In June 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for conspiracy to commit espionage under the Siegel was one of Kaufmans last law clerks, starting in 1991 and serving until the judges death in February 1992. And for that, the 37-year-old mother of two young children had five massive jolts of electricity pumped through her body. The prosecutors, who included Roy Cohn, obtained the couples conviction through the testimony of Ethels younger brother, David Greenglass. 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. [19], Another conspirator, Morton Sobell, fled with his family to Mexico City after Greenglass was arrested. Although the Second Circuit acknowledged that this evidence could be highly inflammatory in a jury trial, it nevertheless rejected the Rosenbergs claims that they had been denied a fair trial. 116 Pleasant St., Suite 348 To promote his appointment, Kaufman did volunteer work in the public interest and cultivated powerful patrons in government, including FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Tom Clark, who was nominated as Attorney General in 1945 by President Harry Truman. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged the Rosenbergs and several other defendants, including David Greenglass, with conspiracy to commit espionage. WebSat 20 Jun 1953 11.01 EDT Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed early this morning at Sing Sing Prison for conspiring to pass atomic secrets to Russia in World War II. Always remember that we were innocent and could not wrong our conscience. [78] In October 2016, both Michael and Robert Meeropol spoke with Anderson Cooper in an interview which aired on 60 Minutes. Though Kaufman was not the only judge who engaged in such communications with prosecutors at that time, Siegel rejects this defense, as have legal ethics professors. They could finally grow up in anonymity among loving people who told them their parents had been brave and admirable. But then I realised this was as close to a smoking gun we would ever get, because it said that Julius and Ethel didnt do the thing they were killed for. But the proof against his wife ", In 1953, socialist historian W. E. B. Red Resurrection? If Ethel did think this, she might have been right. Robby and I think that when our father got involved in helping the Soviets, our mother stayed out of it so that if he got arrested, she could take care of us, says Michael. The most notable aspect of Kaufmans liberal jurisprudence was in the area of freedom of the press. Dads unwillingness to rat out his fellows wasnt about him wanting to be a soldier of Stalin, says Michael. In early 1950, Scotland Yard arrested Klaus Fuchs, a German-born British scientist who worked at Los Alamos, for sharing information about the atomic bomb with the Soviet Union. Conspiracy to commit espionage (50 U.S.C. For this success Rosenberg received a $100 bonus. 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. Senator Joseph McCarthy was warning Americans about homegrown commies. These were messages sent between Soviet intelligence agencies that had been intercepted and decrypted by US counterintelligence from 1943 to 1980. To be more specific Michael is in his home in New York state, in a town he describes as just south of. The minutes count. They were tried, convicted, and executed in 1953 at Sing Sing Penitentiary. As a historian, Sebba has built up a reputation for writing in particular about women, such as Wallis Simpson. "Great Importance World-Wide: Presidential Decision-Making and the Executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They were buried on Long Island, in one of the few Jewish cemeteries that would accept their bodies. I like exposure, grins Michael. 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 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. In addition, Siegel says, as the son of immigrant parents, Kaufman was sympathetic to legal claims made by various forgotten [men]at least those who did not betray their country, as Kaufman believed the Rosenbergs had. [30], On March 29, 1951, the Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage. Kaufmans apprehension regarding his obituary turned out to be correct. When he became a federal judge in 1949, Kaufman seemed to embody a quintessential American success story. [25], On August 11, Ethel Rosenberg testified before a grand jury. EL Doctorows 1971 novel, The Book Of Daniel, the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact, a songwriter whose biggest hit was Strange Fruit, original mentor was none other than Roy Cohn. Indeed, when she and her husband, Julius, were charged with espionage, attempts were made by their fellow "leftists" to link their prosecution with antisemitism. Was ist ein Link He was discharged when the U.S. Army discovered his previous membership in the Communist Party. [7], Julius Rosenberg was born on May 12, 1918, in New York City to a family of Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. The initial allegations against Ethel were that she had a discussion with Julius Rosenberg and others in November 1944, and had a discussion with Julius Rosenberg, David Greenglass and others in January 1945 in other words, that she talked to her husband and brother. This article was amended on 22 June 2021 to describe the Los Alamos laboratorys focus as atomic weapons rather than atomic power. Cohn was disbarred in 1986 for unethical conduct. Perhaps just as importantly, they have been there for one another as adults, as more evidence about their parents case has trickled out, and theyve had to keep reframing their own past. 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. They were the only American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War. [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. But is that just fantasy?. But Julius and Ethel seemed to have little understanding of the danger they were putting the family in. Kaufman then joined the U.S. Attorneys office, married his former bosss daughter, and distinguished himself prosecuting fraud cases. WebThe Rosenbergs were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and brought to trial on March 6, 1951; Greenglass was the chief witness for the prosecution. They could finally grow up in anonymity among loving people who told them their parents had been brave and admirable. In total, its a disturbing portrait. 