Category: Rosenberg

On June 19^th 1953, Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg became the only American citizens to be executed under the Espionage Act. In a case fraught with government conspiracies, the Rosenberg case stimulated nationwide controversy, some of which still exists today.

In her documentary, Heir to an Execution, Ivy Meeropol, the granddaughter of the notorious Rosenbergs, attempts to shed some light on the plight of her grandparents.

As she struggles to understand the decisions of her grandparents, Ivy embarks on a heart wrenching journey through both sides of her family, the Greenglasses and the Rosenbergs, who later changed their name to Roberts as a result of the case. What she discovers is troubling; though Julius was proven to have traded secrets to the Soviet Union during World War II, there is little evidence that he gave them the secrets of the nuclear bomb. Worse yet, Ethel Rosenberg was executed alongside her husband despite the fact that she was only minimally involved in the espionage.

David Greenglass, the only real villain in Meeropol’s story, was responsible for the unjust death of his sister, Ethel. Pressured to testify against his sister and brother-in-law, Greenglass betrayed Ethel and condemned her to death. He originally stated that he had given information to Julius on a New York street corner, but at the behest of the prosecution, he altered his account. His new, embellished version stated that he had given Julius secret information in their apartment, incriminating Ethel as the typist for her husband. Greenglass later admitted to falsifying his testimony and explained that it was actually his own wife who had typed the secret documents. To save his wife from prosecution, Greenglass proved himself the “willing cooperator of the government’s machinations” and watched as his sister was wrongfully executed (quote from Michael Meeropol, Heir to an Execution).

In post-World War II America, Communism played a polarizing role in society. Some, like the Rosenbergs and their accomplice, Morton Sobell, were drawn to the Popular Front after witnessing the crippling poverty and racism that continuously affected the United States. Others, like Senator Joseph McCarthy, saw Communism as a plague that needed to be eradicated in order for righteous democracy to survive. Ethel and, to a lesser extent, Julius were caught in this anti-Communist fervor and paid the ultimate price for their political beliefs. In the Rosenberg case, the American government acted out of fear and allowed political hatred to supersede justice.

Nearly sixty five years later, it is fairly clear that the government did “everything you’d expect a democracy not to engage in” by allowing Ethel Rosenberg to be executed (quote from Miriam Moskowitz, Heir to an Execution). After the public release of the Venona cables in 1995, it became obvious that Ethel was indicted with Julius only so that the government could use her life as leverage against Julius, forcing him to give up names of fellow traitors. Both Ethel and Julius, however, remained loyal to their cause, refusing to betray their comrades or each other. By refusing to testify against her husband, Ethel made the painful decision to abandon her sons, Michael and Robert, and die alongside her husband.

The Red Scare and the injustices of the 1950s may seem detached from modern American politics, but it has never been more relevant. As the Rosenbergs lived under the persecution of McCarthyism, we now live under the constant threat of the Patriot Act. Buzz words like “Communism” have been replaced by newer, scarier terms like “terrorism” and “Islamic-fundamentalism”. But the general idea is still the same; as long as the people are given something to fear, they will turn a blind eye at the injustices committed by their government for the sake of national security.

In fact, our situation can be considered more perilous than that of the 1950s. Our president can (and probably does) use executive authority to kill whoever he deems to be a threat to national security without a trial. We, as Americans, must demand more from our government. We must expect a greater amount of transparency from our government and take a warning from the past so that justice for all citizens can be ensured.

It is with this mentality that people such as Julian Assange need to be praised, not condemned as a “high-tech terrorist”. By exposing documents about American operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, Assange gave Americans access to the information they have a right to know. Similarly, Edward Snowden should not be considered a traitor because he was able to display exactly how much the government does without our knowledge. Snowden has forced the question – exactly how much government secrecy and mass surveillance is necessary to protect national security?

