[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 22535-22536]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




A TRIBUTE TO TIBOR (TED) RUBIN--RECIPIENT OF THE CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL OF 
                                 HONOR

                                 ______
                                 

                               TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 6, 2005

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me today in 
paying tribute to Tibor (Ted) Rubin, who received the Medal of Honor 
from President George W. Bush at a ceremony in the White House just a 
few days ago for his heroic and extraordinarily selfless acts during 
the Korean War. His story is inspirational and his deeds are stirring 
and should be known by all Americans.
   Mr. Rubin was born between the First and Second World Wars in 
Paszto, Hungary, a small Jewish village of only 120 people in 1929. At 
age 13, he was shipped to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, 
where he spent 14 months. When he was liberated by American troops, he 
was starving and on the brink of death. Although Tibor survived, both 
his parents and two of his sisters perished in the Holocaust.
   Mr. Speaker, Tibor Rubin immigrated to New York in 1948 where he 
worked first as a shoemaker and later as a butcher. When he attempted 
to enter the U.S. Army butcher's school in 1949, he was denied 
admission after failing the English test, but in 1950 he passed. By 
July of that year, he was assigned to the infantry and stationed on the 
front lines in Korea. Mr. Rubin volunteered for missions that no one 
else would undertake. On one occasion, he secured the retreat route for 
his company by single-handedly defending a hill for 24 hours against 
waves of North Korean soldiers.
   In October 1950 a massive Chinese attack was mounted across the 
border into North Korea. The offensive surprised Americans troops, 
including Tibor Rubin's unit. After most of his regiment had been wiped 
out and he was severely wounded, he was captured and spent the next 30 
months in a prisoner of war camp. The Chinese offered him food and a 
chance to go back to Hungary throughout his ordeal, but he refused to 
leave his American brothers. Mr. Rubin would sneak out of the his 
prison every night and steal food from Chinese and North Korean supply 
depots and feed the rest of his fellow POWs with the food he found. His 
fellow prisoners felt that he single-handedly kept 35 men alive.
   He became an American citizen after returning from Korea in 1953. 
Tibor was found to be 100 percent disabled by his war-time injuries by 
the Veterans Administration. He tried to return to his profession as a 
butcher, but his injuries prevented that. Today, Mr. Rubin lives in 
Garden Grove, California, with his wife of 42 years, Yvonne, a Dutch 
Holocaust survivor, and they have two children--a son, Frank, an Air 
Force veteran, and a daughter, Rosalyn.
   Mr. Speaker, for his outstanding military service, Tibor Rubin was 
recommended four times for the Congressional Medal of Honor by his 
commanding officers and comrades, twice for the Distinguished Service 
Cross and twice for the Silver Star--but he did not receive any of 
these honors, though he did receive two Purple Hearts. Tibor's 
immediate superiors recommended him for the Medal of Honor, but before 
the paperwork could be processed these officers were killed, and a 
sergeant who might have sent the papers up refused to do so because 
Tibor was Jewish. ``Not on my watch,'' he reportedly said.
   Because of his remarkable bravery and courage in Korea, private 
bills were introduced in the Congress on a number of occasions to give 
him the honor he deserved. Finally, just a few days ago, the long-
delayed but richly-deserved Medal of Honor was presented to Tibor Ruben 
by the President.

[[Page 22536]]

   Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in paying tribute to 
the heroism of Ted Ruben, and extending to him our gratitude for his 
service to our country--service that was well above and beyond the call 
of duty.

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