The Rosenbergs supported communism Ethel Greenglass was born to a Jewish family in 1915 in New York. The debate over her involvement is ongoing. He affirmed: I said before, and say it again, honestly, this is a fact: I never spoke to my sister about this at all.. "Great Importance World-Wide: Presidential Decision-Making and the Executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. O n June 19, 1953, Ethel Rosenberg was electrocuted, having been found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union. John Philip Jenkins; 3 1952, -, , ) , Or was he more likely to get off by pleading innocence for both of them? They were charged with conspiracy and providing atomic secrets to the USSR. The family moved to the Lower East Side by the time Julius was 11. She was absolutely judged for her appearance, Sebba says. Julius Rosenberg was a key Soviet spy who passed along information to the Soviet Union and recruited Manhattan Project spies. That same year, Sobell participated in an interview with theNew York Times. [37], Others, including non-Communists such as Jean Cocteau and Harold Urey, a Nobel Prize-winning physical chemist,[38] as well as Communists and left-leaning figures such as Nelson Algren, Bertolt Brecht, Albert Einstein, Dashiell Hammett, Frida Kahlo, and Diego Rivera, protested the position of the American government in what the French termed the U.S. Dreyfus affair. Neither President Truman nor President Eisenhower granted requests to remove the death sentence. He said Julius had passed secrets and thus linked him to the Soviet contact agent Anatoli Yakovlev. Ethel's execution did not go smoothly. Timeline of Events Relating to the Rosenberg Trial. On August 17, the grand jury returned an indictment alleging 11 overt acts. [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. For all questions, she asserted her right to not answer as provided by the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. 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. The couple met as members of the Young Communist League, married in 1939 and had two sons. During the next two years, the couple became the subject of both national and international debate. 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. 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. 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Nevertheless, these decryptions formed the background of U.S. government investigation and prosecutions of American communists during the Cold War period. They were accused of sending a rough sketch of the atomic bomb to Russia. The arrests of Greenglass and Julius Rosenberg followed quickly in June and July, and Ethel was arrested in August. Follow Russia Beyond on Telegram. [25], On August 11, Ethel Rosenberg testified before a grand jury. 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. Her husband, Julius, had been executed a short time before her. These transcripts revealed the contradictions between the Greenglasses testimony before the grand jury and during the trial. "[57], The notes allegedly typed by Ethel apparently contained little that was directly used in the Soviet atomic bomb project. His research relies heavily on newly released KGB files. 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. Ethel Greenglass worked as a clerk for some years after her graduation from high school in 1931. In his viewpoint, Ethel was only minimally involved and therefore her execution was unjust. That same year, the FBI arrested both Greenglass and Gold based on information provided by Fuchs. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. A campaign was started to try to prevent the couple's execution. Chin died in a hospital four days later, on June 23. John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [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. They stated Ethel was present during all meetings, typing notes for Julius. He later served 10 years in prison. They were persuaded to change their original stories. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American communists, executed after having been found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage. Because of the Venona documents, they now believe that Julius was a Soviet spy. He also stated that he believed Ethel was only guilty of being Julius wife and was not an active participant in the espionage ring. He was a physicist at Los Alamos, and a valuable source to the Soviets. 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". Her husband, Julius, had been executed a short time before her. On April 5, 1951, a judge sentenced them to death and the pair was taken to Sing Sing to await execution. The documents were not declassified until 1995. [52][53][54], Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, investigated how much the Soviet spy ring helped the USSR to build their bomb. 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. Can their sons reveal the truth? They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. [18][19], On July 17, 1950, Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage[20] based on David Greenglass's confession. 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. 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 . 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 young couple were arrested in 1950 for . He provided classified documents and led an espionage network within the Manhattan Project, recruiting spies, most notably Russell McNutt and Ethels brother,David Greenglass, along with his wifeRuth. Photograph: Craig F Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty. Important research on electronics, communications, radar and guided missile controls was undertaken at Fort Monmouth during World War II. Sobell and Julius Rosenberg, classmates together in college, dedicated themselves to the cause of Communism. Despite some public outrage and failed appeals, the Rosenbergs were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953. He also worked withKlaus Fuchs, a physicist at Los Alamos and Soviet spy, to pass on atomic research secrets. Omissions? (The former was released as the motion picture Daniel in 1983.) 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. "You sat the Rosenbergs in the electric chair for nothing", he said. 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. His wife, born Ethel Greenglass, also in New York, on September 28, 1915, worked as a secretary. Initiated when the Soviet Union was an ally of the U.S., the program continued during the Cold War when it was considered an enemy. [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. [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. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. (review of. Due to the recent evidence provided by Sobells interview, witness testimonies, and the Venona documents, calls have been made for Ethels exoneration. Rhoda Laks, another attorney on the Rosenbergs' defense team, also made this argument before Judge Kaufman. ETHEL ROSENBERG. He believed the execution of Ethel, a young mother, would reflect negatively on both the FBI and the Justice Department. In August of 1950, a grand jury indicted the Rosenbergs for espionage. 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. J. I think it is the most horrific story, Sebba says. The documents suggest his involvement was with military and industrial espionage, rather than atomic espionage, as previously believed. On June 19, 1968, a long-term anti-poverty demonstration known as Resurrection City reaches its high-water mark. Few trials in American history can match that of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg for its sensationalism. The Rosenbergs are still the only Americans ever put to death in peacetime for espionage, and Ethel is the only American woman killed by the US government for a crime other than murder. After she was given the normal course of three electric shocks, attendants removed the strapping and other equipment only to have doctors determine that Ethel's heart was still beating. Photograph: Kypros/ Getty. Ethel Rosenberg was 37 and the mother of two small sons when she was executed in New York in 1953. The execution of two human beings is a grave matter. The boys went on to make successful careers in economics and law, and have families of their own. Online Documents. On March 29, 1951, the court convicted Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of conspiracy to commit espionage. The West was shocked by the speed with which the Soviets were able to stage their first nuclear test, "Joe 1", on August 29, 1949. Now, however, Greenglass claimed that this exchange occurred in the living room of the Rosenbergs New York apartment, and that Ethel was present. 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. Judge Kaufman justified his decisionfor the death penalty by stating: I consider your crimes worse than murder. [60], In 1995, the U.S. government made public many documents decoded by the Venona project, showing Julius Rosenberg's role as part of a productive ring of spies. 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. That stay resulted from intervention in the case by Fyke Farmer, a Tennessee lawyer whose efforts had previously been scorned by the Rosenbergs' attorney, Emanuel Hirsch Bloch. [22], Twenty senior government officials met secretly on February 8, 1950, to discuss the Rosenberg case. But at the trial, she testified that Ethel Rosenberg typed up notes about the atomic bomb. She also interviewed both Michael and Robby, the Rosenbergs sons, now in their 70s. She and David met in the YCL, and married in 1942. He said they had urged the death sentence for Ethel in an effort to extract a full confession from Julius. [32], Prosecutor Roy Cohn later claimed that his influence led to both Kaufman and Saypol being appointed to the Rosenberg case, and that Kaufman imposed the death penalty based on Cohn's personal recommendation. Espionage was a major concern for the United States government during the Manhattan Project. 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. Harry Gold, a lab chemist and Soviet spy, passed this information to the USSR. [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. They were married in 1939, by which time they were already active in the Communist Party. Many people around the world believed them. There was international outrage at her death. [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. 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. Sebba says the only lesson history offers is that there are no lessons to be learned. Ethels execution was botched. Ethel, at Julius's request, had taken his notes and "typed them up." He stated, I can only say that, by immeasurably increasing the chances of atomic war, the Rosenbergs may have condemned to death tens of millions of innocent people all over the world. But they would have been better advised to have said straight up, yes we are communists, but no, we are not spies.. He was U.S. citizen and electrical engineer. 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. "[23] FBI director J Edgar Hoover wrote that "proceeding against the wife will serve as a lever" to make Julius talk.[24]. Later, Ethels brother, Sgt. How. She describes Julius Rosenberg as a naive idealist. Julius and Ethels children, Michael and Robert, maintain that their mother was innocent and have created anonline petitionto exonerate her. Many of these decoded messages identified Soviet spies within the Manhattan Project. A worldwide campaign for mercy failed, and the Rosenbergs were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. David Greenglass received a 15 year prison sentence and was released in 1960. Members of the communist party, the Rosenbergs were convicted of passing secret information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union in 1945. I think he believed there was no evidence against him, which was not the case.. 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. forces. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. [41] Cinema artists such as Fritz Lang registered their protest. 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