With the militarization of police forces and the installment of innumerable public surveillance systems across the country, it seems like American civil liberties are lessening every day. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg suffered greatly from the political climate of 1950s America, as did their children and relatives. Now that we are dealing with problems similar to those of the 1950s, our nation stands on the brink of letting history repeat itself. We cannot allow public fear, whether of Communism or terrorism, to supersede justice once more.

Image of Senator McCarthy courtesy of Politico

In From Colony to Superpower, George Herring describes the early stages of the Cold War as a turbulent time in United States (US) history. During this period, the government created policies, like containment, that would influence American foreign policy until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and American citizens began to determine their views on the threat of Communism within US borders (Herring 635-637).  In September 1949 after the Soviet Union successfully exploded an atomic bomb, the consequences of Soviet espionage within the United States became very real to many Americans.  With these events in the background, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy emerged as a leader among American politicians who were adamant about rounding up alleged Communists within the United States and reducing the threat to the country.  To accomplish this, McCarthy and his allies fomented and exploited the fear of Communism to promote their cause.  Herring summarizes this point in time by writing, “A Cold War culture of near hysterical fear, paranoiac suspiciousness, and stifling conformity began to take shape. Militant anti-communism increasingly poisoned the political atmosphere at home…”(Herring 637).  Herring’s quote highlights the power of political ideologies in the bipolar world and shows the fear and contempt many Americans felt about Communism.

Image of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg with Morton Sobell courtesy of The FBI

In this climate, the case of alleged atomic spies, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, took center stage as an example of the threat Communists posed on American soil.  The Rosenberg trial provides a clear example of how the “near hysterical fear” of Communism motivated the prosecutors in the case and a large part of the American public to violate standards of legal and clear evidence in order to convict and execute the Rosenberg’s.  As members of the Communist Party, both Julius and Ethel were active politically in the years prior to their arrests in 1950.  In Heir to an Execution: A Granddaughter’s Story the codefendant in the Rosenberg case, Morton Sobell, describes Julius and Ethel as very politically active.  Sobell goes on to explain how Julius, himself, and their friends all believed that a Socialist world would be a better world and that the Soviet Union was the answer to bringing Socialism to America.  The Rosenberg’s political activity combined with Julius’ post at the War Department during WWII made him and his wife perfect suspects for the crime of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets.

Image courtesy of The National Archives

Arrested on July 17,  1950, Julius Rosenberg was initially accused of passing atomic secrets to the Soviets and his wife Ethel was arrested as a co-conspirator on August 11, 1950.  Although both Julius and Ethel maintained their innocence throughout their trial, conviction, and up to the point of their execution, the two were in fact guilty of espionage.  What makes this case interesting is that although the Rosenberg’s were guilty, the way in which they were convicted and the evidence used against them reflects the fear that Herring describes as infecting the country in the early Cold War years.  For example, Ivy Meeropol describes in her documentary, Heir to an Execution that one of the pieces of evidence used against her grandparents, the Rosenberg’s, was a can found in their New York apartment with the label, “Save A Spanish Republican Child”.  The investigators in the case used this can to prove the Rosenberg’s connection to the Soviet Union. Another piece of evidence used against the Rosenberg’s was a Jell-O box described by another Soviet spy, Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass, as a way for the spies to confirm their identities when they passed along information meant for the Soviet Union.  A third piece of evidence, sited by Greenglass as a tool the Rosenberg’s used for espionage activities, was a small console in the family’s living room.  During the trial, the prosecutors questioned Julius and Ethel about the table, but the two maintained they bought it at Macy’s.  In the prosecution’s summation, prosecutor Irving Saypol suggested that the console was used for “microfilming” and therefore was a crucial part of the Rosenberg’s espionage activities.  Following the trial, the console was determined to be void of any hidden cameras, and just a normal table from Macy’s.

