Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Remembering the Rosenbergs -- 50 years on
AFP ^ | Wed, Jun 18, 2003

Posted on 06/18/2003 11:13:46 AM PDT by presidio9

On June 19, 1953, six-year-old Robert Meeropol was shooed outside to play ball with a friend while his father and mother were being executed.

AFP/Intercontinentale/File Photo

Robert's parents were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, whose execution for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union remains, for many, an enduring symbol of the anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era.

In a memoir published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Rosenbergs' death by electric chair, Meeropol recalls watching television at a friend's house with his elder brother Michael when news flashed across the screen that their parents' final appeal had been turned down.

"I could not read the words and do not recall Michael's reaction, but he remembers moaning, "That's it, good-bye, good-bye."

Robert was ushered into the backyard where he played until after the executions had taken place and it was too dark to see the ball.

"I doubt I fully comprehended that my parents had just been killed, but I feigned complete ignorance to avoid the commotion, and went to bed," he wrote.

There are those who believe the Rosenbergs were guilty and deserved to die, while others feel the sentence was too harsh and some think they were framed.

Contrary to the public perception -- fostered by the government at the time -- that the Rosenbergs had all but handed Stalin the bomb, they were never charged with treason, or even with spying.

They were tried and convicted in 1951 of conspiracy to commit espionage, by enlisting Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, to steal secrets from the Los Alamos atomic laboratory where he worked as an army machinist.

Greenglass confessed to passing information and identified his wife Ruth and the Rosenbergs as participants in a Soviet spy ring.

The case against Ethel Rosenberg was particularly flimsy and rested solely on Greenglass's testimony that she had typed up messages containing US nuclear secrets.

Greenglass, who was spared execution for his cooperation, publicly admitted in 2001 that his trial testimony regarding Ethel's involvement was false, saying he was pressured by the prosecution to commit perjury -- and did so to protect his wife from prosecution.

Declassified files suggest the FBI (news - web sites) had charged Ethel with a capital crime in the hope that fear of having their two young children orphaned would pressure one or both the Rosenbergs into a confession.

The ploy failed as both continued to protest their innocence right up to the end.

"She called our bluff," William Rogers, the deputy attorney general at the time, said shortly before he died in 2001.

The Rosenbergs were executed despite protests in the United States and abroad, as well as numerous appeals for clemency, including one from Pope Pius XII.

Documents that have since come to light -- including information released after the collapse of the Soviet Union -- have removed most doubts that Julius Rosenberg was involved in some kind of espionage.

But Meeropol, while no longer believing in both his parents' "unequivocal innocence," still argues they were ultimately victims of their time.

"They were unrepentant communists during a period when even repentant communists were in trouble," he told AFP in an interview.

"Neither committed the act for which he and she were executed. And the US government knew all along that Ethel Rosenberg was not an espionage agent of any kind."

Meeropol was brought up by communist friends of his parents and lived anonymously for nearly 20 years before publicly acknowledging his mother and father.

"I have no resentment towards my parents. I never felt they abandoned me for their beliefs," he said. "I'd much rather be the child of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg than the child of David and Ruth Greenglass."

In 1990, Meeropol established the Rosenberg Fund for Children, which provides educational grants for children of activists who have been injured, jailed or lost their jobs as a result of their beliefs.

Meeropol has few illusions that his parents' case will ever be reopened and their convictions quashed.

"Strange things happen in this world, so I don't want to close all hope. But I'm not optimistic," he said.

As for his parents iconic stature, Meeropol has mixed feelings.

"They have been both demonised and canonized," he said.

"This whole thing of idealising people is a tremendous mistake from a political perspective. If we demand perfection of our activists, we're setting ourselves up to be perpetually disillusioned, because people aren't perfect."


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: rosenbergs
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last

1 posted on 06/18/2003 11:13:47 AM PDT by presidio9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: presidio9
Oh yeah, I remember them....


2 posted on 06/18/2003 11:17:13 AM PDT by theDentist (So. This is Virginia.... where are all the virgins?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: theDentist
It sucks to lose your parents, but I have not one bit of sympathy for the Rosenbergs. They are proven tratiors.
3 posted on 06/18/2003 11:22:08 AM PDT by presidio9 (Run Al, Run!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: presidio9
I remember when Greenglass' book was published in 2001. I have never read it, and I'd be interested in the thoughts of those who have. My reaction was that this was a gesture by an old man trying to square himself with family and friends who have long blamed him for "betraying" the Rosenbergs. I did not find his recantation so many years after the fact believable.

