Copyright 2022 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. 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. [1][2][3][4], Other convicted co-conspirators were sentenced to prison, including Ethel's brother, David Greenglass (who had made a plea agreement), Harry Gold, and Morton Sobell. He also worked withKlaus Fuchs, a physicist at Los Alamos and Soviet spy, to pass on atomic research secrets. Under Feklisov's supervision, Rosenberg recruited sympathetic individuals into NKVD service, including Joel Barr, Alfred Sarant, William Perl, and Morton Sobell, also an engineer. Here's the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. "You sat the Rosenbergs in the electric chair for nothing", he said. 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. Corrections? A country prepared to flout the law, to instil fear, and to also arrest his girlfriend: does that not strike you as terrifying?, She was removed from the electric chair after three charges, only for it to be discovered her heart was still beating. By 1944, Julius had recruited him to spy for the Soviets. She replied, "Yes, I wrote [the information] down on a piece of paper and [Julius Rosenberg] took it with him." All Rights Reserved. Some people believed that the Rosenbergs were the victims of a surge of hysterical anti-communist feeling in the United States, and protested that the death sentence handed down was cruel and unusual punishment. But they would have been better advised to have said straight up, yes we are communists, but no, we are not spies.. Julius became a leader in the Young Communist League USA while at City College of New York during the Great Depression. He stated, I can only say that, by immeasurably increasing the chances of atomic war, the Rosenbergs may have condemned to death tens of millions of innocent people all over the world. Ronald Radoshconcludes, after Sobells 2008 confessions, that the Rosenbergs were Soviet spies. Both Rosenbergs were sensationally sentenced to death by electrocution. They married in 1939. The Soviet Union secretly conducted its first atomic weapons test on August 29, 1949. Despite these fears, the trial of the Rosenbergs produced mixed reactions among the public. There was international outrage at her death. The minutes count. There were protest marches held around the world at their sentence, including in Ireland. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country. There was no compassion.. Since the Rosenbergs were being charged with conspiracy, no tangible evidence was required. In 1951, Julius and his wife Ethel were tried and convicted of espionage for providing the Soviet Union with classified information. But this testimony was not shown to lawyers during the Rosenbergs trial. [15] However, the head official of the Soviet nuclear project, Lavrentiy Beria, used foreign intelligence, which he did not trust by default, only as a third-party check, rather than giving it directly to the design teams, who he did not clear to know about the espionage efforts, and the development was indigenous; considering that the pace of the Soviet program was set primarily by the amount of uranium that it could procure, it is difficult for scholars to judge accurately how much time was saved, if any. In August of 1950, a grand jury indicted the Rosenbergs for espionage. 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. (review of. National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were the only spies executed during the Cold War and some question whether their sentence was fair. Highly sympathetic portraits of the Rosenbergs were offered in major novels, including E.L. Doctorows The Book of Daniel (1971) and Robert Coovers The Public Burning (1977). Description Following World War II, tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States . The trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg was certainly dramatic. Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg were American citizens executed for conspiracy to commit espionage, relating to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. [27], The trial of the Rosenbergs and Sobell on federal espionage charges began on March 6, 1951, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The trial of the Rosenbergs became a political event of greater importance than any damage they may have done to the United States. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, following their arrest by the FBI in New York city for espionage, 1950. Much has been written of Julius Rosenberg, but little about his doomed wife. [9], Julius Rosenberg joined the Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1940, where he worked as an engineer-inspector until 1945. Sebba says the only lesson history offers is that there are no lessons to be learned. During the next two years, the couple became the subject of both national and international debate. Will there ever be a pardon for Ethel Rosenberg? In the early 1930s, Ethel became a member of the Young Communist League. In later interviews, he claimed: I frankly think my wife did the typing, but I dont remember, and, My wife is more important to me than my sister. Overall, their testimony remains controversial because of the deal, the lack of tangible evidence, and the conflicting statements. [77], In March2016, Michael and Robert (via the Rosenberg Fund for Children) launched a petition campaign calling on President Obama and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to formally exonerate Ethel Rosenberg. They were married in 1939, by which time they were already active in the Communist Party. Ethel's brother says he trumped up evidence. Robert Meeropol poses for a portrait at the Rosenberg Fund For Children in Easthampton, Massachusetts in 2016. In 1861, the liberal Mexican Benito Juarez became president of a country in financial read more, In Music Fund Hall in Philadelphia, the first national convention of the Republican Party, founded two years before, comes to its conclusion. The boys went on to make successful careers in economics and law, and have families of their own. There are some conflicting assessments among historians regarding the outcome of the Rosenberg trial. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. It was never in doubt that Julius Rosenberg had conducted acts of espionage. They continue to campaign for Ethel to be posthumously legally exonerated. Well yes, she replies. Dwight Eisenhower in 1953. [78] In October 2016, both Michael and Robert Meeropol spoke with Anderson Cooper in an interview which aired on 60 Minutes. He left the Communist Party to avoid suspicions. She originally was an aspiring actress and singer, but eventually took a secretarial job at a shipping company. [19], Another conspirator, Morton Sobell, fled with his family to Mexico City after Greenglass was arrested. This love of Communism and the Soviet Union soon led them into a Soviet espionage ring.. His research relies heavily on newly released KGB files. [52][53][54], Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, investigated how much the Soviet spy ring helped the USSR to build their bomb. Julius Rosenberg became an infamous figure in American history when he was convicted, along with his wife, Ethel, of giving military secrets to the Soviet Union in the early 1950s. it is believed that he made his accusations out of challenges to his authority. [8], Ethel Greenglass was born on September 28, 1915, to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City. The documents also suggest the Ethel acted as an accessory to her husbands activity, but that she did not play a principal role. [63][64] According to Vassiliev, Julius and Ethel worked personally with KGB agents who were given the codenames Twain and Callistratus and were also described as being the ones who recruited Greenglass and McNutt for the Manhattan Project spy mission. By 1942, Julius was heavily involved with espionage activities for the Soviet Union. 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 Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy by Anne Sebba was published by Orion Books on 24 June 2021.[24][82]. The controversy over their guilt was seemingly resolved in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the release of Soviet intelligence information that confirmed Julius Rosenbergs involvement in espionage. The storefront theater boasted 96 seats and charged each patron five cents. "[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". During his bachelor party at a club on the night of June 19, Chin and three friends were read more, On June 15, 2006, on the remote island of Spitsbergen halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, the prime ministers of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland lay the ceremonial first stone of the Global Seed Vault. 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. Photograph: Craig F Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty. I think there could be some kind of exoneration, in that she was convicted on the basis of perjury, and for someone convicted on the basis of perjury, there should be a form of pardon. "[51], The Rosenbergs were the only American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War. A member of the Young Communist League in the early 1930s, it was through her activism with the Communist Party that she met Julius Rosenberg in 1936. Julius and Ethels children, Michael and Robert, maintain that their mother was innocent and have created anonline petitionto exonerate her. forces. In his viewpoint, Ethel was only minimally involved and therefore her execution was unjust. Built in an English shipyard and sold to the Confederates in 1861, the Alabama was a state-of-the-art ship220 read more, After 14 Formula One race car drivers withdraw due to safety concerns over the Michelin-made tires on their vehicles, German driver Michael Schumacher wins a less-than-satisfying victory at the United States Grand Prix on June 19, 2005. [49], The funeral services were held in Brooklyn on June 21. Meeropol, Michael, " 'A Spy Who Turned His Family In': Revisiting David Greenglass and the Rosenberg Case,", This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 07:05. [24], After the publication of an investigative series in the National Guardian and the formation of the National Committee to Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case, some Americans came to believe both Rosenbergs were innocent or had received too harsh a sentence, particularly Ethel. In 2008, the transcripts of 43 out of 46 witness testimonies before the grand jury were released, including Ruths testimony. FBI agents took her into custody as she left the courthouse. The Venona project documents were still highly classified at the time of the trial and therefore could not be used as evidence. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for espionage, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rosenbergs-executed. Or my mother or my father, OK? According to Rojas, a man named Velasquez had threatened her when she rejected his sexual advances earlier in the day. They claim:The Greenglasses lies were necessary to obtain Ethels conviction; the K.G.B. Julius Rosenberg was an engineer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps who was born in New York on May 12, 1918. The American Civil Liberties Union refused to acknowledge any violations of civil liberties in the case. [17], On June 15, 1950, David Greenglass was arrested by the FBI for espionage and soon confessed to having passed secret information on to the USSR through Gold. Would they have believed him? At this time, Greenglass worked at Los Alamos. [35], Across the world, especially in Western European capitals, there were numerous protests with picketing and demonstrations in favor of the Rosenbergs, along with editorials in otherwise pro-American newspapers, and a plea for clemency from the Pope. His arrest began a chain of investigations, which ultimately led to the arrest of Julius and Ethel. Some sections of the popular media of the day revelled in lurid coverage of Ethel: the female spy. They were charged with conspiracy and providing atomic secrets to the USSR. [45], The execution was scheduled for 11p.m. that evening, during the Sabbath, which begins and ends around sunset. The Greenglasses now claimed that Julius, with help from Ethel, recruited David into the atomic spy ring in 1944. [11], Rosenberg provided thousands of classified reports from Emerson Radio, including a complete proximity fuse. They provided top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and valuable nuclear weapon designs. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Author of. Julius Rosenberg was a key Soviet spy who passed along information to the Soviet Union and recruited Manhattan Project spies. The execution of two human beings is a grave matter. Julius Rosenberg, arrest photograph, 17th of July, 1950. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The trial lasted for nearly one month. The Meeropols were both teachers, and Abel was also a lyricist. He confirmed that Julius Rosenberg was "in a conspiracy that delivered to the Soviets classified military and industrial information [on] the atomic bomb," and "He never told me about anything else that he was engaged in. Except that is not what happened. In 2015 an independent lawsuit secured the release of grand jury testimony in 1950 by Greenglass, which indicated that he might have lied at trial by exaggerating his sisters role in the espionage ring in order to obscure the more extensive involvement of his wife Ruth, who was not prosecuted. The US government offered to spare the lives of both Julius and Ethel if Julius provided the names of other spies and they admitted their guilt. Between the trial and the executions, there were widespread protests and claims of antisemitism; the charges of antisemitism were widely believed abroad[citation needed], but not among the vast majority in the United States. Despite some public outrage and failed appeals, the Rosenbergs were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953. Her husband, Julius, had been executed a short time before her. Many people around the world believed them. 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. The direct evidence of the Rosenbergs involvement came from the confessions and testimonies of David and Ruth Greenglass. [12] Perl supplied Feklisov, under Rosenberg's direction, with thousands of documents from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, including a complete set of design and production drawings for Lockheed's P-80 Shooting Star, the first U.S. operational jet fighter. After learning about the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, read about the Lavender Scare, the U.S. government's anti-gay purge. He stated, "I would not sacrifice my wife and my children for my sister. Greenglass passed information to Julius, including information about the high explosive lenses being developed at Los Alamos for the implosion bomb. It was there, working in a cubicle with a piano, staff paper and tape recorder that read more, On June 19, 1905, some 450 people attend the opening day of the worlds first nickelodeon, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and developed by the showman Harry Davis. 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. "Injustice", Sutton Publishing. Because of the Venona documents, they now believe that Julius was a Soviet spy. The execution of New York City couple Ethel and Julius Rosenberg after their conviction for being Soviet spies was a major news event of the early 1950s. Deputy Attorney General of the United States William P. Rogers, who had been part of the prosecution of the Rosenbergs, discussed their strategy at the time in relation to seeking the death sentence for Ethel. "Plain, deliberate, contemplated murder is dwarfed in. Tender. Julius Rosenberg, born on May 12, 1918, the son of Polish immigrants and the youngest of five children, grew up poor on Manhattan's Lower East Side, a studious boy interested in rabbinical studies. I think it is the most horrific story, Sebba says. The vault, which now has the capacity to hold read more, In what is nowknownas Juneteenth, on June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrive in Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War is over and slavery in the United States is abolished. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. On March 6, 1951 their trial began in New Yorks Southern District federal court. Trial and Execution. Give Bomb Data to Soviet Is Laid to His Sister Here", "Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg (American spies) Britannica Online Encyclopedia", "Judge Kaufman's Sentencing Statement in the Rosenberg Case", "The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg", "Nashville now and then: A lawyer's last gamble", "Funeral Tributes To Rosenbergs: Execution Denounced", "Never Losing Faith for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg", "False testimony clinched Rosenberg spy trial", "50 years later, Rosenberg execution is still fresh", "Khrushchev on Rosenbergs: Stoking Old Embers", "K.G.B. Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, installed as emperor of Mexico by French Emperor Napoleon III in 1864, is executed on the orders of Benito Juarez, the president of the Mexican Republic. [30], On March 29, 1951, the Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage. 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. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were American Communists who captured and maintained world attention after being accused and convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.. On April 5, 1951, a judge sentenced them to death and the pair was taken to Sing Sing to await execution. Her death was so barbaric. He read more, Carole King began her career in music as a young newlywed and college graduate, working a 9-to-5 shift alongside her then-husband, Gerry Goffin, in Don Kirshners songwriting factory, Aldon Music. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American communists, executed after having been found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage. [74], Michael's daughter, Ivy Meeropol, directed a 2004 documentary about her grandparents, Heir to an Execution, which was featured at the Sundance Film Festival. Lawyers Emanuel Bloch and Alexander Bloch defended the Rosenbergs. In this testimony he named Julius and claimed he was recruited to join the Soviet spy ring by him. Just ten days before the start of the Rosenbergs trial in February 1951, David Greenglass re-testified, and changed his original statements. In the years after the Rosenbergs executions, there was significant debate about their guilt. Decrypted cables revealed this information through theVenona project. 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 . That same year, the FBI arrested both Greenglass and Gold based on information provided by Fuchs. Others question if the punishment was just for their crimes. [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. Many Americans who were politically left-wing believed the Rosenbergs were persecuted solely for their past involvement with the Communist Party. The security of the Marianas Islands, in the western Pacific, were vital to read more, Attempting to convince local Native Americans to make peace with the United States, the Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet meets with the Sioux leaderSitting Bull in present-day Montana. 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. Can their sons reveal the truth? This request was denied. Many individuals still question whether or not there was enough valid evidence used during the trial to convict and execute the Rosenbergs. The case was intensely controversial, touching nerves throughout American society, and debates about the Rosenbergs continue to the present day. She became involved in labor disputes and joined the Young Communist League, where she met Julius in 1936. Timeline of Events Relating to the Rosenberg Trial. Themajority of newspapersat the time in the U.S. did, however, support the death sentence, arguing that the punishment was fair. Their trial remains controversial today. Due to the recent evidence provided by Sobells interview, witness testimonies, and the Venona documents, calls have been made for Ethels exoneration. "[67], He refused to express remorse for his decision to betray his sister, saying only that he did not realize that the prosecution would push for the death penalty. Sobell and Julius Rosenberg, classmates together in college, dedicated themselves to the cause of Communism. (Sobell and Gold received 30-year prison terms, and Greenglass, who was tried separately, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.) Some reports claim that the Rosenbergs were offered a plea deal, where admittance of their guilt would grant them a prison sentence. The Rosenberg Case. Sebba, who lives in Surrey, dug into archives containing Ethels letters written during the three years she spent in prison, and grand jury testimony papers of the trial. A mix of June and 19th, Juneteenth has become a day to commemorate the end of slavery in America. Both were members of the Communist Party, with Julius being the far more active member. Their time at high school intersected briefly - Ethel was nearly. Perl contributed to the development of the first jet fighter in the U.S. They provided top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and valuable nuclear weapon designs. Ethel was arrested to put pressure on Julius and they didnt want to kill her. 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. Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (1915-1953) and Julius Rosenberg (1918-1953) were American Communists who were thrust into the world spotlight when they were tried, convicted, and executed for spying for the Soviet Union.The accuracy of these charges remains controversial, though decades later, Soviet communications decrypted by the VENONA project became publicly available and appeared to indicate . He later served 10 years in prison. For all questions, she asserted her right to not answer as provided by the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. Or Black Despair? And she was the mother of my children. Case Summary. READ MORE: Why Were the Rosenbergs Executed? They married three years later, and raised their two small sons in borderline poverty. The couple were the only two American civilians to be executed for the crime of espionage during the Cold War.. Their case has been at the center of the controversy over communism in the United States ever since, with supporters . She was viewed as a co-conspirator and never indicted. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, orig. All rights reserved. This was the "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, as opposed to a bomb with the "gun method" triggering device used in the "Little Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima. At one point in the biography, Michael, then not yet 10, recalls playing word games with his father, including Hangman. A campaign was started to try to prevent the couple's execution. [73][24], After Morton Sobell's 2008 confession, they acknowledged their father had been involved in espionage, but said that whatever atomic bomb information he passed to the Russians was, at best, superfluous, that the case was riddled with prosecutorial and judicial misconduct, that their mother was convicted on flimsy evidence to place leverage on her husband, and that neither deserved the death penalty. [75], Their sons' current position is that Julius was legally guilty of the conspiracy charge, though not of atomic spying, while Ethel was only generally aware of his activities. The young journalist [Raman Pratsevich] arrested in Belarus with his girlfriend [Sofia Sapega]. The engineers worked at top electronic firms, and they passed on confidential and useful information to the Soviet Union. Due to Red Scare trials and newspaper headlines, Americans in the 1940s, and 1950s knew that Soviet espionage was serious. "[23] FBI director J Edgar Hoover wrote that "proceeding against the wife will serve as a lever" to make Julius talk.[24]. As a young attorney in 1951, Cohn pushed for the execution of Meeropol's grandparents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges. His parents worked in the shops of the Lower East Side as Julius attended Seward Park High School. Neither President Truman nor President Eisenhower granted requests to remove the death sentence. The network included: engineers (Julius Rosenberg, Nathan Sussman, Joel Barr, Alfred Sarant,Morton Sobell), a military aviation scientist (William Perl), a civil design engineer (McNutt), and a machinist (Greenglass), among others. After she was given the normal course of three electric shocks, attendants removed the strapping and other equipment only to have doctors determine that Ethel's heart was still beating. [11] By this time, following the invasion by Nazi Germany in June 1941, the Soviet Union had become an ally of the Western powers, which included the United States after Pearl Harbor. They hoped merely by arresting her on these trumped-up charges, surely Julius would talk, because thats what everyone else had done.. ETHEL ROSENBERG. He admitted that he had given documents to the Soviet contact, but said these had to do with defensive radar and weaponry. 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. Okay, I am a spy, but my wife isnt? Fuchs was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, and he confessed to spying for the Soviet Union. Venona documentsproved that Julius Rosenberg helped lead a productive ring of Soviet spies. [13][14], The USSR and the U.S. were allies during World War II, but the Americans did not share information with, or seek assistance from, the Soviet Union regarding the Manhattan Project. 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. For Ethel Rosenberg labor disputes and joined the Young journalist [ Raman ]... Make successful careers in economics and law, and valuable nuclear weapon designs transcripts of out! And convicted of espionage for providing the Soviet spy of June and 19th, has! Shown to lawyers during the next two years, the funeral services were held in Brooklyn on 21. Due to Red Scare trials and newspaper headlines, Americans in the shops of first! Worked in the years after the Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage language links are at the top the... 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To commit espionage mother was innocent and have created anonline petitionto exonerate her top of Venona., dedicated themselves to the Soviet contact, but eventually took a secretarial job at shipping! Los Alamos and Soviet spy, to a Jewish family in Manhattan, York! Grand jury indicted the Rosenbergs trial in February 1951, Julius, Julius... Just ten days before the grand jury indicted the Rosenbergs were persecuted for. Of classified reports from Emerson Radio, including Hangman page across from confessions... & # x27 ; s the story of Julius Rosenberg was a spy. To put pressure on Julius and Ethel society, and debates about the Rosenbergs came! Secrets Act, and have created anonline petitionto exonerate her and 19th, has! Of David and Ruth Greenglass the most horrific story, sebba says the only history... By the FBI arrested both Greenglass and Gold based on information provided by Fuchs documents, they now believe Julius. First atomic weapons test on August 29, 1949 economics and law, and valuable nuclear weapon designs Prison! Ethel acted as an accessory to her husbands activity, but that she did not play a principal.... Michael and Robert Meeropol spoke with Anderson Cooper in an interview which aired on 60 Minutes 11,! Only minimally involved and therefore her execution was scheduled for 11p.m not yet 10, recalls playing word games his., Massachusetts in 2016 be used as evidence, recruited David into atomic... Engineers worked at top electronic firms, and valuable nuclear weapon designs the Rosenberg.... And 1950s knew that Soviet espionage was serious verify and edit content received from contributors [... The end of slavery in America June 19, 1953 - Ethel was nearly involved in labor and! Convicted of espionage a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City information... A portrait at the time in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison June!, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and the conflicting statements 10, recalls playing word with! Fuchs, a grand jury indicted the Rosenbergs were the only lesson history is! Children in Easthampton, Massachusetts in 2016 a productive ring of Soviet spies [ 11 ] the! David Greenglass re-testified, and changed his original statements complete proximity fuse, Juneteenth has a. Families of their guilt Ethel became a political event of greater importance than any damage they may have to! Executed a short time before her and therefore could not be used evidence... Bloch defended the Rosenbergs became a political event of greater importance than any damage they may have done the... Was viewed as a co-conspirator and never indicted Liberties Union refused to acknowledge any violations of Civil Liberties in U.S.
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