Image of Judge Irving Kaufman courtesy of University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law

All three of these pieces of evidence were used to connect the Rosenberg’s to the Soviet Union and accuse them as spies.  However, the determination of the prosecution’s crucial piece of evidence, the console, as irrelevant to the Rosenberg’s espionage activities calls into question the entire collection of evidence.  From this example, we can see a snapshot of how fear of Communism in the United States degraded the quality of evidence and overall integrity of the trial.  In conclusion, Judge Irving Kaufman’s sentencing statement, which concluded the Rosenberg trial, encapsulates America’s fear of Communism.  In the statement, Kaufman says, “I consider your crime worse than murder. Plain deliberate contemplated murder is dwarfed in magnitude by comparison with the crime you have committed. In committing the act of murder, the criminal kills only his victim…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 50,000 and who knows but that millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country.”  Kaufman’s quote which condemned Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to death emphasizes how frightening the idea of the Soviet’s having nuclear weapons and the Communist ideology both were for Americans in the early Cold War years.

By: Zach Kalman’17

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (Image Courtesy of Wikipedia)

Ivy Meeropol, granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, directed and produced the documentary,  “Heir to an Execution” (2004). The documentary presents a first hand account of Ivy as she investigates what actually happened to her family back in 1953. She interviews members of her own family including her father, Michael Meeropol who is the son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Ivy also interviews several friends of her grandparents colleagues including, Miriam Moskowitz and Morty Sorbell who both have a first hand account of the events surrounding what happened to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

The documentary strikingly makes evident the significance of the involvement of Jews in politics during this time period. As Ivy interviewed Morton Sobell he spoke about the feeling of having, “social responsibility” for others during the economic struggles surrounding WWII. He describes how Julius and Ethel, “dreamed of a socialist world, with no hunger, and that the Soviet Union was a model for that world.” When speaking to my grandfather Sheldon Lyons, who grew up during this time period in Brooklyn, he told me that one of the reasons so many Jews were involved in the communist movement was because they saw the effects socialism had on their homelands like Poland and Russia and were inspired by the results of this “collectivism” to help assist the poor. He also made a clear distinction that the wealthy, established Jews did not follow this rhetoric and there was a clear class distinction between those who supported socialism and those who did not.

This distinction between the two classes of Jews is evident in “Heir to an Execution” as well. Ivy makes a clear point to highlight the harsh decisions of Jewish lawyers and judges had in the trials of Julius and Ethel. In fact, Ivy makes a point of saying that a Catholic judge, responsible for giving custody of Ivy’s father and her brother to their grandmother, which was their “first victory in court.” This raises the question, why were some Jews so hard on Julius and Ethel? In response to this question, my grandfather said that when the verdict came out that the Rosenberg’s were Soviet spy’s, his father who had served in WWI for the Untied States felt that he was betrayed by the Rosenberg’s. He, like many others felt betrayed because he had supported the United States in war and at home but now people would associate him with traitors. All of a sudden, a new wave of anti-Semitism rose in the United States in which people blamed Jews for being socialists and aligning with the Soviets.

Sen. Joseph McCarthy (Image Courtesy of Wikipedia)

McCarthyism, which gets its name from Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, led an effort beginning in 1950 that accused many Americans of supporting communism and engaging in treason. McCarthy first unveiled this rhetoric in a speech in February of 1950 in which he stated he had a list of 205 known Communists who were, “working and shaping policy” (History.com) in the US State Department. McCarthyism was especially anti-Semitic in its treatment of the television industry and Hollywood, places that many Jews worked in. An example of this McCarthyism targeting the entertainment industry and thus targeting Jews can be seen in this anti-Communist poster from the 1950s below. McCarthy was also responsible what is known as the “Hollywood Blacklist” which was the denying of employment to screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals because of their suspected political beliefs or associations.