As for Ethel's guilt or innocence, I think it is clear that she was guilty at some level -- if not of espionage itself, certainly of knowledge of her husband's espionage. I refuse to believe that any man who loved his wife (and, by all accounts, Julius loved Ethel) could allow her to go to her death if he believed her to be innocent.

5 posted on 06/18/2003 11:26:32 AM PDT by blau993 (Labs for love; .357 for Security.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
I just read the book by Win Ho Lee regarding the witch hunt that the Clintons and fellow travelers persecuted Mr Lee when there was no evidence that he did anything wrong.

I do , however, believe the Rosenbergs were gulty . I lost friends in th cold war that were a direct result of the Communists in our own government. Joseph McCarthy was mostly right about espionage in our government.

Joseph McCarthy exposed a lot of the communists in our own government and he exposed that fact when there was a question about our country falling under the communist banner.
I feel that McCarthy will one day be acknowledged for the good work that he did when our country was in a very perilious situation.
6 posted on 06/18/2003 11:26:56 AM PDT by southland
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: southland
Wen Ho Lee was guilty. Also, McCarthy was right but his methods were wrong. sadly, he set back anti-communists immensely and set us up forever so it is still easy for the fellow travelers to demonize and demogague today simply by screaming about McCarthyism.
7 posted on 06/18/2003 11:34:46 AM PDT by Inkie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
They weren't "activists", they were SPIES!
They were traitors, and got what all traitors deserve.

The idea that Ehtel was framed by her brother is especially silly.
8 posted on 06/18/2003 11:49:16 AM PDT by Redbob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Inkie
The Judge apologized to Mr Lee.

True, I did not hear the evidence but I know from experience how the sorry legal system we have in the United States works. I personally know people in prison who are only guilty of being poor.
Mr Lee was not poor but he was uninformed in the ways of the worst administration in the history of the United States. I have read some of Mr Lee's defence and I accept some of his statements that the information he was suposed to steal was old. I also have a background in nuclear arms.
Justice is something that can be bought as with X42.
9 posted on 06/18/2003 11:51:29 AM PDT by southland
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Redbob
Ehtel
ETHEL
10 posted on 06/18/2003 11:51:29 AM PDT by Redbob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
Who are today's Rosenbergs and why are they not on death row?
11 posted on 06/18/2003 11:51:43 AM PDT by GOP_1900AD (Un-PC even to "Conservatives!" - Right makes right)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: southland; ntrulock
Ping.
13 posted on 06/18/2003 11:53:05 AM PDT by GOP_1900AD (Un-PC even to "Conservatives!" - Right makes right)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
Why didn't Jonathan Pollard and Aldrich Ames receive the same fate?
14 posted on 06/18/2003 11:53:22 AM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
Let's remember Mrs. Rosenberg and they way she may have looked sitting in Old Sparky:


15 posted on 06/18/2003 11:56:00 AM PDT by Michael.SF. ("I think I will vote Republican, the Democrats left a bad taste in my mouth." - M. Lewinsky)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Redbob
There's no doubt they were spies and traitors, and deserved their sentence, but they should've at least been convicted of treason before their execution.
16 posted on 06/18/2003 11:56:55 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: belmont_mark
Today's Rosenbergs are in high places. They accept money from PRC to fund presidential campaigns and libraries.

I believe that Wen HO Lee's description of the what happened to him is mostly accurate.
Wen Ho Lee is guilty of being from Taiwan.
17 posted on 06/18/2003 11:57:00 AM PDT by southland
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
Perhaps because they didn't attempt to help a world power which was the declared enemy of the American way of life?

What do you think?
18 posted on 06/18/2003 12:01:27 PM PDT by headsonpikes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: blau993
>> As for Ethel's guilt or innocence, I think it is clear that she was guilty at some level -- if not of espionage itself, certainly of knowledge of her husband's espionage.

Ethel typed her husband's notes and was the ideologically more committed of the couple. Ethel also recruited her brother. Without him, they wouldn't have had any intelligence to offer. She was worst than Julius.
19 posted on 06/18/2003 12:05:09 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets ("ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS, WE PRINT")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: headsonpikes
Perhaps because they didn't attempt to help a world power which was the declared enemy of the American way of life? What do you think?

Ames helped the Soviet Union, and Pollard's intelligence eventually ended up in Chinese hands. In my book that qualifies for execution.

20 posted on 06/18/2003 12:06:34 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-35 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson