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Activists Mark 1953 Rosenberg Execution
Dayton Daily News/Associated Press ^ | 6/17/03 | JIM FITZGERALD

Posted on 06/17/2003 11:50:51 AM PDT by DPB101

OSSINING, N.Y. (AP)--Pete Seeger was in New York City's Union Square in 1953 along with 5,000 other supporters of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as the hour of the couple's execution drew near.

``We were waiting and hoping Eisenhower would give a last-minute reprieve,'' says Seeger, now 84.

``We learned that wouldn't happen, and then a great sigh, a great wail went up from the crowd when the time came and we knew they'd been executed.''

On the 50th anniversary of the execution Thursday, Seeger, Susan Sarandon, Harry Belafonte and other show business activists will appear at a benefit for the Rosenberg Fund for Children, which assists children of people imprisoned, attacked or fired for taking a public stand.

Robert Meeropol, the Rosenbergs' younger son, who runs the fund, calls it his ``constructive revenge.''

The execution of the Rosenbergs in the electric chair at Sing Sing on June 19, 1953, ended one of the most sensational cases of the McCarthy era. It was the first execution of civilians for espionage in U.S. history.

The Rosenbergs were arrested in 1950, accused of relaying to the Soviet Union secrets of the atomic bomb. They allegedly recruited Mrs. Rosenberg's brother, David Greenglass, who worked at the site of the first atom bomb test in New Mexico. Greenglass became a star witness against the Rosenbergs, testifying that he saw his sister transcribing his spy notes on a typewriter.

The judge who passed sentence, Irving Kaufman, told the Rosenbergs their actions had led to the Korean War and all its casualties, and added: ``Millions more of innocent people may pay the price of your treason.''

There were appeals, stays of execution and pleas for mercy from Pope Pius XII and Albert Einstein.

Morton Sobell, who was convicted with the Rosenbergs but spared the death penalty, was at Alcatraz when a guard told him they had been put to death.

``My emotions had already been hardened by the prison life,'' says Sobell, 86, who served 18 years.

``But the guard was kindhearted about it and even my fellow inmates knew it was like someone from my family had been killed.''

Meeropol, who was 6 at the time and was known then as Robbie Rosenberg, recalls: ``We were watching a ball game on television when trailers started coming across the screen about the scheduled execution. The adults sent us outside to play so we wouldn't see the news accounts and we played catch until it was too dark to see the ball. My parents had been killed right around sunset.''

A year and a half ago, Greenglass announced that he lied about the typewriter--and some other matters--to save himself and his wife.

While decoded Soviet messages released in recent years appear to show that Julius Rosenberg was indeed a spy, supporters say nothing he contributed to the Soviets--and certainly nothing his wife did--warranted the electric chair.

Meeropol's memoir, ``An Execution in the Family'' is being published on the anniversary. In it, he recounts his vague memories of Rosenberg family life; his and his brother's adoption by Abel and Anne Meeropol; his own studies of his parents' case, which opened him to the possibility they may have been spies; and his difficulty in understanding why parents of small children would engage in such risk.

But Meeropol is also suspicious that recently released evidence may be government ``disinformation.''

``What a horror story it would be for me to accept it and then later find out that I've spread their propaganda for them,'' he says. ``I couldn't live with myself.''

``My bottom line, instead, is that the United States government executed two people for doing something they knew those people didn't do.''

On the Net:

Rosenberg Fund for Children: http://www.rfc.org


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: activistactors; atomicbomb; atomicbombs; communism; communist; communists; deathpenalty; espionage; fifthcolumn; harrybelafonte; hollyweird; hollywood; mccarthywasright; nuclearsecrets; nukes; reddupes; redmenace; rosenberg; rosenbergs; sovietunion; spies; susansarandon; susansarrandon; theredmenace; theywereguilty; traitors; treason
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To: DPB101
But Meeropol is also suspicious that recently released evidence may be government ``disinformation.''

It must be nice to live in a world where one can simply dismiss any information they don't like as disinformation.

