Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The Venona project documents were still highly classified at the time of the trial and therefore could not be used as evidence. [75], Their sons' current position is that Julius was legally guilty of the conspiracy charge, though not of atomic spying, while Ethel was only generally aware of his activities. Greenglass secretly testified before a grand jury in August 1950. According to Rojas, a man named Velasquez had threatened her when she rejected his sexual advances earlier in the day. 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. He does, however, believe that the prosecutors worked to guarantee a conviction and abused the legal system. ", In 1953, socialist historian W. E. B. In June 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage under the U.S. The direct evidence of the Rosenbergs involvement came from the confessions and testimonies of David and Ruth Greenglass. Seven different appeals reached the Supreme Court of the United States and were denied, and pleas for executive clemency were dismissed by Pres. [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. Later, Ethels brother, Sgt. 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). Tender. Copyright 2022 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. Many Americans who were politically left-wing believed the Rosenbergs were persecuted solely for their past involvement with the Communist Party. He was U.S. citizen and electrical engineer. Ronald Radoshconcludes, after Sobells 2008 confessions, that the Rosenbergs were Soviet spies. [42] Pope Pius XII appealed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower to spare the couple, but Eisenhower refused on February 11, 1953. Or Black Despair? Getty Images. Or my mother or my father, OK? He wrote Strange Fruit, a song made famous by Billie Holiday, and the royalties from that and other songs kept the family comfortable. He said Julius had passed secrets and thus linked him to the Soviet contact agent Anatoli Yakovlev. 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. The Rosenberg Case. She knew what he was doing She was complicit merely by knowing, so thats why they charged them with conspiracy to commit espionage.. The couple were the only two American civilians to be executed for the crime of espionage during the Cold War.. Their case has been at the center of the controversy over communism in the United States ever since, with supporters . 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 said they had urged the death sentence for Ethel in an effort to extract a full confession from Julius. 8/7/1950 David Greenglass witness testimony. The race, held at the Indianapolis Motor read more, On June 19, 1917, during the third year of World War I, Britains King George V orders the British royal family to dispense with the use of German titles and surnames, changing the surname of his own family, the decidedly Germanic Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to Windsor. Conspiracy to commit espionage (50 U.S.C. John Seven Sep 19, 2018 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who. 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. Harry Gold, a lab chemist and Soviet spy, passed this information to the USSR. The young journalist [Raman Pratsevich] arrested in Belarus with his girlfriend [Sofia Sapega]. [30], On March 29, 1951, the Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage. [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. Venona Documents from the National Security Archive. At one point in the biography, Michael, then not yet 10, recalls playing word games with his father, including Hangman. The FBI arrested Greenglass for espionage in June of 1950. The American pair were . 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. I find innocence quite a difficult word to use with Ethel, she says. Julius Rosenberg was a key Soviet spy who passed along information to the Soviet Union and recruited Manhattan Project spies. Built in an English shipyard and sold to the Confederates in 1861, the Alabama was a state-of-the-art ship220 read more, After 14 Formula One race car drivers withdraw due to safety concerns over the Michelin-made tires on their vehicles, German driver Michael Schumacher wins a less-than-satisfying victory at the United States Grand Prix on June 19, 2005. [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. The boys went on to make successful careers in economics and law, and have families of their own. [16], In January 1950, the U.S. discovered that Klaus Fuchs, a German refugee theoretical physicist working for the British mission in the Manhattan Project, had given key documents to the Soviets throughout the war. Follow Russia Beyond on Telegram. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! 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.. Ethel then sat down at the typewriter which she placed on a bridge table in the living room and proceeded to type the info which David had given to Julius. After this new testimony, the charges against Ruth were dropped. There was no compassion.. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The three-year Rosenberg case culminated in their execution on Friday, 19 June, 1953, just minutes before the onset of the Jewish Sabbath. They were sentenced to death on April 5 under Section 2 of the Espionage Act of 1917,[31] which provides that anyone convicted of transmitting or attempting to transmit to a foreign government "information relating to the national defense" may be imprisoned for life or put to death. Here's the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. I think he believed there was no evidence against him, which was not the case.. The Rosenberg children were permitted to visit their parents during their incarceration. John Philip Jenkins; 3 1952, -, , ) , 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. 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. She and David met in the YCL, and married in 1942. What could he have said? This collection provides interesting Agency insights on this post-WWII spy case. Greenglass served in the ArmysSpecial Engineer Detachment (SED), and was a machinist at Los Alamos. On August 11, 1950, Ethel Rosenberg was arrested after testifying before a grand jury (see section, below). It was the wrong advice to them to go on pleading the Fifth Amendment because it made it seem as if they were on trial for being communists, which at some subliminal level, of course they were. The Rosenbergs supported communism Ethel Greenglass was born to a Jewish family in 1915 in New York. 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. 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. Ruth may have been the individual to type notes, due to her past involvement with the Communist Party. In the years after the Rosenbergs executions, there was significant debate about their guilt. The attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court nine times, but the Court never reviewed the record. 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 . 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. Will there ever be a pardon for Ethel Rosenberg? Gold paidGreenglass $500 in exchange for information about the implosion lens in the atomic bomb. Red Resurrection? But at the trial, she testified that Ethel Rosenberg typed up notes about the atomic bomb. 