(Sobell and Gold received 30-year prison terms, and Greenglass, who was tried separately, was sentenced to 15 years in prison.) Moynihan found that in 1945, physicist Hans Bethe estimated that the Soviets would be able to build their own bomb in five years. The case was intensely controversial, touching nerves throughout American society, and debates about the Rosenbergs continue to the present day. 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. The US government offered to spare the lives of both Julius and Ethel if Julius provided the names of other spies and they admitted their guilt. On April 5, 1951, a judge sentenced them to death and the pair was taken to Sing Sing to await execution. 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. This connection would be necessary as evidence if there was to be a conviction for espionage of the Rosenbergs. She was viewed as a co-conspirator and never indicted. John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev. They claim:The Greenglasses lies were necessary to obtain Ethels conviction; the K.G.B. He said the Soviets had developed their own bomb by trial and error. 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. [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. That same year, the FBI arrested both Greenglass and Gold based on information provided by Fuchs. I think it is the most horrific story, Sebba says. They could not be charged for treason since the U.S. was not at war with the USSR. "[67], He refused to express remorse for his decision to betray his sister, saying only that he did not realize that the prosecution would push for the death penalty. Their legal team worked to have the verdict overturned, but their efforts failed. In early 1953, he wrote a letter to President Eisenhower, requesting that Ethel and Julius sentences be commuted to prison. [42] Pope Pius XII appealed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower to spare the couple, but Eisenhower refused on February 11, 1953. The Venona project documents were still highly classified at the time of the trial and therefore could not be used as evidence. J. Author of. In the early 1930s, Ethel became a member of the Young Communist League. 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 . He admitted that he had given documents to the Soviet contact, but said these had to do with defensive radar and weaponry. Julius Rosenberg was discharged by the army in 1945 for having lied about his membership in the Communist Party. A country prepared to flout the law, to instil fear, and to also arrest his girlfriend: does that not strike you as terrifying?, She was removed from the electric chair after three charges, only for it to be discovered her heart was still beating. Ethel's execution did not go smoothly. According to Rojas, a man named Velasquez had threatened her when she rejected his sexual advances earlier in the day. He also stated that he believed Ethel was only guilty of being Julius wife and was not an active participant in the espionage ring. Ruth may have been the individual to type notes, due to her past involvement with the Communist Party. In May 1951, Pablo Picasso wrote for the communist French newspaper L'Humanit, "The hours count. [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. [22], Twenty senior government officials met secretly on February 8, 1950, to discuss the Rosenberg case. Trial and Execution. In 1951, Julius and his wife Ethel were tried and convicted of espionage for providing the Soviet Union with classified information. She was impassive in court, and poorly turned out, due to the fact they had very little money: Julius Rosenberg embarked upon espionage for his ideals, not for monetary reward. ", In 1953, socialist historian W. E. B. 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 . The second son of read more. They also defendedSobell, who was put on trial with the Rosenbergs. A mix of June and 19th, Juneteenth has become a day to commemorate the end of slavery in America. Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy by Anne Sebba was published by Orion Books on 24 June 2021.[24][82]. Despite massive, worldwide protest, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed on June 19, 1953, at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY. "[51], The Rosenbergs were the only American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War. Description Following World War II, tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States . Ethel Rosenberg was 37 and the mother of two small sons when she was executed in New York in 1953. (. At this time, Greenglass worked at Los Alamos. Neither President Truman nor President Eisenhower granted requests to remove the death sentence. Rosenberg had been introduced to Semyonov by Bernard Schuster, a high-ranking member of the Communist Party USA and NKVD liaison for Earl Browder. 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." In the intervening decades, it has since been conclusively proved that David Greenglass committed perjury against his own sister. 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. 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. Soviet cables were deciphered, revealing Julius codename to be LIBERAL. LIBERAL was mentioned in numerous documents. He stated, "I would not sacrifice my wife and my children for my sister. Sebba says the only lesson history offers is that there are no lessons to be learned. He was 51. [8], Ethel Greenglass was born on September 28, 1915, to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City. In June 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage under the U.S. [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. And Intelligent" and the course they took was one of "courage and heroism. 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. I have spent ages agonising over that. 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. The security of the Marianas Islands, in the western Pacific, were vital to read more, Attempting to convince local Native Americans to make peace with the United States, the Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet meets with the Sioux leaderSitting Bull in present-day Montana. Many people around the world believed them. [68], Numerous articles were published in 2008 related to the Rosenberg case. She originally was an aspiring actress and singer, but eventually took a secretarial job at a shipping company. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg sitting in police van after being convicted of espionage. 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). All Rights Reserved. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The young journalist [Raman Pratsevich] arrested in Belarus with his girlfriend [Sofia Sapega]. [65], The Rosenbergs' two sons, Michael and Robert, spent years trying to prove the innocence of their parents. The Rosenberg Case. The documents also suggest the Ethel acted as an accessory to her husbands activity, but that she did not play a principal role. They were both found guilty of the crimes of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union. The family moved to the Lower East Side by the time Julius was 11. 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. 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. "[57], The notes allegedly typed by Ethel apparently contained little that was directly used in the Soviet atomic bomb project. The controversy over their guilt was seemingly resolved in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the release of Soviet intelligence information that confirmed Julius Rosenbergs involvement in espionage. This was the "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, as opposed to a bomb with the "gun method" triggering device used in the "Little Boy" bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Her death was so barbaric. The American Civil Liberties Union refused to acknowledge any violations of civil liberties in the case. Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 - June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg ( ne Greenglass; September 28, 1915 - June 19, 1953) were an American couple who spied for the Soviet Union. The son of working-class read more. In the United States of the late 1940s and 1950s, Fear was the overriding motif of the age, and fear breeds hysteria, Sebba says. And the newspapers reported that because she was tougher, she needed more of a jolt. "[59], The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program to decrypt messages transmitted by the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union. 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. 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