20 years old, you know.

Speaker 66 It became clear to everyone that Sergeant A wouldn't be happy until he had gotten Ted killed.

Speaker 67 He actually made a hero out of me.

Speaker 74 Because every dangerous mission Ted got sent on just showcased his bravery, his resourcefulness, and his compassion.

Speaker 64 Even more than that, Ted never lost his optimism, his hope, his belief in the goodness of others.

Speaker 63 He risked his life to rescue a fellow soldier, Leonard Hamm, from the battlefield against Sergeant A's orders, but he saved him.

Speaker 76 Then Sergeant A sent Ted into the forest alone on a deadly scouting mission.

Speaker 77 He zigzagged from tree to tree, trying to stay hidden.

Speaker 68 But suddenly, right in front of him, were three armed North Korean soldiers.

Speaker 63 Once again, Ted was outnumbered.

Speaker 29 But then he noticed something.

Speaker 51 They were holding a white flag.

Speaker 78 One of them, a lieutenant, asked Ted who he was.

Speaker 57 Ted's mind raced.

Speaker 54 If they knew he was a private, a soldier of minimal importance, they might kill him.

Speaker 32 So he lied.

Speaker 13 He said he was a commanding officer, a major, and he didn't stop there.

Speaker 4 He told them that North Korea had lost the war.

Speaker 54 Kim Il-sung was in Tokyo right that very moment in peace talks with General MacArthur.

Speaker 32 And that's how he got two full companies of enemy soldiers, several hundred men, to surrender to him.

Speaker 67 It was a miracle, you know what I mean. I was talking broken English.
They were talking broken English. I was a sharp-looking soldier.
I told them I'm Major Rubin.

Speaker 67 And they give up. They capture over 400 prisoners without firing anything.

Speaker 60 The North Korean soldiers lay down their arms, and Ted told them to wait where they were until he could bring reinforcements.

Speaker 13 He ran back to camp with the news.

Speaker 29 Once again, nobody believed him.

Speaker 51 until they went out and saw the hundreds of unarmed, surrendered North Korean soldiers.

Speaker 79 And once again, Sergeant A.

Speaker 56 was told to fill out the paperwork for a Medal of Honor, and, because a bigot is nothing if not predictable, he did no such thing.

Speaker 78 Then came the worst battle Ted's unit saw.

Speaker 60 Unbeknownst to the American troops on the ground, the Chinese had entered the war, sending thousands of soldiers to join the North Koreans.

Speaker 11 Three U.S.

Speaker 17 Army battalions, including Ted's, were sent to the small city of Unsan,

Speaker 60 where the attacks were constant and merciless.

Speaker 56 Ted was there, behind a line defended by a single machine gun way out in the open.

Speaker 76 One machine gunner after another was killed while operating it.

Speaker 6 Three men died, and then nobody wanted to go out and hold the line anymore.

Speaker 67 Nobody wanted to get on it because it was dangerous.

Speaker 17 But it was necessary to save their lives.

Speaker 63 So Ted stepped forward.

Speaker 67 And not because I'm a hero or anything, but I figured that's the only thing we have left.

Speaker 67 So that's slow him down.

Speaker 17 Ted held the position until the ammunition was gone.

Speaker 80 He took shrapnel to his hand, his chest, his leg, but he wouldn't leave his position.

Speaker 62 Meanwhile, Sergeant A had retreated behind the lines, telling no one and taking no one with him.

Speaker 17 He'd run away to safety.

Speaker 57 The good news for Ted was that his tormentor was finally gone.

Speaker 37 More reason for optimism, right?

Speaker 4 But in fact, Ted's run of luck was about to end.

Speaker 17 The Americans were massively outnumbered.

Speaker 22 First came defeat, then came capture.

Speaker 69 Ted and a straggling group of survivors were rounded up by the Chinese command and marched north.

Speaker 65 Initially, they were a handful of soldiers in the line with Ted.

Speaker 6 Soon, they were hundreds.

Speaker 76 It was November 1950, the start of a particularly brutal winter.

Speaker 80 Ted took breaks from marching to remove his boots and massage his toes.

Speaker 29 He had seen toes turn black and fall off from frostbite at Mothausen.

Speaker 72 The lessons from the camp were coming back to him.

Speaker 77 The men walked for days through knee-deep snow.

Speaker 20 Finally, they saw it.

Speaker 1 A dozen single-story shacks with a creek running past them, surrounded by loops of barbed wire.

Speaker 78 They had arrived at the place they would soon call Death Valley.

Speaker 67 Why they call it the Dead Valley? Because there are guys started dying there.

Speaker 58 Ted couldn't have known, but he was heading into a system of notoriously brutal POW camps.

Speaker 60 Of the American servicemen who went into these camps, 38%

Speaker 78 would die.

Speaker 72 If the American soldiers thought they had seen death and cruelty in combat, they hadn't seen anything like what was coming.

Speaker 64 But Ted had.

Speaker 81 More on that after this quick break.

Speaker 30 This episode is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union.

Speaker 15 Navy Federal can help you find and finance the right vehicle with ease.

Speaker 24 And this summer, you're in the driver's seat seat with savings.

Speaker 15 You can get a $250 bonus when you buy your next car through Navy Federal's Car Buying Service, powered by TrueCar and financed with Navy Federal.

Speaker 34 With this tool, you can find the vehicle that's right for you as you search through inventory and compare models.

Speaker 36 And you could get an amazing rate when you finance with Navy Federal.

Speaker 15 Navy Federal strives to support all active duty veterans and their families to achieve their personal and financial goals.

Speaker 38 And this partnership with TrueCar is one of the many tools Navy Federal uses to help its members.

Speaker 49 Make your plan with Navy Federal and TrueCar today.

Speaker 30 Navy Federal Credit Union.

Speaker 76 To qualify for the $250 bonus, car purchase and financing must be completed by September 2nd, 2025.

Speaker 30 Terms and conditions apply and are available at navyfederal.org/slash TrueCar. Credit and collateral subject to approval.

Speaker 38 Navy Federal is insured by NCUA.

Speaker 43 In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal.

Speaker 20 T-Mobile knows all about that.

Speaker 44 They're now the best network, according to the experts at an OOCLA speed test, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

Speaker 82 With Supermobile, your performance, performance, security, and coverage are supercharged.

Speaker 40 With a network that adapts in real time, your business stays operating at peak capacity even in times of high demand.

Speaker 41 With built-in security on the first nationwide 5G advanced network, you keep private data private for you, your team, your clients.

Speaker 48 And with seamless coverage from the world's largest satellite-to-mobile constellation, your whole team can text and stay updated even when they're off the grid.

Speaker 49 That's your business, supercharged.

Speaker 39 Learn more at supermobile.com.

Speaker 47 Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S.

Speaker 41 where you can see the sky.

Speaker 48 Best network based on analysis by UCLA of Speed Test Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

Speaker 5 American Military University, where service members like you can access high-quality, affordable education built for your lifestyle.

Speaker 11 With online programs that fit around deployments, training, and unpredictable schedules, AMU makes it possible to earn your degree no matter where duty takes you.

Speaker 17 Their preferred military rate keeps tuition at just $250 per credit hour for undergraduate and master's tuition.

Speaker 23 And with 24-7 mental health support plus career coaching and other services, AMU is committed to your success during and after your service.

Speaker 27 Learn more at amu.apus.edu slash military. That's amu.apus.edu slash military.

Speaker 67 When you become captured, you become a nothing. They can take you out any second, they shoot you, and that's it.
You're just a dead man. They can beat you up.
They can starve you. They can punish you.

Speaker 67 You're no more a human being.

Speaker 81 Life in POW Camp 5 was like this.

