The Fourth of July is a holiday that celebrates the birth of our country. It also allows us to reflect on those who epitomize what it means to be an American and the sacrifices they made.

To President George W. Bush and everyone else at the White House in 2005, except the man receiving the nation’s highest military honor, the recognition came over 50 years too late. To the recipient, Corporal Tibor “Ted” Rubin, who is the only Holocaust survivor ever to receive the Medal of Honor, he didn’t care.

He felt fortunate to be alive and living in a country that he described as: “the best country in the world”. He further maintained that his acts of heroism were nothing special but borne out of doing the right thing and helping your fellow man.

The story of Rubin is one of resilience, unbelievable courage, love for his fellow man, and faith and hope, which he inspired in others.

The reason for the long delay in Rubin receiving the award lies in antisemitism, a form of bigotry that unfortunately still raises its ugly head. Two senior officers recommended him for the Medal of Honor four times. Those officers making those recommendations though were later killed in action, and the sergeant charged to file the paperwork, did not. That sergeant, Ted’s superior, disliked Jews, Blacks and immigrants, and did not believe that those individuals were worthy of being citizens and surely not deserving of the nation’s highest military award.

Ted only received the award after a reunion with fellow soldiers in his unit many years later when it came to light that Ted, a man who many credited with saving their lives, had not received the award. His brothers in arms were shocked that Ted, a man that they considered a true war hero and the reason many of them were alive, had not received the nation’s most prestigious award for bravery.

They made it their mission to have Ted receive this honor. Their actions coincided with an effort by Congress with the Defense Authorization Act in 2002, that mandated the military review the records to identify Jewish veterans who served in combat and had been unfairly denied the Medal of Honor due to prejudice.

In reviewing Ted’s life, it reads like a script for Mission Impossible.

Ted grew up in a small village in Hungary to Jewish parents. In 1944 when he was 13, his older brother was conscripted to work in a forced labor camp for the Nazis. Fearing a similar fate for their younger son, his parents sent him with a group of men who sought to sneak across the border to Switzerland. Unfortunately, Ted and the others were caught by the Nazis and he was sent to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. All of the Nazi concentration camps were horrible but Mauthausen was one of the worst. The prisoners there were packed into compounds, poorly fed, received almost no medical treatment, and beaten for the slightest offense. At the same time, the inmates were expected to perform hard physical labor daily. The treatment in the camp took its toll and out of the estimated 185,000 prisoners held at Mauthausen, only half survived.

At Mauthausen, Ted learned the skills to survive which helped to keep him and others alive there.

To supplement their meager diet, Ted would sneak out nightly and steal food and medicine from the garbage or storage area knowing that if he were caught, he would be executed. Ted realized, even at his young age, that the most important trait for surviving was not one’s physical strength but more internal fortitude, hope and a will to live.

Ted remembered seeing many prisoners die as they abandoned hope and gave up. During the Korean War, medical personnel saw similar cases and came up with their own term for it, “give-up-it is”. Ted was determined that those in his group in the camp would not fall prey to this condition.

In 1945, U.S. soldiers captured Mauthausen, freeing thousands of emaciated and sick prisoners. Ted was one of them. He was struck by the kindness and care shown by the GIs to him and others there. At that point Ted promised that if he was ever able to immigrate to the U.S., he would become a GI.

Ted was able to come to the U.S. in 1948, and after several tries, Ted was accepted into the U.S. Army. With the breakout of war in Korea, Ted’s regiment was sent to the conflict.

Oddly enough, antisemitism helped to propel Ted to receive the Medal of Honor. His bigoted sergeant always chose Ted for the most hazardous and difficult tasks in Korea. In his eyes, he saw no great loss in having a Jewish soldier, particularly an immigrant, die. Amazingly, Ted defied the odds and kept coming back from those dangerous missions.

During one mission, Ted was tasked by his sergeant to defend a hill by himself so the rest of the company could retreat. He defended the hill for over a day, fending off several hundred North Korean soldiers based on his courage and creativity. In the morning, members of his company returned and found Ted still holding the hill where several hundred dead enemy soldiers lay below.

Later in 1950 after the Chinese entered the war, Ted’s unit was attacked in a nighttime attack by an immense number of Chinese soldiers. During the assault, Ted saw that a key machine gun position, where three other soldiers had already been injured or killed, needed to be manned, so as to allow others in his unit to escape. Ted took control of the machine gun and fought courageously throughout that night and next day until his ammunition ran out and he was wounded and captured by enemy soldiers.

Upon his capture the Chinese transported him to a prison camp. When the Chinese realized that Ted was not a U.S. citizen and was from Hungary, they offered him the opportunity to go back to Hungary, which was an ally of China. Ted refused. He considered himself an American GI and chose to stay with his fellow soldiers in the camp. As a result, Ted remained a POW in North Korea for 30 months.

Upward of 40 American soldiers in the prison camp attributed their survival to Ted. Many of them were afflicted with disease, malnutrition and untended wounds. Ted became their caregiver and with the knowledge and skills he learned in Mauthausen, helped to ensure their survival. As at Mauthausen, Ted nightly risked his life to forage for food and medicine from the garbage or storage sheds that he shared with the men in his compound.

Further, Ted inspired and gave hope to the men, begging them to hang on. One of Ted’s fellow prisoners described him as a very religious man and noted that “He did many good deeds, which he told us were mitzvahs in the Jewish tradition.”

Ted Rubin, despite not even being a citizen and being subject to vehement antisemitism, chose to risk his life on behalf of our country. He, better than most of us, appreciated the promise and hope our country affords, as well as the importance and price of freedom, much like our forefathers did in 1776.

Greg Fulton is the President of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association (CMCA), which includes 600 companies involved in the trucking industry.

Greg Fulton is the President of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association (CMCA), which includes 600 companies involved in the trucking industry.