Daniel M. Cohen (1) (1949–)

Tibor Rubin was born in Hungary, was a teen in Mauthausen concentration camp, and was released by Patton’s 11th Army. His brother and sisters also survived, and with his brother and one sister, he lived for three years in a DP camp in Germany. He immigrated to America, and as soon as he could he signed up to be in the Army.

He was sent to Korea. He had an anti- Semitic master sergeant who wanted him dead and assigned him every dangerous duty. On two occasions officers said his actions should get him Medals of Honor. One officers died soon after, the other also died and the anti- Semitic master sergeant ‘forgot.’ And so did the US Army for 55 years.

In one battle he defended a mountain of ammunition against an assault by overwhelming numbers of North Korean soldiers, when he was alone. During another battle he manned a machine gun after three previous gunners had died, until he ran out of ammunition, allowing the remnants of his unit to retreat. Wounded, he was captured by the Chinese.

Then Rubin was put in a Chinese POW camp, where his experiences at Mauthausen, kept him and many other men there alive. The Chinese tried to send him back to Hungary, but he knew the soldiers in Camp 5 needed him, and he didn’t want to go back to Hungary, in spite of the fact that he was not yet an American citizen.

There were two fellow soldiers who championed Rubin getting a Medal of Honor. One was in the POW camp with Rubin. The other was the other master sergeant in Rubin’s unit, who lives twenty miles away from where I live in Upstate New York.

This is an exciting book that I could not put down. We live in a better world for having had Tibor Rubin in it. I haven’t seen or read Unbroken or The Boys in the Boat, yet, but it’s hard to imagine that this isn’t at least as exciting. I borrowed this from my public library, the same day President Obama finally gave a Medal of Honor to Henry Johnson, of Albany, and I thought it was this Jewish soldier, but it was another Jewish soldier. (It was William Shemin, who, like Johnson, served in World War I.) I started and finished this book on 6/9/15.… (plus d'informations)