Speaker 13 You got two tiny cups of grain twice a day, and when it was cooked in water, please note, clean water not available, it turned into a porridge that kept a soldier hovering just above the starvation point.

Speaker 73 There was no hospital for all the wounded and sick.

Speaker 1 Well, there was something they called the hospital, but if you went in, you didn't come out.

Speaker 73 Soldiers knew to avoid it at all costs. The 3,000 prisoners had dysentery, pneumonia, untreated wounds, and they had the dreaded give up-itis.

Speaker 28 What they called it when an inmate would just stop eating, stop moving, and seemingly lose the will to live.

Speaker 71 Winter was viciously cold, and the prisoners were dressed in rags that didn't keep out the chill.

Speaker 54 They stood in the snow, shivering.

Speaker 80 while their captors did roll call.

Speaker 72 Everyone was starving.

Speaker 66 They would sleep squeezed next to each other like sardines.

Speaker 20 Often, they'd wake up next to someone who had died in the night.

Speaker 65 For the American soldiers, this was an unimaginable nightmare.

Speaker 14 For Ted, it was all too familiar.

Speaker 56 Remember, he had been in a Nazi concentration camp just five years earlier, but there were key differences between Camp 5 and Mauthausen.

Speaker 26 For one thing, they looked very different.

Speaker 56 At Mauthausen, the prison fortress had been designed to last.

Speaker 38 Camp 5 was just a series of hastily built mud huts.

Speaker 53 And Ted would tell you, there was another key difference, too.

Speaker 6 For the Nazis, mass murder was the whole point.

Speaker 32 But while the Chinese didn't necessarily care if a soldier died, death wasn't the ultimate goal.

Speaker 62 Indoctrination was. This was the Cold War.

Speaker 69 Communism versus democracy.

Speaker 11 The Chinese desperately wanted these Americans to buy into their way of life, even if it happened by force.

Speaker 53 Perhaps you've heard of the movie, The Manchurian Candidate.

Speaker 56 It's a classic 1960s film starring Frank Sinatra.

Speaker 37 The whole plot revolves around an American GI who is brainwashed in a North Korean POW camp.

Speaker 9 That GI wins the Medal of Honor, and then, because he's been brainwashed, he tries to kill the Conservative Party's presidential nominee.

Speaker 63 The film is a psychological thriller with a hefty dose of political satire and surrealism and camp.

Speaker 84 His brain has not only been washed, as they say, it has been dry clean.

Speaker 56 The GI's mother is in on the assassination plot.

Speaker 37 She's played by Angela Lansbury, who was at the time 37.

Speaker 15 The actor playing her son was 35.

Speaker 32 It's all completely nuts.

Speaker 62 Anyway, this is all to say, brainwashing, or the attempt at brainwashing, was an actual thing in the camps.

Speaker 19 In Camp 5, the soldiers' days were filled with information sessions, lectures about the ills of American society.

Speaker 56 They could be tortured if they resisted their re-education or engaged in debate with their captors.

Speaker 72 Agreeing with the doctrine, on the other hand, might get them cigarettes or food.

Speaker 66 Layered on top of the painful hunger, the cold, and the deprivation, the idea was to break the soldiers down and rebuild them as compliant comrades.

Speaker 62 But Ted had a way to avoid all of this misery.

Speaker 6 His Chinese captors realized, hey, here's a guy who can't really speak English.

Speaker 80 Sorry, Ted.

Speaker 29 He's not even an American citizen.

Speaker 79 He's from Hungary, which is under the influence of the USSR, which is our communist ally.

Speaker 75 So they came to Ted and said, Comrade, you don't have to stay here.

Speaker 1 We'll send you home to Hungary.

Speaker 61 The other soldiers were blown away by Ted's incredible good luck, and they were equally blown away when Ted said, no.

Speaker 79 He would stay with his men.

Speaker 20 Thank you very much.

Speaker 62 The other guys couldn't believe it.

Speaker 55 Why would anyone stay in this god-forsaken place?