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. Perhaps my willingness to separate Ethel from Julius is a sign I dont feel the same way about my parents, he says. He is, he says, more focused on his mother than his father. "[57], The notes allegedly typed by Ethel apparently contained little that was directly used in the Soviet atomic bomb project. Before her arrest, she regularly saw a child therapist, Elizabeth Phillips, for help with Michael and to learn how to be a better mother. Ethel Rosenberg by Anne Sebba is published by Orion at 20. Siegels biography succeeds masterfully in illuminating the life of the ambitious son of immigrants who became a federal judge at the age of thirty-nine, angled to try the espionage case of the 20th century, and then had to live with the consequences of his actions the rest of his long tenure on the bench. Ruth died in 2008, David in 2014. WebOn June 19, 1953, a middle-class, middle-aged couple, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were executed as spies. Siegels biography also is a sobering reminder, in the era of ideology, that judges are human. Through hard work and professional success, he had attained his dream appointment, married into a successful family, and become the proud father of three sons. I think he was spinning: he wasnt an atomic spy, like they said, but he was a spy, so it wasnt the whole truth. The posting followed the confession last week of Morton Sobell, one of the principals in the case, to spying. [62] Ethel did not have a codename;[24] however, KGB messages which were contained in the Venona project's Vassiliev files, and which were not made public until 2009,[63][64] revealed that both Ethel and Julius had regular contact with at least two KGB agents and were active in recruiting not only Ethel's brother David Greenglass, but also another Manhattan Project spy named Russell McNutt. This was improper. (review of. But as an adult I would much rather be the child of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg than the child of David and Ruth Greenglass.. Harris, Brian. Kaufmans jurisprudence tracked (and contributed to) the zeitgeist of liberalism, which evolved from deferring to the state to challenging it in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, urban riots, and Watergate. 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. Julius became a leader in the Young Communist League USA while at City College of New York during the Great Depression. She gave up activism when her children were born. Fr den redaktionellen Aufbau unsere webseiten suchen wir freie Redakteure, die fachspezifisch Ihr know how zum Thema Links online zur Verfgung stellen mchten. The differences between the brothers are obvious, but so is their closeness: Michael calls Robert Chando, a childhood nickname, and since Michaels wife, Ann, died two years ago, his younger brother has called him every day. Theres a very binary idea of the political world, in which people are guilty or innocent, right or wrong. In June 1950, the FBI interrogated David Greenglass, who implicated Julius. Sie nutzen bereits als Profi-Mitglied den 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. Abel Meeropol was. In evaluating Kaufmans appeals court tenure, Siegel notes but does not discuss his enduring contribution to antitrust law: a lengthy decision for the Second Circuit in Berkey v. Kodak in 1979. They know their argument defies the confines of bite-size headlines, and so is a difficult one to sell to the public: Julius was guilty, although the extent of his guilt was exaggerated in an attempt to scare him into naming names; Ethel was possibly complicit, but not culpable. Their execution casts a morbid shadow over Plaths book, just as it did over the United States, and it is seen by many as the nadir of Americas engagement with the cold war. [26] Julius and Ethel were put under pressure to incriminate others involved in the spy ring. "Plain, deliberate, contemplated und haben stets mehr Zeit fr Ihren Kunden! Kaufmans life was a classic twentieth-century American success story. [41] Cinema artists such as Fritz Lang registered their protest. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg after their arrest in New York for espionage in 1950. t was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs So goes the opening sentence of, t is a bitter, rainy spring day when I interview the Rosenbergs sons. Kaufmans biography begins with an American tale: the immigration of his parents, Tzvi and Rachel, from Galicia to, ultimately, the United States in 1903. As a child, it might have been easier if Julius had cooperated says Robert. Recent research corroborates their argument: Soviet sources state that Julius stopped working for them in February 1945. With their extended family still unwilling to look after them (People later said to me, A Jewish family and no family members took in the kids? [48], On June 19, 1953, Julius died after the first electric shock. Ivy Meeropol remembers visiting the AIDS Quilt on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1987. We wish we might have had the tremendous joy and gratification of living our lives out with you. Important research on electronics, communications, radar and guided missile controls was undertaken at Fort Monmouth during World War II. Do not let this crime against humanity take place. Ethel, he said, had nothing to do with this, she was completely innocent. Today, it is not disputed that Julius Rosenberg spied for the Soviet Union. Sie sind Link-Profi? And I think he thought if he confessed to anything they would kill him, so denying everything was the best option. What he gave them was junk, Sobell said of Julius, probably because he didnt know anything about the bomb. Siegel notes that there was an element of self-promotion in Kaufmans rulings: At the same time Kaufman was protecting the press, he was energetically courting it, he writes, nowhere more so than the Times. On August 17, the grand jury returned an indictment alleging 11 overt acts. But is that just fantasy?. They decided to put the exposure to good use by campaigning for their parents. While Siegel does not excuse or apologize for Kaufmans misconduct in Rosenberg, he puts the judges actions in a biographical and political context. Two years later, Siegel writes, a fatal want of mercy in Kaufmans most famous case cast shadows he could never outrun.. After the trial, Kaufman was praised and pilloried as the case developed into a worldwide political affair. [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. 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.