21 posted on 06/17/2003 12:37:47 PM PDT by Lost Highway
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To: SpaceBar
There are 3,700+ subhuman rapist-robber-child molester-murderers on death row, right now. If those scum were executed, we could celebrate for years that their recividism wouldn't occur and society's innocents wouldn't be brutally murdered.
22 posted on 06/17/2003 12:41:10 PM PDT by Hinoki Cypress
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To: cateizgr8
ping :)
23 posted on 06/17/2003 12:46:22 PM PDT by Britton J Wingfield
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To: SpaceBar
Someone needs to be there with a string of firecrackers to set off at just the right moment and holler, "WOOOHOOO! THE COMMIES ARE DEAD!"
24 posted on 06/17/2003 12:49:26 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Even if the government took all your earnings, you wouldn’t be, in its eyes, a slave.)
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To: DPB101
Nowadays, the media seems to have shifted tack from "they were innocent victims of McCarthy's witch hunt" to "yeah, they probably gave some stuff to the Russkies, but nothing that they wouldn't have eventually ended up getting anyway, so how much harm was really done?".

As someone who works in the defense indistry, I can testify that it matters not even one iota what I think about the importance of classified information and how it might affect the world's balance of power, period. That is not my decision to make, and it wasn't the Rosenberg's decision to make back then. Something that on its face might look totally harmless can be pieced together with other information that can lead to people getting killed. They got exactly what they deserved, and so does anyone who betrays their oath to their country.

25 posted on 06/17/2003 12:57:23 PM PDT by jpl
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To: DPB101
Actually his name was Von Helsing. He changed it to Rosenberg for professional reasons...
26 posted on 06/17/2003 12:58:45 PM PDT by GreenLanternCorps (Mind like a steel trap... Rusty and illegal in 37 states.)
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To: DPB101
Hey Susan, just join CPUSA and get over with it.
27 posted on 06/17/2003 12:59:00 PM PDT by muleskinner
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To: Lost Highway
That's the same crowd that embraced the fraudulent film Bowling For Columbine.
28 posted on 06/17/2003 1:08:03 PM PDT by weegee (NO BLOOD FOR RATINGS: CNN let human beings be tortured and killed to keep their Baghdad bureau open)
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To: jpl
The intent to commit an act of treason in support of an evil dictator was there. Doesn't matter if the secrets they presented were valuable or the missing piece to the puzzle that he needed.

Try to arrange for a hitman to kill somebody. It won't matter if he's successful or just an undercover cop; the caller will still be guilty of attempting to have someone murdered.

29 posted on 06/17/2003 1:11:54 PM PDT by weegee (NO BLOOD FOR RATINGS: CNN let human beings be tortured and killed to keep their Baghdad bureau open)
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To: DPB101
<< The execution of the Rosenbergs in the electric chair at Sing Sing on June 19, 1953, ended one of the most sensational cases of the McCarthy era. >>

But didn't come near bringing an end to the era of CPA - Communist Party of America-spawned Soviet/Russian and Chi-Comm agents in government, which continues apace.

Especially in Peter Principle Powell's Alger-Hiss and other bastard offspring of the CPA-descended State Department.

And especially among the lumpen, carefully-cloned-for-their-unintelligence, incompetence and ability to be easily-compromised Foreign[er] Service[ing] lackeys, lickspittles and underlings.

30 posted on 06/17/2003 1:18:18 PM PDT by Brian Allen ( Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: SpaceBar; Grampa Dave; dix; nopardons
All we have to do now is execute 364 more commies, and we can celebrate all year round.

Funniest thing I've read in a long time. Hope some liberals are lurking. Comments such as yours cause blood vessels in their brains to burst.

Wish AP would get its headlines right. "Activists" are not at this memorial. Communists are. Communists who supported genocidal maniacs, who hate America, who hate Christians, who hate liberty, who hate everyting good, decent and honest are there. Would AP call a group honoring Hitler's birthday "activists?" There is no moral difference between those fanatics and the Meeropol/Rosenberg RAT admirers.

31 posted on 06/17/2003 1:30:29 PM PDT by DPB101 (New York Times Tom Wicker: There is " not much moral choice" between Pol Pot and Lon Nol.)
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Comment #32 Removed by Moderator

Comment #33 Removed by Moderator

To: DPB101
There is no indication of repentance by these communist activists.

Studs Terkel and Ed Asner are presently among the members of this Rosenberg Advisory Board.
34 posted on 06/17/2003 1:45:18 PM PDT by HISSKGB
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To: DPB101
Robert Meeropol, the youngest son of American communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, at age 2. The Rosenbergs were executed on June 19, 1953, accused of helping the Soviet Union during World War Two in its race to make the atomic bomb. Meeropol's new book, 'An Execution in the Family, One Son's Journey' will be published on June 19, the 50th anniversary of the executions. (Reuters - Handout)
Mon Jun 16,12:24 PM ET

Robert Meeropol, the youngest son of American communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, at age 2. The Rosenbergs were executed on June 19, 1953, accused of helping the Soviet Union during World War Two in its race to make the atomic bomb. Meeropol's new book, 'An Execution in the Family, One Son's Journey' will be published on June 19, the 50th anniversary of the executions. (Reuters - Handout)

35 posted on 06/17/2003 1:46:48 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi..Support FRee Republic..Become a Monthly Donor. PLZ! Only U can prevent FReepathons!)
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To: DPB101
I never understood why Greenglass, who actually stole the plans for the implosion lens, did not suffer the same fate as the Rosenbergs.
36 posted on 06/17/2003 1:46:52 PM PDT by wideminded
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To: All
Lest we forget:

In the Spring of 1943 [Yup, 1943 - the Trinity Test had not even happened], via Lend-Lease, tens of tons of nuclear material - including enriched uranium - was sent to the USSR.

The director of the Lend-Lease Program at the time - one Harry "The Hop" Hopkins - FDR's alter ego. Note that Hopkins, via the Venona Project decrypts, has been determined to have been a Soviet agent.

37 posted on 06/17/2003 1:51:51 PM PDT by jamaksin
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To: Blood of Tyrants
"Someone needs to be there with a string of firecrackers to set off at just the right moment and holler, "WOOOHOOO! THE COMMIES ARE DEAD!"

Bwahaha...What ya drinkin', I'm buying.

38 posted on 06/17/2003 1:52:27 PM PDT by Vigilantcitizen (game on in 10 seconds....)
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To: Tijeras_Slim
Happy Anniversary my friend.

The Rosenburgs were just the first salvo in what became the Cold War. A Rosenburg fund for children strike me the same as "Nazi Youth". How quickly these Hollywood wackos forget what was endured by their grandparents in order for them to spew the psychobable bu!!$#!# that they come up with.

If I am wrong and Rosenburg went the way of Noble then I apologize to those who I offend but in my eyes the Rosenburgs betrayed the country, my country, in ways that cannot be fathomed by the youth of this nation even with the most careful explanation. They created a realm of fear that endured until the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 90's.

Personally Sarandon and Belafontass support for this does not surprise me since people like this are only satisfied if there is mass suffering. Only if there is mass suffering, is there a "cause" for them to jump on and only then are they "significant". But to quote the Dixie Chicks "I am ashamed that they are......Americans"

Damn, I think I just misquoted the PIG.

39 posted on 06/17/2003 2:09:47 PM PDT by CougarGA7
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To: DPB101
One aspect of this that must be considered is how it is framed.

The so-called 'McCarthy Era' is characterized by the Left as the systematic persecution of Communists.

A more apt description: the exposure and prosecution of Soviet agents/sympathizers who were using their positions in the media to spread disinformation/propaganda. Then there were the likes of the Rosenbergs who were actually passing information to the USSR to enable them to more effectively threaten the West.

The first characterization is more favored, because it implies people were being hounded for their idealistic beliefs.

To use the more descriptive appelation would unduly expose the fact that many of the people hated America [not enough to leave of course] and actively worked to weaken her.
40 posted on 06/17/2003 2:12:22 PM PDT by walford (The truth cannot be made, only discovered)
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