Speaker 17 But they didn't realize something essential about Ted.

Speaker 13 He hadn't become a soldier to gun down hundreds of men on a ridge to take life.

Speaker 20 He'd become a soldier to give life.

Speaker 77 And he realized that he could do that in the camp.

Speaker 61 Not just keep people alive, but keep them human.

Speaker 67 I would help anybody if I am able.

Speaker 67 And my mother was a Sambi. Also, my father was a Sambi.
And that's one thing she teaches. Try to help your fellow men, regardless the black, yellow,

Speaker 67 whatever nationality.

Speaker 54 Ted had already endured the Holocaust.

Speaker 56 This would be a central fact of his life, as it was for all who survived it.

Speaker 79 But almost none of those fellow survivors had to live it again.

Speaker 62 Ted did.

Speaker 56 And then he chose to stay there and put what he had learned to work.

Speaker 59 He started mapping the camp.

Speaker 81 When the guards took the prisoners up the mountain to chop wood, Ted stared back at the prison buildings, scanning them.

Speaker 17 This is where the storehouses are.

Speaker 80 This is where the guards sleep. When they needed prisoners to bury dead bodies, and they were always dead bodies, Ted's hand shot up.

Speaker 29 I'll go.

Speaker 83 He took every opportunity to get the lay of the land.

Speaker 29 The moment he figured out where they were keeping the food, he started stealing it.

Speaker 20 Every night, he snuck into the storehouses and stuffed the legs of his uniform with bits of bread and meat or potatoes, whatever he could find.

Speaker 70 Then he brought his loot back and shared it with everyone he could.

Speaker 76 The men were grateful, but they were terrified on his behalf.

Speaker 73 They all understood that if Ted were caught, he would be killed.

Speaker 17 The men in his camp called him brave.

Speaker 58 Ted thinks it was something else.

Speaker 67 You have to be nuts, and I always was nuts. You know, call it in Jewish meshugane.

Speaker 8 I love that word, meshugana.

Speaker 54 Leo Cormier was one of the men in Ted's hut.

Speaker 17 Years later, he remembered what Ted did.

Speaker 85 They used to have grinding mills for flour.

Speaker 85 Ingorov used to stuff his pants full of flour to take for all the guys in camp to eat.

Speaker 85 He raised his life there to quote him stealing that flour. He had to cut his neck off.
And he'd take grass and blow regular grass and make soup out of it.

Speaker 85 And that didn't help a lot of guys or make sure they got their food or anything.

Speaker 76 Just like he learned back in Muthausen, Ted convinced his bunk mates to strip down and pick every single louse and bed bug off their bodies.

Speaker 17 He knew what would happen if they let the vermin take over.

Speaker 85 I seen him one night spend the whole night picking lice off one of the guys that didn't have the strength to lift his head up.

Speaker 85 And Ted stayed there all night picking lice off the guy on the charcoal fire.

Speaker 85 So, you know, what now would do that?

Speaker 51 A man like Ted.

Speaker 67 I was not just a soldier, not just a funny-talking Jew. I was there when they needed me.
I feed them. I was their handyman, doctor, nurse, friend.

Speaker 21 Ted desperately tried to keep POWs out of the so-called hospital where the weakest were sent to die.

Speaker 32 So he'd find sick men and watch them carefully.

Speaker 61 He brought them hot water in his helmet and washed their wounds.

Speaker 79 When they were too weak to get up and were lying in their own filth, he'd clean them.

Speaker 63 He did that for Leo.

Speaker 85 It got so bad I had dysentery and I couldn't go to the bathroom. Ted would take me up.
I don't want the hell he got the strength to carry me, but I only weighed about 80 pounds, maybe 90 pounds on it.

Speaker 21 So why did Ted do it?

Speaker 58 Maybe because he remembered the feeling of holding his brother's hand in the concentration camp, and how that fleeting moment of connection restored his sense of humanity.

Speaker 4 Maybe because after all of those enemy soldiers he killed on the ridge, he wanted to even the tally, make up for the lives he'd taken.

Speaker 56 But I think it's even bigger than that.

Speaker 6 It's because Ted Rubin saw the possibility of greatness in every single man he saved.

Speaker 67 They always say when you save a life, you save maybe a nation.

Speaker 17 When you save a life, you save a nation.

Speaker 25 Ted didn't see men who were skin and bones, crusted in filth, beaten down.

Speaker 80 He saw future fathers, community leaders, people who had the potential to do good in the world.

Speaker 20 He saw the American life he had always dreamed about, even when the worst America had to offer spat in his face.

Speaker 78 So he put his own life on the line to safeguard that dream for everyone else.

Speaker 20 He was a dying soldier on the floor of the mud hut.

Speaker 63 The young serviceman with gevapitis, too sick to move or eat or keep going.

Speaker 67 He don't want to eat. He was just giving up.

Speaker 67 I said, Johnny, I said, Red Cross was just there. He brings us new medication.
I will give you some of them.

Speaker 67 But only one thing I ask you, and that's all. You have to promise, Johnny, you're going to help yourself because your parents waiting for you, your brother and sister waiting for you.

Speaker 67 What's gonna be, Johnny? You wanna die or you wanna help yourself?

Speaker 17 Johnny promised to help himself, and Ted kept giving him that medicine.

Speaker 62 He visited Johnny three times a day for a week, carrying those little brown pills.

Speaker 69 After five days, Johnny was sitting up and talking again.

Speaker 22 Two weeks later, he was on his feet, thanks to the amazing medicine that Ted had given him.

Speaker 78 But here's the thing.

Speaker 58 There was no medicine in the camp.

Speaker 29 The Red Cross hadn't been there.

Speaker 17 Those little brown balls were, and I think this is beautiful, so I'm sorry for what I'm about to say, goat poop.

Speaker 73 Ted fed him goat shit.

Speaker 58 He knew that what Johnny really needed was something to believe in.

Speaker 1 And what the hell, it worked.

Speaker 67 So when he was completely recovered, he went, you son of my bitch, you make me eat all the shit, but thank God I'm alive. He kissed me and everything.
He was so happy.

Speaker 20 Ted's special medicine didn't save Johnny's life.

Speaker 64 Hope did.

Speaker 20 Finally, after 30 months in Camp 5, the men started to go home.

Speaker 86 Red officers come forward to deliver another consignment of UN prisoners to the custody of allied officials, a total of 684.

Speaker 86 From then on, Red ambulances disgorge the stark proof of man's inhumanity to man.

Speaker 83 The conflict was slowly reaching its end.

Speaker 86 Even as these fortunate ones turn their steps homeward, thousands of others remain to an unknown fate. But for those who can smile again, all America is thankful.

Speaker 17 They sent the sick home first, and by then Ted was one of them.

Speaker 51 That old shrapnel wound in his knee had become infected.

Speaker 63 He arrived in the U.S. on a stretcher.

Speaker 17 Thousands of men had died in Camp Five, but Ted had managed to save at least 30 of them.

Speaker 64 He had kept them alive, and he had kept hope alive, too.

Speaker 30 This episode is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union.

Speaker 15 Navy Federal can help you find and finance the right vehicle with ease.

Speaker 24 And this summer you're in the driver's seat with savings.

Speaker 15 You can get a $250 bonus when you buy your next car through Navy Federal's Car Buying Service, powered by TrueCar and financed with Navy Federal.

Speaker 34 With this tool, you can find the vehicle that's right for you as you search through inventory and compare models.

Speaker 15 And you could get an amazing rate when you finance with Navy Federal. Navy Federal strives to support all active duty veterans and their families to achieve their personal and financial goals.

Speaker 29 And this partnership with TrueCar is one of the many tools Navy Federal uses to help its members. Make your plan with Navy Federal and TrueCar TrueCar today.

