In 2021 Ethel's sons restarted the campaign to pardon Ethel, as they were more optimistic that President Biden will consider this favorably. The West was shocked by the speed with which the Soviets were able to stage their first nuclear test, "Joe 1", on August 29, 1949. [33], In imposing the death penalty, Kaufman noted that he held the Rosenbergs responsible not only for espionage but also for American deaths in the Korean War:[34]. The constitutionality and applicability of the Espionage Act of 1917, under which the Rosenbergs were tried, as well as the impartiality of the trial judge, Irving R. Kaufmanwho in pronouncing sentence had accused them of a crime worse than murderwere key issues during the appeals process. Both Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were indicted, as were David Greenglass and Anatoli Yakovlev. In the intervening decades, it has since been conclusively proved that David Greenglass committed perjury against his own sister. The young journalist [Raman Pratsevich] arrested in Belarus with his girlfriend [Sofia Sapega]. He worked for a time at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, where research was going on into radar, missile controls and electronics. They married in 1939. She originally was an aspiring actress and singer, but eventually took a secretarial job at a shipping company. "[67] He said he gave false testimony to protect himself and his wife, Ruth, and that he was encouraged by the prosecution to do so. 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. In his viewpoint, Ethel was only minimally involved and therefore her execution was unjust. [65], The Rosenbergs' two sons, Michael and Robert, spent years trying to prove the innocence of their parents. Robert wrote a later memoir, An Execution in the Family: One Son's Journey (2003). There was no compassion.. A letter from Michael and Robert Rosenberg pleading for the life of their parents. ", In 1953, socialist historian W. E. B. Judge Irving R. Kaufman presided over the trial. That same year, Sobell participated in an interview with theNew York Times. Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy by Anne Sebba was published by Orion Books on 24 June 2021.[24][82]. Perl contributed to the development of the first jet fighter in the U.S. He stated that he and Julius passed military and industrial information to the Soviet Union, hoping it would help them defeat the Nazis in World War II. The engineers worked at top electronic firms, and they passed on confidential and useful information to the Soviet Union. read more, When the clock struck midnight on June 19, 2014, King Juan Carlos I of Spains nearly 40-year reign came to an end. forces. [28][29] The prosecution's primary witness, David Greenglass, said that he turned over to Julius Rosenberg a sketch of the cross-section of an implosion-type atom bomb. Du Bois wrote a poem titled "The Rosenbergs", which began "Crucify us, Vengeance of God, as we crucify two more Jews" and ended "Who has been crowned on yonder stair? (The former was released as the motion picture Daniel in 1983.) I find innocence quite a difficult word to use with Ethel, she says. "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. 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. "[70], He said that he thought the hand-drawn diagrams and other atomic-bomb details that were acquired by David Greenglass and passed to Julius were of "little value" to the Soviet Union, and were used only to corroborate what they had already learned from the other atomic spies. He was U.S. citizen and electrical engineer. They were married in 1939, by which time they were already active in the Communist Party. He believed the execution of Ethel, a young mother, would reflect negatively on both the FBI and the Justice Department. [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. He left the Communist Party to avoid suspicions. Kaufman, who also stated his concerns about executing the Rosenbergs on the Sabbath, rescheduled the execution for 8p.m.before sunset and the Sabbaththe regular time for executions at Sing Sing. Soviet cables were deciphered, revealing Julius codename to be LIBERAL. LIBERAL was mentioned in numerous documents. Photograph: Craig F Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty. They claim:The Greenglasses lies were necessary to obtain Ethels conviction; the K.G.B. Many hundreds of people filed past the biers. Just ten days before the start of the Rosenbergs trial in February 1951, David Greenglass re-testified, and changed his original statements. 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. In 1939, he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. Whether it was fair or not, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were the only two American civilians who were executed for espionage-related crimes during the entire Cold War. By 1942, Julius was heavily involved with espionage activities for the Soviet Union. A campaign was started to try to prevent the couple's execution. Can their sons reveal the truth? Trial and Execution. Getty Images. Robert and Michael Rosenberg, Julius and Ethels six and 10 year old sons, pictured at the home of Bernard and Sonia Bach, friends of the Rosenbergs, New Jersey, before their parents execution. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country. [60], In 1995, the U.S. government made public many documents decoded by the Venona project, showing Julius Rosenberg's role as part of a productive ring of spies. On April 5, 1951, a judge sentenced them to death and the pair was taken to Sing Sing to await execution. The cable also makes clear that the sister's husband is involved enough in espionage to have his own codename ("Antenna" and later "Liberal"). [76][24], In 2015, following the most recent grand jury transcript release, Michael and Robert Meeropol called on U.S. President Barack Obama's administration to acknowledge that Ethel Rosenberg's conviction and execution was wrongful and to issue a proclamation exonerating her. Despite these fears, the trial of the Rosenbergs produced mixed reactions among the public. 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 fifty thousand and who knows how many millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason.. His wife, born Ethel Greenglass, also in New York, on September 28, 1915, worked as a secretary. 