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. 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. 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 . [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. She originally was an aspiring actress and singer, but eventually took a secretarial job at a shipping company. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were American Communists who captured and maintained world attention after being accused and convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.. Communism in this country and Communism throughout the world. He reportedly said, "She called our bluff", as she made no effort to push her husband to any action. Abandoning that effort, he returned to Mexico City. 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. Opines that mccarthyism caused chaos in america. All Rights Reserved. She describes Julius Rosenberg as a naive idealist. In the United States of the late 1940s and 1950s, Fear was the overriding motif of the age, and fear breeds hysteria, Sebba says. 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. Moynihan found that in 1945, physicist Hans Bethe estimated that the Soviets would be able to build their own bomb in five years. 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. (The former was released as the motion picture Daniel in 1983.) 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. Three years after the trial, on June 19th, 1953 the Rosenbergs were executed. Neither offered any further information. Many individuals still question whether or not there was enough valid evidence used during the trial to convict and execute the Rosenbergs. 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. "[40] The all-black labor union International Longshoremen's Association Local 968 stopped working for a day in protest. He was U.S. citizen and electrical engineer. She was absolutely judged for her appearance, Sebba says. On March 29 they were found guilty, and on April 5 the couple was sentenced to death. She and David met in the YCL, and married in 1942. I have spent ages agonising over that. I think it is the most horrific story, Sebba says. The request was denied. FBI agents took her into custody as she left the courthouse. The cable also makes clear that the sister's husband is involved enough in espionage to have his own codename ("Antenna" and later "Liberal"). The Rosenbergs were the first American civilians to die for spying. They were the only American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War. "Thanks to information provided by their agents", Moynihan wrote in his book Secrecy, "they did it in four". She also interviewed both Michael and Robby, the Rosenbergs sons, now in their 70s. 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 . The children say that their father did not deserve the death penalty and that their mother was wrongly convicted. They hoped merely by arresting her on these trumped-up charges, surely Julius would talk, because thats what everyone else had done.. Fuchs was charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, and he confessed to spying for the Soviet Union. [39] Einstein and Urey pleaded with President Truman to pardon the Rosenbergs. She became involved in labor disputes and joined the Young Communist League, where she met Julius in 1936. He opened thetrial by stating: The evidence will show that the loyalty and alliance of the Rosenbergs and Sobell were not to our country, but that it was to Communism. Both were members of the Communist Party, with Julius being the far more active member. She replied, "Yes, I wrote [the information] down on a piece of paper and [Julius Rosenberg] took it with him." Ronald Radoshconcludes, after Sobells 2008 confessions, that the Rosenbergs were Soviet spies. 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. Due to Red Scare trials and newspaper headlines, Americans in the 1940s, and 1950s knew that Soviet espionage was serious. "[51], The Rosenbergs were the only American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War. They stated Ethel was present during all meetings, typing notes for Julius. Some scholars suggest that the chances of Ethel being executed would have been less likely had Venona documents been unclassified and used in the trial. 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. Both Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were indicted, as were David Greenglass and Anatoli Yakovlev. Two more electric shocks were applied, and at the conclusion eyewitnesses reported that smoke rose from her head. Ethel's execution did not go smoothly. Harry Truman in 1952 and Pres. "[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". Conspiracy to commit espionage (50 U.S.C. Feklisov learned through Rosenberg that Ethel's brother David Greenglass was working on the top-secret Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory; he directed Julius to recruit Greenglass. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, following their arrest by the FBI in New York city for espionage, 1950. Due to the Greenglass August 1950 testimony, and no tangible evidence, there was a weak case against Ethel for her alleged involvement. [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. Ethels execution was botched. 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. Documents relating to the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Case, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, A statement by the Rosenberg's sons in support of their exoneration, An Interview with Robert Meeropol about the adoption, National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case, Annotated bibliography for Ethel Rosenberg from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues, Annotated bibliography for Julius Rosenberg from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues, The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), Rosenberg Son: "My Parents Were Executed Under the Unconstitutional Espionage Act", History on Trial: The Rosenberg Case in E.L. Doctorow's, Julius Rosenberg at court sentenced to death, The WSWS speaks to Julius and Ethel Rosenbergs son An interview with Robert Meeropol, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg&oldid=1142051620, American people convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2021, Articles with failed verification from November 2022, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Wikipedia external links cleanup from October 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Images of the Rosenbergs are engraved on a memorial in, The execution is explored in great detail and serves as the premise of, Clune, Lori. By 1942, Julius was heavily involved with espionage activities for the Soviet Union. David Greenglass received a 15 year prison sentence and was released in 1960. [62] Ethel did not have a codename,[24] however, KGB messages which were contained in the Venona project's Vassiliev files, and which were not made public until 2009,[63][64] revealed that both Ethel and Julius had regular contact with at least two KGB agents and were active in recruiting not only Ethel's brother David Greenglass, but also another Manhattan Project spy named Russell McNutt. Greenglass passed information to Julius, including information about the high explosive lenses being developed at Los Alamos for the implosion bomb. In his viewpoint, Ethel was only minimally involved and therefore her execution was unjust. He stated, "I would not sacrifice my wife and my children for my sister. He was discharged when the U.S. Army discovered his previous membership in the Communist Party. An American Tragedy By Anne Sebba. [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. I think he believed there was no evidence against him, which was not the case.. Since the Rosenbergs were being charged with conspiracy, no tangible evidence was required. Julius Rosenberg was discharged by the army in 1945 for having lied about his membership in the Communist Party. The son of working-class read more. "My wife is more important to me than my sister. Their trial remains controversial today. 