Posted on 01/16/2009 9:12:39 AM PST by Welcome2thejungle
That Julius Rosenberg was one the worst traitors in American history who deserved what he received there can be no doubt. Even his sons now concede that their father participated in a major spy network passing along information to the Soviets. Morton Sobell, who was convicted the Rosenbergs now confirms Julius Rosenberg's guilt as did Rosenberg's Soviet contact, Alexandre Feklisov. Interestingly enough, according to the Venona cables, Rosenberg's secret code name to the Soviets was "LIBERAL". Very befitting considering who is defenders were.
If Julius Rosenberg was one the most despicable figures in American history, his wife, Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg, surely must be considered one of the most tragic figures in history. At worst she was a minor participant in her husband's espionage activities. Her guilt has never been clearly established. According to Wikipedia.com:
"...there is little evidence that...Ethel...participated in espionage."
Truth be told, Ethel Rosenberg was executed for one simple reason: Her refusal to testify against her husband. It seems to me that considering the flimsy evidence against her, that she should have received no worse a prison sentence than her brother, David Greenglass, or Morton Sobell, who were much bigger participants in the spy ring than she ever was.
Mrs. Rosenberg suffered a particularly gruesome and excruciating fate in the electric chair. It took no less than three electrical charges to destroy this young mother of two small children. Ethel Rosenberg is indeed a victim of history who would have never suffered such a terrible fate if weren't for the circumstances she found herself in.
She wasnt refusing to testify against a husband,,,she was protecting her communist spy ring? It’s clear that SHE brought julius into the party. And its clear she wasnt a loyal American.
You picked a strange place to come champion the cause of traitors who gave the bomb to the Soviets.
Worrying about what happened to Ethel R is a waste of time. It is long done, like many other unwise things in US and World history.
One must consider the state of the world and the thinking of people it the context of their lives and fears AT THE TIME OF THE EVENTS. Worrying about it decades later is a waste of time and energy. Learn from it, of course.
And what kind of low-life was Julius? He knew that both refusing to come clean would mean their children would be orphaned. He could have confessed and let her off the hook,,,except she was eyeballs deep too, huh?
They didn’t care about their children, or ours. Hope they suffered and needed all three jolts.
You missed Mary Surratt.
You might better spend your time weeping for the men who had to fight and die in Korea, while she was working for enemy who killed them.
And Jodl? You lead an army for a bunch like the nazis,,you deserve to hang. How many millions died in that war he was happy to lead? And the SS wasnt the only problem on the eastern front.
Uncountable millions of innocent people ordinary people under the Soviet heel truly thought the invading Germans would be their salvation. Thats how bad the Soviets were. Jodl needed to hang if for no other reason than for betraying people who first viewed you as their rescuer.
Seeing from your profile that you are a student I would advise you not to use Wikipedia as a source for anything you plan on turning in. Wiki is not peer reviewed so there is a lot of conjecture and just bad information mixed in there.
As for Ethel, she is guilty by ommission which is just as bad. I wouldn’t feel too bad about her getting what she got. If anything I think she was selfish to leave her two young children without any parents just to protect a spy ring (IMHO).
She was as much a traitor as her husband and the whole rest of the group. Her execution was justice. Why don't you take this junk to DU and peddle your pity party there.
Exactly, mother of the year Ethel would rather her kids be orphaned than rat on the USSR ring.
It hate to be sitting in the chair, and my wife get told “he gets the jolt,,,,or your daughter is orphaned”.
Hell, most women i know would press the button theirself to save their children!
I can understand that it would be a tough decision, but at least as far as my wife and I are concerned we both put the children ahead of our own lives and if we were in that situation I would insist that she save her own skin for the sake of the kids.
You're probably right.
Stupid timing on her part.
No, my point is simply this: Not everyone executed deserved it: Including-
Ethel Rosenberg
Mary Surratt
Alfred Jodl
Saint Paul
Saint Peter
John the Baptist
Anne Bolyen
Louis XVI
Marie Antoinette
Czar Nicholas and his entire family
and last but not least, our Lord.
How do you think He would have punished Ethel Rosenberg?
Is it OK to have an opinion about history and express a view that a certain person was treated harshly? I don’t neccessarily think Ethel was totally innocent. She did refuse to speak about her husband’s activities. I think a prison sentence comparable to what Sobell and Greenglass received would have sufficed for her. As for General Jodl, he was a professional military officer on the German General Staff, most of these men were not executed. I can tell the difference between a ruthless SS executioner and a German staff officer. I think a prison term for General Jodl would have sufficed as well it did for Admirals Raeder and Donitz.
Exactamundo. An accomplice before or during the fact is as guilty as any other principal to the crime.
Treason is a Capital offense. She willingly participated. She got exactly what she deserved. That the Court gave others lesser sentences has absolutely no relevance whatsoever.
I say dig the bi*** up and fry her ass again.
L
McVeigh wasn't convicted of Treason. He was convicted of Federal Captial Murder.
L
To be the least sympathetic to Ethel’s memory, you have to get past more than 50 years of denials by their associated family and supporters. Only in the last decade have their renamed children quit publishing books and articles defending their parents. Quibble over the percentage of guilt on Ethel’s part but if she was 5 percent aware, she was guilty.
Pretty ecclectic list of the execution of innocents, Jodl and Rosenberg, both guilty in my view, Jesus, Saint Paul and Saint Peter. They’ve nothing else in common
BTW, amongst his other crimes Jodl, who you describe as “innocent”, was directly responsible for the murder of uniformed allied military personel. That in itself justifies an death sentence to me. Same with Ethel, she participated, she refused to cooperate, I presume you’re opposed to plea bargains, her execution was not a “trajedy”. And yes, a life prison term can suffice as an alternative to a death sentence. But retroactive comparisons, characterizing the execution of criminals in terms like innocent and tragic, based on the fate of others who committed similar crimes, is faulty reasoning imo.
Not so fast. There is some recent exculpatory evidence for Ethel:
“In 1996, Greenglass recanted his sworn testimony with New York Times reporter Sam Roberts, claiming that he had lied under oath about the extent of the involvement in the spying plot by his sister Ethel, in order to protect his wife, Ruth. At the trial, Greenglass had testified that Ethel Rosenberg typed his notes to give to the Russians, though he now intimated that it had been Ruth who did the typing.”
Now this comes from Wikipedia, but it is all true. Ethel was framed by her brother who was protecting his wife. Can’t anyone but me entertain this possibility? Ethel should not have been executed. Yes she was a Jewish Communist living during the Cold War in NYC, but even that is not reason enough to execute this woman IMHO.
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