Despite numerous appeals, no court ever disturbed that judgment. Unlike many others, they stuck with it after the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact, ostensibly, if not officially, allying the countries. [8], Ethel Greenglass was born on September 28, 1915, to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City. Siegel was one of Kaufmans last law clerks, starting in 1991 and serving until the judges death in February 1992. This was hardly the most likely path for the judge who condemned the Rosenbergs to death. Was ist ein Link Hier finden Sie Tipps und Tricks - alles rund um das Thema Links. . They could finally grow up in anonymity among loving people who told them their parents had been brave and admirable. Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (ne Greenglass; September 28, 1915 June 19, 1953) were an American couple who were accused of spying for the Soviet Union, including providing top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs. Werbe- und Marketingleistungen spezialisiert. Not only did he vote in favor of the New York Times and against the federal government when the Pentagon Papers case was before the Second Circuitthe Supreme Court took the same position in its 6-3 decisionbut Kaufman consistently sided with the press in cases involving confidential sources and libel claims. So why didnt Julius save Ethel? She was guilty of supporting her husband, Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy, tells me. Given his experience, Siegel argues, Kaufman was devoid of sympathy for those who had betrayed the United States. But in 2008 he finally accepted them when Morton Sobell who had been convicted for espionage along with the Rosenbergs and served 18 years in Alcatraz and other prisons gave an interview to the New York Times. [55], Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, said in his posthumously-published memoir that he "cannot specifically say what kind of help the Rosenbergs provided us" but that he learned from Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov that they "had provided very significant help in accelerating the production of our atomic bomb. Kaufman longed to be a federal judge. So what am I gonna do, call my wife a liar? Was macht so ein Link? In handcuffs and bound for separate cells, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg share a final kiss in a prison van outside court after their arrest in New York in 1950. ichael and Robert never saw the Greenglasses again after the trial, and all Michael remembers of them is: David looked like a nondescript schlub and Ruth was a cold fish. The US government said that if Julius gave them names of other spies, and he and Ethel admitted their guilt, their lives would be spared. The personal stuff is obvious, but the political stuff is equally powerful.. Tensions in the Cold War escalated, then ratcheted up even further in early 1950 with the discovery that atomic secrets had been passed to the Soviet Union during World War II. After the sentencing hearing, Kaufman told reporters that he had visited his synagogue several times during the prior week seeking spiritual guidance. [7], Julius Rosenberg was born on May 12, 1918, in New York City to a family of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. During their trial, Ethel in particular was vilified for prioritising communism over her children, and the prosecution insisted she had been the dominant half of the couple, purely because she was three years older. Only this morning it looked like we might be together again after all. But for the purpose of acting as a deterrent, I think it is very important that she be convicted, too, and given a stiff sentence. FBI director J Edgar Hoover agreed, writing proceeding against the wife will serve as a lever to make her husband talk. But memories of their parents were always there. "[59], The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program to decrypt messages transmitted by the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union. [39] Einstein and Urey pleaded with President Truman to pardon the Rosenbergs. Theres a very binary idea of the political world, in which people are guilty or innocent, right or wrong. By the time Julius was arrested, America was in a red panic. Anne Sebbas new book, Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy, comes in the wake of the public release of the last of the grand jury testimony in the case, that of It was more complicated for Michael, who could remember playing ball games with his father in their apartment (If it went in Robbys playpen, it was a home run.) Eventually, he decided as an adult that reverting to Rosenberg would be artificial. 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. ", "Plot to Have G.I. Robert, centre, and Michael, right, with their adoptive mother Anne Meeropol: Living with Abel and Anne, it felt like we won the lottery., ichael and Roberts campaign for their mothers exoneration was struck a major blow with the election of Donald Trump, whose. But is that true, or just a nephew who wants to expose the people who lied about my parents? he asks. [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. Wie baue ich einen Link auf und wie funktioniert er. Of Ethel, Sobell said, She knew what he was doing, but what was she guilty of? A rabbi had reportedly asked to Sie nutzen bereits als Profi-Mitglied den As Siegel recounts, the judge began with a half-truth that would only embarrass him when the full story emerged decades later. Kaufman stated, Because of the seriousness of this case and the lack of precedent, I have refrained from asking the Government for a recommendation. But we now know how important those early years of life are, and Ethel must have given those two boys so much in those years that it lasted all their lives. Ethel's brother says he trumped up evidence. 