Example of McCarthyism literature specifically addressing the entertainment industry. (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

In his second term in as Senator McCarthy was put in charge of the Committee on Government Operations, “which allowed him to launch even more expansive investigations of the alleged communist infiltration of the federal government”(History.com). This once again turned into area of large anti-Semitism and a “blatant violation”(History.com) of civil rights. An example of this can be found in the treatment of Dr. Irving Peress, “a New York dentist who had been drafted into the Army and became the beneficiary of a seemingly routine promotion from captain to major” (Roberts). Peress’s promotion became anything but “routine,” it instead involved a televised congressional investigation all because McCarthy thought he was a Communist. Sam Roberts writes that, “McCarthy contended that Dr. Peress’s promotion had been directed by a ‘silent master who decreed special treatment for Communists.’ Dr. Peress, represented ‘the key to the deliberate Communist infiltration of our armed forces.’ McCarthy called him a ‘Fifth Amendment Communist’”(Roberts). This outlandish treatment by McCarthy during these trials ended up costing him his job in the Senate as, “a showdown with the White House and, later that year, censure by the Senate” (Roberts). Before all was set and done, McCarthy’s trial of Peress caused “several top Army officials, cost Dr. Peress much of his private dental practice in Queens and even drove his wife, Elaine, to resign”(Roberts).

Dr. Irving Peress at a Senate subcommittee hearing in 1954. (Image Courtesy of The New York Times)

It is clear that following the trial of the Rosenberg’s a new wave of anti-Semitism was brought about it the Untied States and McCarthyism had a lot to do with it. McCarthyism represented a total breach of civil liberties in which people like Dr. Peress were signaled out randomly based on McCarthy’s feelings at the time. Much of the time the left-of center Jews got the harshest of the blame whether that be in Congress or the entertainment industry. McCarthyism represents dark side of what happens when the government is given the power to investigate without oversight.

Citation:

Roberts, Sam “Dr. Irving Peress, Target of McCarthy Crusade, Dies at 97.” The New York Times,17 Nov. 2014.

Heir to an Execution. Dir. Ivy Meeropol. Blowback Productions, 2004. DVD.

“Joseph R. McCarthy.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 20 Nov. 2014.

The story of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg might well be the most dramatic in the history of US national security.  It involves so much –atomic weapons, espionage, treason, blackmail, high stakes legal drama, ethnic loyalties, political beliefs, family betrayal, marriage, friendship, and ultimately, death.  Students in History 282 will be viewing a gripping documentary about the case by the Rosenberg’s granddaughter, Ivy Meer0pol.  “Heir to an Execution” (2004) provides a unique insider’s view of the story, showing the filmmaker as she tries to come to terms with the legacy of the case for her own, broken family.  They will then use the film to inspire their own reflections on the challenges of balancing liberty with security in age of almost perpetual war.

The Soviet Union detonated their first successful atomic bomb test in August 1949.  Within a year, federal authorities in New York arrested Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.  They stood trial in 1951, accused of conspiring to steal atomic weapons secrets from the US Army during World War II and sharing them with Soviet intelligence operatives.  They were convicted of espionage and sentenced to death.   The lengthy appeal of their case transfixed the world, but ultimately the Rosenbergs were executed on June 19, 1953.

Here are some helpful resources on this all-important episode:

The Trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg  (wide array of resources from Douglas Linder, Famous Trials Project, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)

FBI Records on the Atom Spy Case (read the now declassified case files straight from the G-men files)

New York Times coverage (1951-2014), including these highlights:

—3 IN ATOM SPY CASE ARE FOUND GUILTY; MAXIMUM IS DEATH (March 30, 1951)

—US Tells How It Cracked Code of A-Bomb Spy Ring (July 12, 1995)

–REVIEW:  Capturing the Rosenbergs (June 13, 2004)

—Father Was a Spy, Sons Conclude With Regret (September 16, 2008)

—David Greenglass, the Brother Who Doomed Ethel Rosenberg, Dies at 92 (October 14, 2014)

There has also been some excellent coverage of this case over the years from the Los Angeles Times:

–Robert & Michael Meeropol, Essential Lessons  of the Rosenberg Case (Oct. 5, 2008)

–(Profile of Miriam Moskowitz), 64 Years Later, a Battle to Erase a McCarthy-Era Conviction (November 25, 2014)