[43][44], The execution was delayed from the originally scheduled date of June 18, because Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas had granted a stay of execution on the previous day. 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. The subsequent trial of the Rosenbergs made news all over the world. Due to Red Scare trials and newspaper headlines, Americans in the 1940s, and 1950s knew that Soviet espionage was serious. Except that is not what happened. He claimed that he was kidnapped by members of the Mexican secret police and driven to the U.S. border, where he was arrested by U.S. Venona documentsproved that Julius Rosenberg helped lead a productive ring of Soviet spies. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. In 1933, in his early teens, he became politically inflamed after hearing a street corner orator talk about Tom Mooney, a San Francisco labor leader who, said the speaker, had been unjustly . [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. J. His research relies heavily on newly released KGB files. On August 11, 1950, Ethel Rosenberg was arrested after testifying before a grand jury (see section, below). He does, however, believe that the prosecutors worked to guarantee a conviction and abused the legal system. 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. Due to the Greenglass August 1950 testimony, and no tangible evidence, there was a weak case against Ethel for her alleged involvement. He also explains that Rosenberg was fired from the Army Corps of Engineers in January of 1945, and that KGB files state his espionage activities ended by 1945, so the meeting David Greenglass mentioned could neverhave occurred. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg devoted a great deal of time in prison to crafting eloquent protestations of their complete innocence. For all questions, she asserted her right to not answer as provided by the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. Julius Rosenbergwas a key Soviet spy who passed along information to the Soviet Union and recruited Manhattan Project spies. The request was denied. Julius Rosenberg was an engineer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps who was born in New York on May 12, 1918. 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. Many people around the world believed them. [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. Sobell and Julius Rosenberg, classmates together in college, dedicated themselves to the cause of Communism. Photograph: Craig F Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty. 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. Despite massive, worldwide protest, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953, at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY. They could not be charged for treason since the U.S. was not at war with the USSR. On July 17, 1950 the FBI arrested Julius, and one month later Ethel was arrested. There was a fear of communism.. Both Rosenbergs were sensationally sentenced to death by electrocution. Julius became a leader in the Young Communist League USA while at City College of New York during the Great Depression. She also interviewed both Michael and Robby, the Rosenbergs sons, now in their 70s. I find innocence quite a difficult word to use with Ethel, she says. Harry Gold, a lab chemist and Soviet spy, passed this information to the USSR. Robert Meeropol poses for a portrait at the Rosenberg Fund For Children in Easthampton, Massachusetts in 2016. Their time at high school intersected briefly - Ethel was nearly. ETHEL ROSENBERG. On June 19, 1968, a long-term anti-poverty demonstration known as Resurrection City reaches its high-water mark. Key to the prosecution's case was testimony by Ethel's . He left the Communist Party to avoid suspicions. She was viewed as a co-conspirator and never indicted. [7], Julius Rosenberg was born on May 12, 1918, in New York City to a family of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. In 2008, the transcripts of 43 out of 46 witness testimonies before the grand jury were released, including Ruths testimony. Since the Rosenbergs were being charged with conspiracy, no tangible evidence was required. 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. Author of. [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. The case against Ethel in particular was rather . Or was he more likely to get off by pleading innocence for both of them? 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. At a time when American fears about communism were high, the Rosenbergs did not receive support from mainstream Jewish organizations. READ MORE: Why Were the Rosenbergs Executed? [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. By 1945, the Soviets considered Rosenberg and his espionage network to be providing valuable information. He admitted that he had given documents to the Soviet contact, but said these had to do with defensive radar and weaponry. "Injustice", Sutton Publishing. 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. Ethel Rosenberg was 37 and the mother of two small sons when she was executed in New York in 1953. 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 that penalty during peacetime. They married in 1939. Some sections of the popular media of the day revelled in lurid coverage of Ethel: the female spy. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. A worldwide campaign for mercy failed, and the Rosenbergs were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. He said Julius had passed secrets and thus linked him to the Soviet contact agent Anatoli Yakovlev. The direct evidence of the Rosenbergs involvement came from the confessions and testimonies of David and Ruth Greenglass. Both were members of the Communist Party, with Julius being the far more active member. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. 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 . Greenglass, who himself had confessed to providing nuclear secrets to the Soviets through an intermediary, testified against his sister and brother-in-law in court. 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. Greenglass secretly testified before a grand jury in August 1950. It was known that some communists, such as Fuchs, had spied for the Soviets. In early 1953, he wrote a letter to President Eisenhower, requesting that Ethel and Julius sentences be commuted to prison. But this testimony was not shown to lawyers during the Rosenbergs trial. [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). Some atomic scientists have claimed that the information David and Julius passed along would not have been of great importance to the USSR because it was incomplete and not very detailed. Ethel's execution did not go smoothly. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were buried at Wellwood Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Pinelawn, New York. A campaign was started to try to prevent the couple's execution. Documents cover, among many other topics, US intelligence activities, including FBI-CIA cooperation; USSR intelligence activities; the Rosenberg espionage network's collection against the US atomic energy program; their attempts to protect the network as US . There are some conflicting assessments among historians regarding the outcome of the Rosenberg trial. 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 three-year Rosenberg case culminated in their execution on Friday, 19 June, 1953, just minutes before the onset of the Jewish Sabbath. Opines that mccarthyism caused chaos in america. Julius Rosenberg was discharged by the army in 1945 for having lied about his membership in the Communist Party. "[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. [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. They were convicted of Conspiracy to Commit Espionage in one of the most hotly-debated trials in U.S. history. 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[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. On April 5, 1951, a judge sentenced them to death and the pair was taken to Sing Sing to await execution. 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. And, in fact, the Rosenbergs themselves essentially believed that they had done nothing wrong in the grand scheme of things. Her mother disowned her. The Greenglasses never withdrew their new testimony. This collection provides interesting Agency insights on this post-WWII spy case. Ethel Greenglass worked as a clerk for some years after her graduation from high school in 1931. Omissions? Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/ AFP via Getty. He said, "I frankly think my wife did the typing, but I don't remember. 8/7/1950 David Greenglass witness testimony. 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. 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. 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. Conspiracy to commit espionage (50 U.S.C. 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. [25], On August 11, Ethel Rosenberg testified before a grand jury. "[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. In June 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage under the U.S. Themajority of newspapersat the time in the U.S. did, however, support the death sentence, arguing that the punishment was fair. Nickelodeons (named for a read more, Francesca Rojas two young children are killed in their home in the small town of Necochea, Argentina. 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. By killing the Rosenbergs, you have quite simply tried to halt the progress of science by human sacrifice. Martin J. Manning and Clarence R. Wyatt, eds. 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. 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 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were the only spies executed during the Cold War and some question whether their sentence was fair. Ethel Rosenberg was 37 and the mother of two small sons when she was executed in New York in 1953. Upon returning home later, Rojas claimed to have seen read more, The most successful and feared Confederate commerce raider of the war, the CSS Alabama, sinks after a spectacular battle off the coast of France with the USS Kearsarge. Now, however, Greenglass claimed that this exchange occurred in the living room of the Rosenbergs New York apartment, and that Ethel was present. Due to the recent evidence provided by Sobells interview, witness testimonies, and the Venona documents, calls have been made for Ethels exoneration. Espionage was a major concern for the United States government during the Manhattan Project. 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 . 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". [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 wrote Strange Fruit, a song made famous by Billie Holiday, and the royalties from that and other songs kept the family comfortable. [18][19], On July 17, 1950, Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage[20] based on David Greenglass's confession. [68], Numerous articles were published in 2008 related to the Rosenberg case. They were executed in 1953. [65], The Rosenbergs' two sons, Michael and Robert, spent years trying to prove the innocence of their parents. 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