Speaker 30 Navy Federal Credit Union.

Speaker 76 To qualify for the $250 bonus, car purchase and financing must be completed by September 2nd, 2025.

Speaker 30 Terms and conditions apply and are available at navyfederal.org slash TrueCar. Credit and collateral subject to approval.

Speaker 38 Navy Federal is insured by NCUA.

Speaker 43 In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal.

Speaker 20 T-Mobile knows all about that.

Speaker 44 They're now the best network, according to the experts at OOCLA Speed Test, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.

Speaker 82 With SuperMobile, your performance, security, and coverage are supercharged.

Speaker 40 With a network that adapts in real time, your business stays operating at peak capacity even in times of high demand.

Speaker 41 With built-in security on the first nationwide 5G advanced network, you keep private data private for you, your team, your clients.

Speaker 48 And with seamless coverage from the world's largest satellite-to-mobile constellation, your whole team can text and stay updated even when they're off the grid.

Speaker 49 That's your business, supercharged.

Speaker 39 Learn more at supermobile.com.

Speaker 47 Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S.

Speaker 41 where you can see the sky.

Speaker 48 Best network based on analysis by UCLA of Speed Test Intelligence Data 1H 2025.

Speaker 5 American Military University, where service members like you can access high-quality, affordable education built for your lifestyle.

Speaker 11 With online programs that fit around deployments, training, and unpredictable schedules, AMU makes it possible to earn your degree no matter where duty takes you.

Speaker 17 Their preferred military rate keeps tuition at just $250 per credit hour for undergraduate and master's tuition.

Speaker 23 And with 24-7 mental health support plus career coaching and other services, AMU is committed to your success during and after your service.

Speaker 27 Learn more at amu.apus.edu slash military. That's amu.apus.edu slash slash military.

Speaker 53 When Ted got back to the States, he became an American citizen. He reconnected with his siblings who had finally gotten permission to immigrate to the U.S.
and who had been waiting for him.

Speaker 63 And in the final strange twist to his story, he became famous.

Speaker 23 His picture made the papers.

Speaker 25 Remember what I said about how handsome he was?

Speaker 27 Hollywood saw that too.

Speaker 4 He was invited to premieres and publicity events, starlets on his arm.

Speaker 7 There was talk of turning his life story into a movie.

Speaker 47 But Ted wasn't interested.

Speaker 57 He didn't want to talk about his experiences in Mothausen or in Korea.

Speaker 83 Like so many survivors of his generation, he preferred to put it behind him, focus on his American life.

Speaker 57 He got married.

Speaker 6 He had kids.

Speaker 78 He settled down in California.

Speaker 63 He worked at his brother Emery's liquor store.

Speaker 37 And even though he had been told on two separate occasions on the battlefield that he had been recommended for the Medal of Honor, he had never thought about the fact that no medal had ever materialized.

Speaker 32 In fact, he had been recommended four times, four, practically unheard of.

Speaker 35 Good old Sergeant A.

Speaker 75 had refused to file the paperwork for two of those recommendations.

Speaker 20 And two others, from the battle at Lincennes and from his heroism at Camp Five, had gotten lost in a shuffle.

Speaker 75 But the men who remembered, including Leo Cormier, spent years advocating on his behalf.

Speaker 6 They knew what he deserved.

Speaker 21 Then, in the 1990s, the military started looking back through the records.

Speaker 32 They wanted to see if any Jewish servicemen had been overlooked because of anti-Semitism.

Speaker 26 Right at the top of the list was Ted.

Speaker 20 In September of 2005, he finally got his medal, awarded by President George W.

Speaker 80 Bush.

Speaker 87 And by awarding the Medal of Honor to Corporal Rubin today, the United States acknowledges a debt that time has not diminished.

Speaker 87 By repeatedly risking his own life to save others, Corporal Rubin exemplified the highest ideals of military service and fulfilled a pledge to give something back to the country that had given him his freedom.