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. I believe there should be., Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy,by Anne Sebba, is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, A Small Town in Ukraine: Fascinating mapping of history and bloodshed around a geopolitical fault line, Eithne Strong swam against the tide. He also worked withKlaus Fuchs, a physicist at Los Alamos and Soviet spy, to pass on atomic research secrets. Seven different appeals reached the Supreme Court of the United States and were denied, and pleas for executive clemency were dismissed by Pres. He said the Soviets had developed their own bomb by trial and error. How. In the United States of the late 1940s and 1950s, Fear was the overriding motif of the age, and fear breeds hysteria, Sebba says. She was absolutely judged for her appearance, Sebba says. The Rosenbergs are still the only Americans ever put to death in peacetime for espionage, and Ethel is the only American woman killed by the US government for a crime other than murder. Historian John Earl Hayness AHF Interview. This new testimony, now against Julius and Ethel, was part of a deal granted to the Greenglasses. Greenglass passed information to Julius, including information about the high explosive lenses being developed at Los Alamos for the implosion bomb. She had the unhappy distinction of being the first woman in the US to be executed for a crime other than murder. He also claimed that his sister Ethel's husband Julius Rosenberg had convinced David's wife Ruth to recruit him while visiting him in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1944. [71], In 2009, extensive notes collected from KGB archives were made public in a book published by Yale University Press: Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, written by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev; Vassiliev's notebooks included KGB comments concerning Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Both refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths, by the electric chair. Themajority of newspapersat the time in the U.S. did, however, support the death sentence, arguing that the punishment was fair. "My wife is more important to me than my sister. The family moved to the Lower East Side by the time Julius was 11. After Semyonov was recalled to Moscow in 1944 his duties were taken over by Feklisov. But when he was arrested, his wifes arrest also followed soon after, although there was no proof of any active espionage involvement on her part. [79] In January 2017 Senator Elizabeth Warren sent Obama a letter requesting consideration of the exoneration request. 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. These transcripts revealed the contradictions between the Greenglasses testimony before the grand jury and during the trial. 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. [47] The defense's strategy backfired. [63][65][64] Though the public release of Vassiliev's notebooks did not occur until 2009, the notebooks had in fact been originally intercepted during the Venona decryptions. The trial of the Rosenbergs became a political event of greater importance than any damage they may have done to the United States. For this success Rosenberg received a $100 bonus. Files Show About Ethel Rosenberg", "The New York Times Gets Greenglass Wrong", "Greenglass, in Prison, Vows to Kin He Told Truth about Rosenbergs", "National Archives of the United States of America", "Rosenberg Atomic Espionage Spy Case Chronology", "The Rosenbergs were executed for spying in 1953. The storefront theater boasted 96 seats and charged each patron five cents. In June 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage under the U.S. [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. Venona Documents from the National Security Archive. Her attorney asked the U.S. commissioner to parole her in his custody over the weekend, so that she could make arrangements for her two young children. There was genuine fear that the Russians and Stalin would launch an atom bomb on America. [11], Rosenberg provided thousands of classified reports from Emerson Radio, including a complete proximity fuse. [36], Jean-Paul Sartre, a Marxist existentialist philosopher and writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, described the trial as, a legal lynching which smears with blood a whole nation. Espionage Act of 1917. Martin J. Manning and Clarence R. Wyatt, eds. Julius Rosenberg was an engineer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps who was born in New York on May 12, 1918. 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. The case was intensely controversial, touching nerves throughout American society, and debates about the Rosenbergs continue to the present day. Opines that mccarthyism caused chaos in america. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Both were members of the Communist Party, with Julius being the far more active member. They also defendedSobell, who was put on trial with the Rosenbergs. Ethels execution was botched. [19], Another conspirator, Morton Sobell, fled with his family to Mexico City after Greenglass was arrested. 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. [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. "Injustice", Sutton Publishing. David Greenglass, who was assigned as a machinist to the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb, provided the Rosenbergs with data on nuclear weapons. Julius Rosenberg, arrest photograph, 17th of July, 1950. His parents worked in the shops of the Lower East Side as Julius attended Seward Park High School. Except that is not what happened. "Thanks to information provided by their agents", Moynihan wrote in his book Secrecy, "they did it in four". At age 23, he was a prosecutor on the trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were convicted of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union in 1951 and executed by electric chair two years. The boys went on to make successful careers in economics and law, and have families of their own. 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. Much has been written of Julius Rosenberg, but little about his doomed wife. 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. Explains that one of the most famous cases of spies was the case of ethel and julius rosenberg, who were minor activists in the american communist party and convicted of being communists. [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. A mix of June and 19th, Juneteenth has become a day to commemorate the end of slavery in America. 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. Her husband, Julius, had been executed a short time before her. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Since the Rosenbergs were being charged with conspiracy, no tangible evidence was required. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/ AFP via Getty. [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. According to Rojas, a man named Velasquez had threatened her when she rejected his sexual advances earlier in the day. 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. He was 51. Michael and Robby Rosenberg were 10 and six respectively when their parents were executed. She replied, "Yes, I wrote [the information] down on a piece of paper and [Julius Rosenberg] took it with him." 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. And, in fact, the Rosenbergs themselves essentially believed that they had done nothing wrong in the grand scheme of things. [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. When she married Julius Rosenberg in 1939, the year he earned a degree in electrical engineering, the two were already active members of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). Agents '', Moynihan wrote in his book Secrecy, `` they did it in ''. But eventually took a secretarial job at a shipping company their deaths by! 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