Their trial remains controversial today. A letter from Michael and Robert Rosenberg pleading for the life of their parents. They were orphaned by the executions and were not adopted by their many aunts or uncles, although they initially spent time under the care of their grandmothers and in a children's home. In June 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage under the U.S. Nevertheless, these decryptions formed the background of U.S. government investigation and prosecutions of American communists during the Cold War period. On March 29 they were found guilty, and on April 5 the couple was sentenced to death. He worked for a time at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, where research was going on into radar, missile controls and electronics. [46] Bloch asked for more time, filing a complaint that execution on the Sabbath offended the defendants' Jewish heritage. Mr. Bloch [their counsel], who delivered one of the main orations, bitterly exclaimed that America was "living under the heel of a military dictator garbed in civilian attire": the Rosenbergs were "Sweet. [7], Julius Rosenberg was born on May 12, 1918, in New York City to a family of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. The young journalist [Raman Pratsevich] arrested in Belarus with his girlfriend [Sofia Sapega]. Few trials in American history can match that of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg for its sensationalism. The young couple were arrested in 1950 for . The Rosenbergs vigorously protested their innocence, but after a brief trial that began on March 6, 1951, and attracted much media attention, the couple was convicted. Since the Rosenbergs were being charged with conspiracy, no tangible evidence was required. Others argue that Julius and Ethel were guilty, with Ethel playing a minor role, but that their trial and sentence were unjust due to the lack of evidence. Ethel then sat down at the typewriter which she placed on a bridge table in the living room and proceeded to type the info which David had given to Julius. After this new testimony, the charges against Ruth were dropped. Ethel became the first woman executed by the U.S. government since Mary Surratt was hanged in 1865 for her alleged role in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were American Communists who captured and maintained world attention after being accused and convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.. His wife, born Ethel Greenglass, also in New York, on September 28, 1915, worked as a. 32), executed by the federal government of the United States, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Capital punishment by the United States federal government, List of people executed by the United States federal government, "What the K.G.B. J. Edgar Hooverpublicly opposed the trial. That stay resulted from intervention in the case by Fyke Farmer, a Tennessee lawyer whose efforts had previously been scorned by the Rosenbergs' attorney, Emanuel Hirsch Bloch. As a result of this new testimony, all charges against Ruth Greenglass were dropped. For this success Rosenberg received a $100 bonus. This collection provides interesting Agency insights on this post-WWII spy case. The subsequent trial of the Rosenbergs made news all over the world. Key to the prosecution's case was testimony by Ethel's . A worldwide campaign for mercy failed, and the Rosenbergs were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy by Anne Sebba, W&N 20, 304 pages/St Martin's Press $28.99, 304 pages Rebecca Abrams is the author of 'The Jewish Journey: 4,000 Years in 22 Objects . I believe your conduct in putting into the hands of the Russians the A-bomb years before our best scientists predicted Russia would perfect the bomb has already caused, in my opinion, the Communist aggression in Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason. This connection would be necessary as evidence if there was to be a conviction for espionage of the Rosenbergs. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, following their arrest by the FBI in New York city for espionage, 1950. There are some conflicting assessments among historians regarding the outcome of the Rosenberg trial. The project aimed to gather and decode messages sent by Soviet military intelligence (KGB and GRU) to the U.S. Venona would also help the government locate spy rings. Greenglass served in the ArmysSpecial Engineer Detachment (SED), and was a machinist at Los Alamos. The son of working-class read more. Julius Rosenberg was discharged by the army in 1945 for having lied about his membership in the Communist Party. The case was intensely controversial, touching nerves throughout American society, and debates about the Rosenbergs continue to the present day. The arrests of Greenglass and Julius Rosenberg followed quickly in June and July, and Ethel was arrested in August. [37], Others, including non-Communists such as Jean Cocteau and Harold Urey, a Nobel Prize-winning physical chemist,[38] as well as Communists and left-leaning figures such as Nelson Algren, Bertolt Brecht, Albert Einstein, Dashiell Hammett, Frida Kahlo, and Diego Rivera, protested the position of the American government in what the French termed the U.S. Dreyfus affair. Convicted of espionage in 1951, they were executed by the federal government of the United States in 1953 at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, becoming the first American civilians to be executed for such charges and the first to receive that penalty during peacetime. T he case of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, the young Jewish