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=1151973397, 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. The trial court judge, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Martin J. Siegel's new biography "Judgment and Mercy: The Life and Turbulent Times of the Judge Who Condemned the Rosenbergs" explores the life of Irving R. Kaufman. This sounds to me like a son hoping that their parents at least tried to protect their sons. But for the serendipity of Ethels younger brother, David Greenglass, being assigned to work as a machinist at Los Alamos, the New Mexico laboratory where the United States developed the atomic bomb, neither Julius nor Ethel ever would have been charged with a capital crime. We are all talking by video chat, and when I ask where Robert is, he replies that hes at home in Massachusetts, in a town 90 miles west of Boston and 150 miles north-east of New York City. (review of. Im a very revenge-oriented person, but its never about beating people to a pulp. To be more specific Michael is in his home in New York state, in a town he describes as just south of Pete Seegers home, referring to the folksinger and leftwing hero. He was one of the youngest federal judges in the nation. Copyright 2021Rosenberg Fund for Children, Inc. He said Julius had passed secrets and thus linked him to the Soviet contact agent Anatoli Yakovlev. In 2021 Ethel's sons restarted the campaign to pardon Ethel, as they were more optimistic that President Biden will consider this favorably. "[57], The notes allegedly typed by Ethel apparently contained little that was directly used in the Soviet atomic bomb project. Hed have been in prison and Ethel would have been released to take care of us thats the deal the government made with the Greenglasses. Robert launched the campaign for Ethels exoneration in 2015 not for a pardon, because that would suggest she had done something wrong, but a full exoneration. Von Profis fr Profis. 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, National Committee to Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case, 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. His tenure on the federal bench is a reminder of what the federal judiciary can accomplish as a coordinate branch of government. We know she was deeply in love with her husband, and her letters to him during their imprisonment are filled with her longing to lift my willing lips to yours. Ethel Rosenberg: a gruesome death by execution that shocked the Finally, Siegel notes, the judges pursuit of justice combined with his feverishly active personality, unable to rest until [his] wish became fact. Judicial restraint was something of an oxymoron for Kaufman. Martin J. Manning and Clarence R. Wyatt, eds. Sebbas theory strikes me as more likely: I think she just had other concerns: she was looking after her children and trying to be present for them. The campaign to exonerate Ethel is starting again, and the Meeropols are optimistic that President Biden will look at it favourably. The brothers struggles began on 17 July 1950 when their father, Julius, was arrested in the familys home on New Yorks Lower East Side on suspicion of espionage. 2006. Conspiracy to commit espionage (50 U.S.C. Robert developed a strong physical resemblance to Ethel. It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs So goes the opening sentence of Sylvia Plaths 1963 novel The Bell Jar, referring to the Jewish American couple, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage and sent to the electric chair exactly 68 years ago today. He reportedly said, "She called our bluff", as she made no effort to push her husband to any action. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, 2023 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. That the US government invented evidence to obtain a conviction and an execution is a threat to every person in this country, and to not expose that is to become complicit in it. Ethel, at Julius's request, had taken his notes and "typed them up." [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. Ethel Rosenberg underwent three successive shocks, only to have two amazed physicians report her still alive. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sent to the electric chair for being Soviet spies, but their sons have spent decades trying to clear their mothers name. We want to be people who take charge of our lives, he says. I believe that Ethel thought her life without Julius would have been valueless because her sons would never have respected her, because she would have had to make some kind of confession and name names.. As Robbys daughter Jenny said to me, there is a positive to not thinking of our family as hapless victims. [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. Recent research corroborates their argument: Soviet sources state that Julius stopped working for them in February 1945. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a Jewish-American couple with two young sons, were arrested by the FBI in 1950 for conspiracy to commit espionage. "[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". As the FBI investigated the spy ring, the Korean War broke out that summer. "You sat the Rosenbergs in the electric chair for nothing", he said. Among high-level government officials, Hoover appears to be the only one who realized that, after the heat of the moment passed, executing the mother of two young sons for being involved in the conspiracy would appear to be cruel and vengeful. 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. Convicted in the Cold War spy trial that delivered Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to their deaths and divided the She became involved in labor disputes and joined the Young Communist League, where she met Julius in 1936. Ethel has long been portrayed as a cold woman, one who, as Kaufman said in his sentencing, loved communism more than her children. 