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. John Seven Sep 19, 2018 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who. Or was he more likely to get off by pleading innocence for both of them? Some of the individuals who worked on the Manhattan Project were spies and provided valuable information on the design of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. According to Rojas, a man named Velasquez had threatened her when she rejected his sexual advances earlier in the day. Her children were shunted around and then went into care. "[59], The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program to decrypt messages transmitted by the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union. She knew what he was doing She was complicit merely by knowing, so thats why they charged them with conspiracy to commit espionage.. There was proof, which was later produced in court. Harris, Brian. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American communists, executed after having been found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage. The couple met as members of the Young Communist League, married in 1939 and had two sons. How. They provided top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and valuable nuclear weapon designs. [11], Rosenberg provided thousands of classified reports from Emerson Radio, including a complete proximity fuse. ", "Plot to Have G.I. He stated that Julius asked him to help provide secrets about atomic weapons so that Julius could pass on the information to the USSR. 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. Some reports claim that the Rosenbergs were offered a plea deal, where admittance of their guilt would grant them a prison sentence. During the next two years, the couple became the subject of both national and international debate. National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. 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 . McNutt's employment provided access to secrets about processes for manufacturing weapons-grade uranium. Lawyers Emanuel Bloch and Alexander Bloch defended the Rosenbergs. Do not let this crime against humanity take place. [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]. 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. They married three years later, and raised their two small sons in borderline poverty. [18][19], On July 17, 1950, Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage[20] based on David Greenglass's confession. He does, however, believe that the prosecutors worked to guarantee a conviction and abused the legal system. He said they had urged the death sentence for Ethel in an effort to extract a full confession from Julius. [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. In 1939, he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. Anne Sebbas biography of Ethel Rosenberg, a book five years in the research and writing, has just been published. Later, Ethels brother, Sgt. There were protest marches held around the world at their sentence, including in Ireland. 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. 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. The engineers worked at top electronic firms, and they passed on confidential and useful information to the Soviet Union. The Greenglasses now claimed that Julius, with help from Ethel, recruited David into the atomic spy ring in 1944. Now, however, Greenglass claimed that this exchange occurred in the living room of the Rosenbergs New York apartment, and that Ethel was present. 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. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg executed for espionage, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rosenbergs-executed. "We got nothing from the Rosenbergs. [79] In January 2017 Senator Elizabeth Warren sent Obama a letter requesting consideration of the exoneration request. Robert and his brother, Michael, asked president Obama to pardon their mother. Both Rosenbergs were sensationally sentenced to death by electrocution. [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. (Sobell and Gold received 30-year prison terms, and Greenglass, who was tried separately, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.) They married in 1939. Under Feklisov's supervision, Rosenberg recruited sympathetic individuals into NKVD service, including Joel Barr, Alfred Sarant, William Perl, and Morton Sobell, also an engineer. Julius Rosenberg, arrest photograph, 17th of July, 1950. There are some conflicting assessments among historians regarding the outcome of the Rosenberg trial. [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. "Plain, deliberate, contemplated murder is dwarfed in. 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. On June 19, 1968, a long-term anti-poverty demonstration known as Resurrection City reaches its high-water mark. 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 . Can their sons reveal the truth? The debate over her involvement is ongoing. That same year, the FBI arrested both Greenglass and Gold based on information provided by Fuchs. J. Edgar Hooverpublicly opposed the trial. Despite some public outrage and failed appeals, the Rosenbergs were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953. John Philip Jenkins; 3 1952, -, , ) , In 2008, the National Archives of the United States published most of the grand jury testimony related to the prosecution of the Rosenbergs. Judge Irving R. Kaufman presided over the trial. "[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. 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. There was a fear of communism.. Decrypted cables revealed this information through theVenona project. He also named Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as contacts and denied that his wife, Ruth Greenglass, was involved with any espionage activities. They were charged with conspiracy and providing atomic secrets to the USSR. [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. Due to the recent evidence provided by Sobells interview, witness testimonies, and the Venona documents, calls have been made for Ethels exoneration. 8/7/1950 David Greenglass witness testimony. [68], Numerous articles were published in 2008 related to the Rosenberg case. As a young attorney in 1951, Cohn pushed for the execution of Meeropol's grandparents Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges. [5][6], For decades many people including the Rosenbergs' sons (Michael and Robert Meeropol) maintained that Julius and Ethel were innocent of spying on their country and were victims of Cold War paranoia. He was a physicist at Los Alamos, and a valuable source to the Soviets. He left the Communist Party to avoid suspicions. He was 51. By 1944, Julius had recruited him to spy for the Soviets. (review of. The documents also suggest the Ethel acted as an accessory to her husbands activity, but that she did not play a principal role. Copyright 2022 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved. did not give her a code name, and evidently did not consider her a spy; and the prosecutions strategy was to use Ethel to coerce her husband to confession.. They were accused of sending a rough sketch of the atomic bomb to Russia. 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