Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty ImagesJulius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage one month before his wife. As a result of this new testimony, all charges against Ruth Greenglass were dropped. ROSENBERG CASE. Bettmann/CORBIS/Getty ImagesDemonstrators at Penn Station in New York prepare to travel to Washington in order to march against the Rosenbergs death sentence. 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. They were undoubtedly communists and Julius, an engineer with a KGB codename, did pass on information to the Russians about certain US weapons. Ethels brother, David Greenglass, was instrumental in her conviction, telling a grand jury that she typed up Julius notes. At this time, espionage was of the highest concern to the U.S. government, which lived in fear that the Soviets might steal any sensitive information that could give them an edge in this Cold War which could turn hot at any moment. WebIn court, the Rosenbergs, unlike other atomic spies, clung to their claim of innocence, making matters worse for them. Sebba said she was probably "radicalised" at work and joined the Communist Party as the world descended into turmoil. The seven-year-old was engrossed in his favorite program in the summer of 1950 when men burst into his New York apartment and took away his father. When Julius and Ethel Rosenberg chose to stay silent and not implicate their friends as Soviet spies to US authorities, their fates were sealed. He did succeed in evading suspicion for five whole years as an engineer and inspector there while researching communications, electronics, radar, and guided-missile controls. "You may not think she was saintly, or you may not believe her politics, but she deserves a revisionist look at being killed because she was three years older [than her husband].". Her work has appeared in outlets like The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Atlantic, TIME, Smithsonian and more. Little did they know about Stalins bloody purges and the gulag, Russian-Israeli historian Zakhar Gelmanwrote. 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." [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. "If you read the KGB files, they were nervous about Julius at this point because he had too many agents, he was overstretched, he wasn't welland they thought that the Americans were already onto him," Sebba said. WebRetropolis No, Trumps Espionage Act charges are not like the Rosenbergs Analysis by Gillian Brockell Staff writer June 10, 2023 at 8:00 a.m. EDT Ethel and Julius Rosenberg 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. They married in 1939. July 18, 1950. The American pair were executed for smuggling atomic secrets to the USSR. Harris, Brian. Sebba doesn't argue that Ethel was oblivious to her husband's actions. Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage one month before his wife. Leonard Detrick/NY Daily News/Getty ImagesMichael Rosenberg, 10, reads about his jailed parents as his brother Robert, six, stares at the pages. The sentence was widely decried and those involved even took steps to avoid it but to no avail. David Greenglass, also a prior member of the Young Communist League, worked on the top-secret Manhattan Project at its lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico. A decade later Morton Sobell, a former General Electric engineer who was also convicted for spying in 1951,admittedhe had been a Soviet agent along with Julius Rosenberg. Click here to find out more. Gold supported Greenglasss accusation and admitted that he then passed the plans along to a Soviet agent. He was discharged when the U.S. Army discovered his previous membership in the Communist Party USA. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! 10-year-old Michael Rosenberg pats his younger brother, Robert, 6, and tries his best to comfort him, as the youngsters ride away from Sing Sing prison after visiting their parents, convicted atom spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, just a few days before their execution.  The two young sons of convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg take part in a giant demonstration in front of the White House asking presidential clemency for their parents. At the time, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover wrote to Attorney General J. Howard McGrath saying that "proceeding against the wife will serve as a lever" to make her husband talk. They were convicted and executed for aiding the Russians. But as they reconstructed the evidence on their parents, they came to the agonizing conclusion that their father wasn't innocent after all. This time, he claimed both Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had recruited him. The boys were now Cold War orphans, and they were almost as infamous as their parents. But though theyve petitioned the government to exonerate her, shes never been pardoned. [80][81] Nick Capodice: "She didn't cry, so she must be some kind of unnatural mother, some kind of witch.". But to a group of sympathetic Americans, the Rosenbergs were seen in a different light. [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. Then what happened? McNutt's employment provided access to secrets about processes for manufacturing weapons-grade uranium. Then, she joined the Young Communist League where she met her soon-to-be husband Julius Rosenberg in 1936. The K.G.B. 2009 Vassiliev notebooks based on KGB archives. And still they killed them.. Members of the Fellow New York native Julius Rosenberg was born on May 12, 1918 to Jewish immigrants who moved from Soviet Russia to Manhattans Lower East Side when he was 11. [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. "[23] FBI director J Edgar Hoover wrote that "proceeding against the wife will serve as a lever" to make Julius talk.