American couple executed in June 1953 at the height of the cold war for allegedly passing atomic secrets to the Russians, has weighed . Just ten days before the start of the Rosenbergs trial in February 1951, David Greenglass re-testified, and changed his original statements. They claim:The Greenglasses lies were necessary to obtain Ethels conviction; the K.G.B. Most of them clearly regarded the Rosenbergs as martyred heroes and more than 500 mourners attended to-day's services, while a crowd estimated at 10,000 stood outside in burning heat. Julius Rosenberg, arrest photograph, 17th of July, 1950. He had been recruited to spy for the Soviet Union which was far from uncommon in those days and he subsequently passed on information about what was happening at Fort Monmouth. The Rosenbergs made a public statement: "By asking us to repudiate the truth of our innocence, the government admits its own doubts concerning our guilt we will not be coerced, even under pain of death, to bear false witness". There was no compassion.. She originally was an aspiring actress and singer, but eventually took a secretarial job at a shipping company. Conspiracy to commit espionage (50 U.S.C. ETHEL ROSENBERG. The Rosenberg children were permitted to visit their parents during their incarceration. Gold was arrested on May 23, 1950, in connection with the case of the British spy Klaus Fuchs, who had been arrested for giving U.S. and British nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union. [11], In February 1944, Rosenberg succeeded in recruiting a second source of Manhattan Project information, engineer Russell McNutt, who worked on designs for the plants at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He also worked withKlaus Fuchs, a physicist at Los Alamos and Soviet spy, to pass on atomic research secrets. Rosenberg's arrest had been preceded by the arrest of Harry Gold and David Greenglass, Rosenberg's brother-in-law, and was to be followed three and a half weeks later by the arrest of his wife, Ethel. The documents suggest his involvement was with military and industrial espionage, rather than atomic espionage, as previously believed. In 1990, he founded the Rosenberg Fund for Children, a nonprofit foundation that provides support for children of targeted liberal activists, and youth who are targeted as activists. The extent of the Rosenbergs' activities came to light, however, when the U.S. government declassified information about them after the fall of the Soviet Union. In 2014, five historians concluded thatSoviet documents show Ethel was actively involved and attended meetings with Julius and his sources, but that there is no evidence to suggest she typed specific notes. Ethel Rosenberg was 37 and the mother of two small sons when she was executed in New York in 1953. [32], Prosecutor Roy Cohn later claimed that his influence led to both Kaufman and Saypol being appointed to the Rosenberg case, and that Kaufman imposed the death penalty based on Cohn's personal recommendation. Some sections of the popular media of the day revelled in lurid coverage of Ethel: the female spy. In May 1951, Pablo Picasso wrote for the communist French newspaper L'Humanit, "The hours count. There was international outrage at her death. The cable also makes clear that the sister's husband is involved enough in espionage to have his own codename ("Antenna" and later "Liberal"). She was removed from the electric chair after three charges, only for it to be discovered her heart was still beating, so, gruesomely, she had to be strapped back into it. All 119 References in We Didnt Start the Fire, Explained, Spies Like Us: 10 Famous Names in the Espionage Game, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Rosenberg-and-Ethel-Rosenberg, Atomic Heritage Foundation - The Rosenberg Trial, Spartacus Educational - The Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Famous Trials - Trial Of The Rosenbergs: An Account, Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), Communist Party of the United States of America. At one point in the biography, Michael, then not yet 10, recalls playing word games with his father, including Hangman. Due to the recent evidence provided by Sobells interview, witness testimonies, and the Venona documents, calls have been made for Ethels exoneration. For all questions, she asserted her right to not answer as provided by the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. Myles Lane, a member of the prosecution team, said that the case against Ethel Rosenberg was "not too strong", but that it was "very important that she be convicted too, and given a stiff sentence. In 2008, the transcripts of 43 out of 46 witness testimonies before the grand jury were released, including Ruths testimony. Okay, I am a spy, but my wife isnt? Some reports claim that the Rosenbergs were offered a plea deal, where admittance of their guilt would grant them a prison sentence. Klaus Fuchs, a German scientist working in Los Alamos, was convicted in the United Kingdom. The Rosenbergs were the first American civilians to die for spying. Ruth joined the Young Communist League (YCL) after graduating high school. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/ AFP via Getty. Because of the Venona documents, they now believe that Julius was a Soviet spy. They were executed in 1953. National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. [70], In a subsequent letter to The New York Times, Sobell denied that he knew anything about Julius Rosenberg's alleged atomic espionage activities, and that the only thing he knew for sure was what he himself did in association with Julius Rosenberg. Harry Gold, a lab chemist and Soviet spy, passed this information to the USSR. Ronald Radoshconcludes, after Sobells 2008 confessions, that the Rosenbergs were Soviet spies. He said they had urged the death sentence for Ethel in an effort to extract a full confession from Julius. Due to Red Scare trials and newspaper headlines, Americans in the 1940s, and 1950s knew that Soviet espionage was serious. Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg, Ethel Rosenberg ne Ethel Greenglass, (respectively, born May 12, 1918, New York, New York, U.S.died June 19, 1953, Ossining, New York; born September 28, 1915, New York Citydied June 19, 1953, Ossining), the first American civilians to be executed for conspiracy to commit espionage and the first to suffer But even graver is the thought of the millions of dead whose deaths may be directly attributable to what these spies have done.. Harris, Brian. Gordon Dean, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, said: "It looks as though Rosenberg is the kingpin of a very large ring, and if there is any way of breaking him by having the shadow of a death penalty over him, we want to do it." Case Summary. Timeline of Events Relating to the Rosenberg Trial. He escaped prosecution because his involvement was not proven until the Venona documents became unclassified. This declassified information included a trove of decoded Soviet cables (code-name: Venona), which detailed Julius's role as a courier and recruiter for the Soviets, and information about Ethel's role as an accessory who helped recruit her brother David into the spy ring and did clerical tasks such as typing up documents that Julius then passed to the Soviets. He affirmed: I said before, and say it again, honestly, this is a fact: I never spoke to my sister about this at all.. [73], Michael and Robert co-wrote a book about their and their parents' lives, We Are Your Sons: The Legacy of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (1975). After Semyonov was recalled to Moscow in 1944 his duties were taken over by Feklisov. In this testimony he named Julius and claimed he was recruited to join the Soviet spy ring by him. He was 51. The Meeropols were both teachers, and Abel was also a lyricist. "[57], The notes allegedly typed by Ethel apparently contained little that was directly used in the Soviet atomic bomb project. She was impassive in court, and poorly turned out, due to the fact they had very little money: Julius Rosenberg embarked upon espionage for his ideals, not for monetary reward. There was proof, which was later produced in court. Their time at high school intersected briefly - Ethel was nearly. The Rosenbergs were the first U.S. citizens to be convicted and executed for espionage during peacetime and their case remains controversial to this day. [45], The execution was scheduled for 11p.m. that evening, during the Sabbath, which begins and ends around sunset. She didnt cry in public, and the media gleefully judged her unfeeling and, by implication, guilty of the accused crime, as a result. Gold paidGreenglass $500 in exchange for information about the implosion lens in the atomic bomb. The second son of read more. They were sentenced to death on April 5 under Section 2 of the Espionage Act of 1917,[31] which provides that anyone convicted of transmitting or attempting to transmit to a foreign government "information relating to the national defense" may be imprisoned for life or put to death. David originally had said that he had passed the atomic data he had collected to Julius on a New York street corner. Harvard Law professorAlan Dershowitzstated that the Rosenbergs were guilty and framed, suggesting that they were spies, but that evidence was still fabricated against them, causing them to have an unjust trial and punishment. Anne Sebbas biography of Ethel Rosenberg, a book five years in the research and writing, has just been published. She replied, "Yes, I wrote [the information] down on a piece of paper and [Julius Rosenberg] took it with him." To this day, historians and scientists debate how much espionage sped up the progress of the Soviet Unions nuclear weapons program. "[56], Boris V. Brokhovich, the engineer who later became director of Chelyabinsk-40, the plutonium production reactor and extraction facility that the Soviet Union used to create its first bomb material, alleged that Khrushchev was a "silly fool". Schneir argues that Ruth worked alone and met with a Soviet agent to deliver a sketch of a bomb, which was placed in a KGB file center on December 27, 1945. [65][63][64], The messages decoded by the Venona project were not made public during the Rosenbergs' trial, which relied instead on testimony from their collaborators. Due to the Greenglass August 1950 testimony, and no tangible evidence, there was a weak case against Ethel for her alleged involvement. Two weeks after abdicating the Spanish throne amidst sagging approval ratings, Juan Carlos symbolically removed his red sashsignifying his status as leader of the read more, On June 19, 2013, James Gandolfini, the actor best known for his role as New Jersey crime boss Tony Soprano on the TV series The Sopranos, which debuted in 1999 and ran for six seasons, dies of a heart attack while vacationing in Rome, Italy. They were convicted of Conspiracy to Commit Espionage in one of the most hotly-debated trials in U.S. history. On June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. Historian John Earl Hayness AHF Interview. The minutes count. On August 17, the grand jury returned an indictment alleging 11 overt acts. 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