Speaker 87 And he knew that the America he fought for did not always live up to his highest ideals.

Speaker 87 Yet he had enough trust in America's promise to see his commitment through.

Speaker 77 Ted still didn't think he deserved a medal. Ted just did the thing he thought human beings were supposed to do.

Speaker 67 I say, listen, yesterday I was just a schmuck. Today they call me sir.

Speaker 67 And to get a medal of honor, you know,

Speaker 67 that's a big thing. I never knew that I'm gonna be a superjoke.

Speaker 67 I mean, I'm joking. No, I'm not super.

Speaker 67 I'm just a regular guy.

Speaker 60 Between his actions in combat and at the camp, the Army puts the number of people that Ted Rubin saved at close to 100.

Speaker 17 I think he was able to do that because he valued the humanity in every person he met, even those who treated him with bigotry or scorn.

Speaker 20 Even those who saw him as a funny foreigner with a crazy accent and a religion they didn't understand.

Speaker 70 He was taught the value of life when he was only 14 in a place that didn't value life at all.

Speaker 71 He learned the power of hope and compassion, and he kept those lessons with him.

Speaker 70 They gave him strength and with that strength, he gave strength to others.

Speaker 62 Ted Rubin died in 2015 at the age of 86, proud of his service and proud, most of all, to be a citizen of the United States of America.

Speaker 67 It is the best country in the world, world, and I'm part of it now.

Speaker 4 Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, is written by Meredith Rollins and produced by Meredith Rollins, Constanza Galardo, and Izzy Carter.

Speaker 4 The show is edited by Ben Nadaf Haffrey, sound design and additional music by Jake Gorski.

Speaker 28 recording engineering by Nina Lawrence, fact-checking by Arthur Gompertz, original music by Eric Phillips.

Speaker 69 Special thanks to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and the book Single-Handed by Daniel Cohen.

Speaker 76 If you want to learn more about our Medal of Honor recipients, follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

Speaker 66 We'll be sharing photos and videos of the heroes featured on this show.

Speaker 20 We'd also love to hear from you.

Speaker 29 DM us with a story about a courageous veteran in your life.

Speaker 14 If you don't know a veteran, we would love to hear a story of how courage was contagious in your own life.

Speaker 21 You can find us at Pushkin Bods.

Speaker 1 I'm your host, Malcolm Gaba.

Speaker 28 This episode is brought to you by Navy Federal Credit Union.

Speaker 15 Navy Federal can help you find and finance the right vehicle with ease.

Speaker 15 With Navy Federal's Car Buying Service powered by TrueCar, you can find the vehicle that's right for you as you search through inventory and compare models.

Speaker 36 And you can get an amazing rate when you finance with Navy Federal.

Speaker 18 Visit NavyFederal.org/slash TrueCar to learn more.

Speaker 34 Navy Federal is insured by NCUA credit and collateral subject to approval.

Speaker 30 Visit navyfederal.org slash truecar to learn more.

Speaker 3 American Military University is the number one provider of education to our military and veterans in this country.

Speaker 7 They offer something truly unique, special rates and grants for the entire family, making education affordable not just for those who serve, but also for their loved ones.

Speaker 31 If you have a military or veteran family member and you're looking for affordable high-quality education, AMU is the place for you.

Speaker 27 Visit amu.apus.edu slash military to learn more. That's amu.apus.edu slash military.

Speaker 2 Ah, smart water. Pure, crisp taste, perfectly refreshing.

Speaker 2 Wow, that's really good water with electrolytes for taste. It's the kind of water that says, I have my life together.
I'm still pretending the laundry on the chair is part of the decor.

Speaker 2 Yet, here you are, making excellent hydration choices.

Speaker 2 I do feel more sophisticated. That's called having a taste for taste.
Huh, a taste for taste. I like that.
Smart water. For those with a taste for taste, grab yours today.
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