[Annotator's Note: The interviewee is reading something and talking to someone before the start of the inetrview.] Mark Rubin was born in January 1937 in Sabinov, Czechoslovakia. During the war they moved many times. His memory goes back to 1939 when his maternal grandfather passed away in Kurima, Czechoslovakia. In the beginning of World War 2, his recollections are very vivid. His grandparents were taken to Sobibor [Annotator's Note: Nazi extermination camp in occupied Poland] in 1942. Rubin went to the train station to say goodbye and he knew he would never see them again. [Annotator's Note: Rubin gets emotional.] He knew the camps were extermination camps as did his parents. The general population knew what was going on. The government of Czechoslovakia was aligned with the Germans. There was no need for German troops because the local Gestapo [Annotator's Note: Secret State Police] did the German's bidding. He remembers his maternal aunt living in Prešov, Czechoslovakia and the Gestapo was arresting single women at that time. His aunt lived with his family and his father knew they were looking for her. He was around five years old, and was told to tell whomever came for his aunt that she was his mother. When they did come, he did so, and they believed him. She later did a video for the Holocaust Museum [Annotator's Note: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.] where she says that was what saved her life. When the German Army was invading Russia, he and his brother were watching the convoys going by on the main streets for 48 hours straight. He imagines it similar to the Gulf War [Annotator's Note: Gulf War, codenamed Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm against Iraq, 2 August 1990 to 28 February 1991]. It was frightening yet impressive to see the German might go by.

Mark Rubin says his father Karl was one of the smartest people he's ever known. In 1942, Karl was 31 and in business manufacturing furniture with a Gentile partner who was later arrested by the Communists. The partner later escaped into West Germany and eventually to the United States in 1949. There was no issue after the war with continuing the partnership. Rubin's father kept the family safe until 1944 when the Gestapo [Annotator's Note: Secret State Police] caught up with him. They were hiding with a family in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Their father was hiding elsewhere. The daughter of the couple who was hiding them was friendly with the Gestapo agents and turned them in for a reward. He and his brother were stripped naked to see if they were circumcised or not. They were then taken to the Gestapo headquarters where their father was as he had been captured and beaten the day before. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer backs up to before this]. The why of going into hiding was not discussed because everyone knew why. The only question was one of time because it was impossible to round up everyone at once. His father's friend was the chief of police in Prešov, Czechoslovakia and he had a cabin in the Tatra Mountains. No utilities of any kind. Rubin lived there in the winter of 1943. The police chief noticed a Gestapo agent in the train station and told Rubin to go stand on the train platform to keep from getting caught. He stayed with the chief of police and his wife for a few months, but eventually had to move back. He, his brother and mother moved to a small village to stay with some farmers. He does not believe the farmers knew they were Jewish. He was an altar boy in the local Catholic Church and went to a parochial school. He guesses he attended 20 schools by the time he graduated from high school. He had no issues with pretending to be Catholic. He does not feel he carries much baggage, but he does not forget things. In 1978, after he got out of the U.S. Army, he took a trip to Europe and wound up in Germany. He had no animosity. He does not hold individuals guilty for the misdeeds of others. He has a friend who survived Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camps in German occupied Poland]. In 1978, Rubin bought his first Mercedes and a friend asked him how he could do it. His friend had been stationed in Germany in 1950 and 1951 and had bought dishes made by Rosenthal [Annotator's Note: Rosenthal GmbH, a German manufacturer]. He told his friend that his car was not made by slave labor, but his dishes were. Rubin still drives a Mercedes. He is very much involved with the Holocaust Museum [Annotator's Note: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.] and sees it as part of the WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana]. He feels they are the best two museums in the country.