[24]. As Senator Joseph McCarthy was leading the Red Scare on Capitol Hill in hopes of outing suspected communists inside the U.S. government, the nation confronted the idea that a nice young married couple like the Rosenbergs were not only Reds but that they might have given the Soviet Union the secrets of nuclear weapons. In her re-interview, Ruth Greenglass expanded on her husband's version: Julius then took the info into the bathroom and read it and when he came out he called Ethel and told her she had to type this information immediately Ethel then sat down at the typewriter which she placed on a bridge table in the living room and proceeded to type the information that David had given to Julius. The question of guilt was already settled in the minds of most.. American authorities captured Gold, who thereupon pointed the finger at David Greenglass, a young man who worked at the laboratory where the atomic bomb had been developed. To corroborate his wife Ruth's version of events, he said he saw his sister typing up information to be passed onto the Soviets. After a lengthy legal battle, they got the files and scoured through them for evidence of their parents innocence. June 18, 1953. Both before and after it happened, the execution was highly controversial. Rosenberg was reportedly recruited by the Soviets on Labor Day 1942 and proceeded to provide them with classified documents about the Manhattan Project that was working on building the first atomic weapons. He later admitted he lied about his sisters involvement to save his wife. "Great Importance World-Wide: Presidential Decision-Making and the Executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. We strive for accuracy and fairness. 'Dead agents tell no tales': Old surveillance footage may have solved one of Australia's greatest intelligence mysteries, 'I'm gobsmacked we never slipped up': Inside the secret life of ASIO spy kids, The moment this Australian's lifelong dedication to communism came crashing down, Former spy says Soviet mole infiltrated ASIO, Sydney man accused of foreign interference was warned to leave China by suspected US spy, court hears, Taylor Swift pre-sale tickets are released today. Then, learn about the five most infamous American spies. Learn more about Erin and her work at erinblakemore.com. The children say that their father did not deserve the death penalty and that their mother was wrongly convicted. June 18, 1953. [46] The Times reported that 500 people attended, while some 10,000 stood outside:[50], The bodies had been brought from Sing Sing prison by the national "Rosenberg committee" which undertook the funeral arrangements, and an all-night vigil was held in one of the largest mortuary chapels in Brooklyn. 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 Kaufman sentenced the Rosenbergs to death in 1951 stating their crimes were "worse than murder". WebTeachers should begin the activity by informing students that the year is 1951, and that both Julius and Ethel Rosenberg have been charged with conspiring to commit espionage Articles Apr 28, 2016 Ian Harvey, Guest Author On April 4th, 1951, Judge Irving Kaufman sentenced Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death. forces. And so the saga of the Rosenberg orphans continuesas unsatisfying and unresolved as ever. The charges were in relation to the passing of Sebba said the prosecution during the trial used traditional ideas about femininity to convince the jury that women like Ethel were dangerous. [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. The seven-year-old was The conviction of the Rosenbergs was the climax of a fast-paced series of events that were set in motion with the arrest of British physicist Klaus Fuchs in Great Britain in February 1950. [10], According to a 2001 book by his former handler Alexander Feklisov, Rosenberg was originally recruited to spy for the interior ministry of the Soviet Union, NKVD, on Labor Day 1942 by a former spymaster, Semyon Semyonov. Documents from the U.S. Armys Signal Intelligence Services Venona Project of the 1940s, aimed to gather and decode Soviet messages, werent declassified until 1995. Sebba said Ethel was also judged by the media for her clothes and her demeanour. Red Resurrection? Neither child had any conception that their parents might be Soviet spies. Most U.S. newspapers believed it was fair punishment, while European publications and citizens generally did not. Enter a date in the format M/D (e.g., 1/1), Why the Rosenbergs' Sons Eventually Admitted Their Father Was a Spy, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rosenbergs-convicted-of-espionage, Freshman Michael Jordan hits winning shot to give North Carolina NCAA title, Keeling Curve, showing increase of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, is discovered, U.S. space probe, Mariner, visits Mercury, Lt. William Calley found guilty of My Lai murders, Herbert Hoover has telephone installed in Oval Office, Appomattox, the final campaign in the Civil War, begins, Swedish prime minister resigns over WWI policy. Both pleaded not guilty, but were convicted and sentenced to be executed. "They believed that, of course, Ethel and Julius would name names and they thought particularly that a woman would want to do anything to be with her children," Sebba said. 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. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. WebPhoto: Universal History Archive/Getty Images The story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage in 1951, reads like something I frankly think my wife did the typing, but I dont remember, said David Greenglass, who received 15 years in prison, long afterward. "My wife is more important to me than my sister. Julius was arrested but he refused to confess or name collaborators. "Injustice", Sutton Publishing. Michael, left, and Robert Meeropol, the sons of Ethel Rosenberg, pose similar to an old photograph of them, before they attempt to deliver a letter to President Barack Obama in an effort to obtain a exoneration for their mother Ethel Rosenberg, 2016. WebGreenglass also named Sobell as an accomplice, but Sobell fled to Mexico City, seeking asylum.
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