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. At the trial, under Cohns questioning, David testified that in September 1945 he gave Julius a sketch and description of the atomic bomb, and that Ethel was deeply involved in the discussions between them. I do like writing about a woman who has been misunderstood, she says, and few, according to her, have been more misunderstood than Ethel Rosenberg. Lovingly, The Rosenbergs were convicted on March 29, 1951, and sentenced to death by Judge Irving Kaufman on April 5, 1951. The responsibility is so great that I believe the Court alone should assume this responsibility. Kaufman then sentenced the couple to death, saying their actions had advanced Russias development of the atomic bomb by years and caused . Abel Meeropol was a songwriter whose biggest hit was Strange Fruit, so the boys were raised on the royalties from the most famous song of the civil rights era. Kaufmans life was a classic twentieth-century American success story. After she was given three electric shocks, attendants removed the strapping only to have doctors determine that Ethel's heart was still beating. Of being Juliuss wife. This corroborated what Aleksandr Feklisov, a retired KGB agent, said in 1997 when he admitted that he had been Juliuss handler. [49], The funeral services were held in Brooklyn on June 21. This was the key evidence against Ethel, and the chief prosecutor, Irving Saypol, conjured up an image for the jury of Ethel at the typewriter, pounding the keys, striking blow by blow, against her own country in the interest of the Soviets. David originally had said that he had passed the atomic data he had collected to Julius on a New York street corner. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, like David Greenglass and his wife, Ruth, were communists. ", Deborah Friedell, "How Utterly Depraved!" Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy by Anne Sebba was published by Orion Books on 24 June 2021.[24][82]. Nevertheless, these decryptions formed the background of U.S. government investigation and prosecutions of American communists during the Cold War period. I like exposure, grins Michael. They were buried on Long Island, in one of the few Jewish cemeteries that would accept their bodies. If we set aside what we know now about the case and turn back the clock to 1951, when the trial occurred, what can we say about Kaufmans conduct in Rosenberg? Robert says that when he thinks of his family before his parents were arrested he has, this feeling of a golden age, of a wonderful loving family before it was ripped apart. 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. Only three and seven when their parents were arrested, six and 10 when they were killed, they are now grandfathers with grey beards and known as Michael and Robert Meeropol, having long ago taken the surname of the couple who adopted them after the US government orphaned them. Your Daddy who is with me in these last momentous hours, sends his heart and all the love that is in it for his dearest boys. Ruth died in 2008, David in 2014. His sons had various mental health and physical ailments. They took assumed names and he tried to figure out a way to reach Europe without a passport. "My wife is more important to me than my sister. [80][81] Kaufmans ex parte contacts included conferring with the lead prosecutor, United States Attorney Irving Saypol, the day before the defendants were to be sentenced. Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel were convicted of passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. 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. [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. Be comforted then that we were serene and understood with the deepest kind of understanding, that civilization had not as yet progressed to the point where life did not have to be lost for the sake of life; and that we were comforted in the sure knowledge that others would carry on after us. [18][19], On July 17, 1950, Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage[20] based on David Greenglass's confession. Rob and I are unusual siblings in so many ways. I never thought about our aunts and uncles not taking us in, because living with Abel and Anne, it felt like we won the lottery, says Michael. Cohn was disbarred in 1986 for unethical conduct. "Plain, deliberate, contemplated Agent Plays Down Atomic Role Of Rosenbergs", "The September 21, 1944 cable: The Rosenbergs and the Greenglasses", "In This True-Life Spy Story, It's America vs. Russia, the Early Years", "Grasping at Straws to Try to Exonerate Ethel Rosenberg", "Why Ethel Rosenberg Should Not Be Exonerated", "Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America", "David Greenglass, the Brother Who Doomed Ethel Rosenberg, Dies at 92", "Witness Changed Her Story During Rosenberg Spy Case", "For First Time, Figure in Rosenberg Case Admits Spying for Soviets", "Father Was a Spy, Sons Conclude With Regret", "My Parents Were Executed Under the Unconstitutional Espionage Act", "The Meeropol Brothers: Exonerate Our Mother, Ethel Rosenberg", "The Meeropol brothers: Exonerate our mother, Ethel Rosenberg", "The Rosenberg boys: The Cold War's most famous orphans", "Sen. Warren joins call for Ethel Rosenberg's exoneration", "Warren, Neal ask Obama to consider pardoning Ethel Rosenberg" (, "Flashback: Hear Bob Dylan's Lost 1983 Song 'Julius and Ethel', "Billy Joel We Didn't Start the Fire Lyrics", "David Greenglass grand jury testimony transcript", "Secret Grand Jury Testimony From Ethel Rosenberg's Brother Is Released", Learn how and when to remove this template message, Guide to the Playscript about the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Espionage Trial, An Interactive Rosenberg Espionage Ring Timeline and Archive.
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