After being taken to Gestapo headquarters, Mark Rubin and his family were sent to the Sered transient camp [Annotator's Note: a labor camp in 1941 then a concentration camp 1944 in Sered, Slovakia]. This is where he met other relatives. One young cousin became ill and died there. His father worked and bribed to make sure they were sent to Terezin [Annotator's Note: the Theresienstadt transit camp and ghetto in Terezin, Czech Republic] which was not an extermination camp. They went there in cattle cars and was a trip from hell lasting three full days. It was not a long distance, but the troop trains had the priority. There was not enough room to sleep other than in shifts and there were no bathrooms. His most vivid memory of it is the stench. [Annotator's Note: Rubin tells the interviewer it's one reason his home is so clean.] They arrived at the camp and were already well aware of the selection process. He says the process is depicted well in the movie Schindler's List by Stephen Spielberg. They were separated and some were sent to the showers which to their shock was water and not gas. He knew then he would survive. They were liberated by the Russians who came down after conquering Berlin, Germany. The Russians were very good to them. Kunev [Annotator's Note: unable to find out more about who this was], led the Russians and they wore a lot of watches they had taken off of German prisoners. They drank vodka in great quantity. [Annotator's Note: Rubin talks of drinking practices at length.]

Mark Rubin moved to Bratislava, Czechoslovakia after being liberated from Terezin [Annotator's Note: Theresienstadt transit camp and ghetto in Terezin, Czech Republic]. His father became a detective on the police force and tracked down the Gestapo [Annotator's Note: Secret State Police] agent who had captured the family. He caught him and saw him hanged and then the family returned to Prešov, Czechoslovakia. His mother was a very popular woman. Rubin's wife learned to cook from her. When she passed away, the Temple was overflowing with people. [Annotator's Note: Rubin tells a story of his wife making breakfast in bed for him which did not go well.] His wife eventually became such a good cook that she gave lessons in their home and donated the money she made to charity.

Mark Rubin and his family had been sent to Terezin [Annotator's Note: Theresienstadt transit camp and ghetto in Terezin, Czech Republic] where lot of Jews were then sent to Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz concentration extermination camps in German occupied Poland]. He believes there were 15,000 children that went through the camp. Only 98 or 100 children survived and four of these were him, his brother and his two cousins. The Russians were getting close by the time he and his family arrived at the camp which slowed down the people going east to Auschwitz. They lived in Terezin until liberation. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer gives camp statistics.] A lot of the people Rubin saw were from Poland and elsewhere. After the Germans left, they found out there was an extermination camp not far from Terezin. The Russian arrival must have stopped any plans to use it. The food in the camp was rationed. Once he saw a flatbed truck bring a horse carcass in and he told his mother they were having meat that day. He came down with Beriberi [Annotator's Note: a disease caused by vitamin B-1 deficiency]. He had a brace in his mouth due to having two teeth that caused his other teeth to push through is gums. The brace was made of silver and he accidentally swallowed it one night. He did not want to have surgery as the camp was so filthy, so he waited to see if nature would take its course. It did and he was okay. The prisoners attended school but there was no real education. He does not recall learning anything other than to curse in Polish. The teacher was certainly Jewish but there was nothing to teach with. When the Germans retreated, Rubin and his brother were lying flat on the mound where an old moat had been, watching the Germans leave. As the soldiers went by, they started shooting into the camp and he could hear the bullets going over his head. When they got back to the barracks, his mother spanked him for being so stupid. A half an hour later the Russians came in. Inside the barracks, the lights were just bulbs and the worst that could happen is someone turning it on at night. They would see the roaches and vermin scattering. There were no activities, they just stayed alive and waited for food. It was particularly boring for Rubin and his brother. Both of his parents worked. One of his father's jobs was to give food to the people coming into the camp off the trains. There would be food left over due to prisoners having died before they reached the camps. His father would bring it home to them. His mother worked in a factory.

Mark Rubin did not wear the Star of David, the yellow star, in the camps. That only lasted about a year at the beginning of the war anyway. When he was in hiding before being captured, he was pretending to be Catholic. He did not pay much attention to it as a kid. Even though a lot of Czech people turned against the Jews, a lot of Gentiles protected them as well. His father's business partner who was a Gentile could have turned him in and had the factory all to himself, but he did not. Many priests were killed in Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz concentration and extermination camps in German occupied Poland] and yet a priest was also made the president of Slovakia. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer talks about the Red Cross visit to the camp before the Russians arrived.] Rubin does not recall the Red Cross being at the camp. He and his family left the day after the Russians came. They walked to Praque, Czech Republic and it took them two or three days to get there. All his mother brought along was sugar and flour. They took nothing they could not eat. They stayed there for a week or two and then went back to Bratislava, Czechoslovakia where his father joined the police force to capture a man named Schnitzer, the Gestapo officer who had captured them. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks again about the Red Cross visit.] Rubin never saw the Red Cross who supposedly took over the camp before the Russians arrived. When the Germans retreated, he and his brother were lying flat on the mound where an old moat had been, watching the Germans leave. As the soldiers went by, they started shooting into the camp and he could hear the bullets going over his head. When they got back to the barracks, his mother spanked him for being so stupid. Everyone stayed until the Russians came as there was no place else to go and nothing to eat. The Russians were just young kids and treated them very nicely. Rubin says that after the liberation they were glad to get away and he did not know nor care about what was going on in the camp. The important thing was that they were not concerned about anything other than being normal kids and going back to school and have a normal life. [Annotator's Note: He points out a piano in the room that was brought from Bratislava and is a family heirloom. Then they take a break.]

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks if going back to his home town causes him stress.] Mark Rubin sums up his feelings about returning to his hometown after having been sent away to a concentration camp with one word: dispassionate. Later in life, he took a trip with some cousins from around the world. Seven of them rented a vehicle in Budapest, Hungary. They went to the town where his mother was from to see the cemetery to see where their grandfather was buried. They stopped the car and they looked very different from the locals. In this town, his grandfather had once had a beer bar which was now a farmer's co-op with a restaurant. Some locals disparagingly said "the American Jews were in town." Rubin and his family members met with the Burgermeister and had lunch at the restaurant. The women running the restaurant apologized for charging more for the lunch because they were not part of the co-op. They had a great meal that totaled five dollars for nine people. He gave them ten dollars because he did not want them to think the American Jews were cheap. [Annotator's Note: He laughs at this. He talks about the languages he knows. He only learned to speak Yiddish in Los Angeles, California as only Polish and Russian Jews spoke it.] He took his children to the camps later in life too. He thought it was important to do, even if only for him.

Mark Rubin recently had a meeting in his house of 25 to 30 people for the Holocaust Museum [Annotator's Note: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.]. He was the only camp survivor present at the meeting. He was unable to speak when asked his experiences in the camps. [Annotator's Note: Rubin gets emotional]. The gentleman from the Museum said then that sometimes what isn't said is more powerful than what it is. He does not think about it and he tries not to wear it on his sleeve but he does not forget it either. There are not many people alive anymore, so the Holocaust deniers are having a field day with fewer people to contradict them. His guess is that the veterans that landed on Normandy [Annotator's Note: on 6 June 1944] don't like to talk about it much either. He gave an interview for Holocaust Museum and the Shoah Foundation, but he does not want to go on a speaking tour because it affects him badly and he prefers not to remember. He does not know whether this is right or wrong but says it is probably harder to talk about it than to listen to it. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer tells him how grateful they are to hear his story. Rubin gets emotional again.] Rubin says that he is living the American Dream and the opportunities that the country gives everyone is amazing. One of the things he loves about The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana is that the people who fought the war are what made it possible for him to be here and not to have perished. He worked and works hard for what he has but that is what keeps him going. He knows there is dysfunction in our system of government, but his faith is that the country will always do what is best when the time comes. He would not trade the United States for any place in the world. He feels that most immigrants are more patriotic than native citizens because they take the country for granted. The United States is mix of everything and everybody. He feels he cannot give enough back to this country for what he has been able to do for his children. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer turns it over to another interviewer who asks Rubin more about the camps.] Rubin's father bribed the Germans to send the whole family together to Terezin [Annotator's Note: Theresienstadt transit camp and ghetto in Terezin, Czech Republic]. His father was sent to a separate barracks from them. They did have contact when his parents were not working. His father would bring food that was left over from the incoming trains to the family to share. He never thought he had missed anything being in the camps like not playing or doing what he wanted. They lived a very comfortable life after the war until the Communists took over Czechoslovakia and took it all away. Between 1946 and 1948, they had one of only two convertible Mercedes ever built, the other one belonged to Adolf Hitler, that had a chrome engine, red leather upholstery. When he got out pf the U.S. Army, he wanted to make a lot of money. He supports a lot of charities to give back. He has no idea of what happened to the girl who had turned his family in to the Gestapo [Annotator's Note: Secret State Police].