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. "You sat the Rosenbergs in the electric chair for nothing", he said. Description Following World War II, tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States . "Great Importance World-Wide: Presidential Decision-Making and the Executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Much has been written of Julius Rosenberg, but little about his doomed wife. Because of the Venona documents, they now believe that Julius was a Soviet spy. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were the only spies executed during the Cold War and some question whether their sentence was fair. They were executed in 1953. The case against Ethel in particular was rather . The children say that their father did not deserve the death penalty and that their mother was wrongly convicted. He believed the execution of Ethel, a young mother, would reflect negatively on both the FBI and the Justice Department. He was 51. Despite massive, worldwide protest, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953, at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY. "Plain, deliberate, contemplated murder is dwarfed in. 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. 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 . 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. They provided top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and valuable nuclear weapon designs. Nevertheless, these decryptions formed the background of U.S. government investigation and prosecutions of American communists during the Cold War period. There were protest marches held around the world at their sentence, including in Ireland. For two years the Rosenberg case was appealed through the courts and before world opinion. The Rosenbergsaccused of participating in a complex plot to sell American atomic secrets to the Sovietswere arrested in the summer of 1950, Julius on July 17 and Ethel slightly less than one month later. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Browse pg9767.kgb resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources. On March 6, 1951 their trial began in New Yorks Southern District federal court. Many people around the world believed them. Due to the recent evidence provided by Sobells interview, witness testimonies, and the Venona documents, calls have been made for Ethels exoneration. 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.. Many hundreds of people filed past the biers. A worldwide campaign for mercy failed, and the Rosenbergs were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. A mix of June and 19th, Juneteenth has become a day to commemorate the end of slavery in America. A member of the Young Communist League in the early 1930s, it was through her activism with the Communist Party that she met Julius Rosenberg in 1936. Fuchs identified his courier as American Harry Gold, who was arrested on May 23, 1950. In the United States of the late 1940s and 1950s, Fear was the overriding motif of the age, and fear breeds hysteria, Sebba says. Timeline of Events Relating to the Rosenberg Trial. forces. The storefront theater boasted 96 seats and charged each patron five cents. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were American Communists who captured and maintained world attention after being accused and convicted of spying for the Soviet Union.. The subsequent trial of the Rosenbergs made news all over the world. Despite some public outrage and failed appeals, the Rosenbergs were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953. Harvard Law professorAlan Dershowitzstated that the Rosenbergs were guilty and framed, suggesting that they were spies, but that evidence was still fabricated against them, causing them to have an unjust trial and punishment. 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. "[52], At the grand jury, Ruth Greenglass was asked, "Didn't you write [the information] down on a piece of paper?" 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. On March 29, 1951, the court convicted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of conspiracy to commit espionage. [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 former spymaster Semyon Semyonov. [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. Neither offered any further information. 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. Trial and Execution. She was removed from the electric chair after three charges, only for it to be discovered her heart was still beating, so, gruesomely, she had to be strapped back into it. 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 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." [9], Julius Rosenberg joined the Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1940, where he worked as an engineer-inspector until 1945. On July 17, 1950 the FBI arrested Julius, and one month later Ethel was arrested. I ask if she can think of a modern equivalent of Ethels predicament: incarceration by association. [18][19], On July 17, 1950, Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage[20] based on David Greenglass's confession. The Rosenbergs were small fry, but the government or the FBI or both were absolutely determined to make an example of them. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Many commentators of the time argued that the death penalty was used unjustly in the courts as a way to force the Rosenbergs and others to confess to espionage, or to name others involved. 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. The second son of read more. There was genuine fear that the Russians and Stalin would launch an atom bomb on America. They were convicted and executed in 1953. He later served 10 years in prison. Rosenberg had been introduced to Semyonov by Bernard Schuster, a high-ranking member of the Communist Party USA and NKVD liaison for Earl Browder. The Soviet Union secretly conducted its first atomic weapons test on August 29, 1949. 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. In the following year Julius obtained a job as a civilian engineer with the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and he and Ethel began working together to disclose U.S. military secrets to the Soviet Union. He was a physicist at Los Alamos, and a valuable source to the Soviets. 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. (. 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. 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. In 1951, Julius and his wife Ethel were tried and convicted of espionage for providing the Soviet Union with classified information. 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. 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. 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. I think there could be some kind of exoneration, in that she was convicted on the basis of perjury, and for someone convicted on the basis of perjury, there should be a form of pardon. When questioned, Greenglass admitted to spying. [48], On June 19, 1953, Julius died after the first electric shock. His wife, born Ethel Greenglass, also in New York, on September 28, 1915, worked as a secretary. 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