An Open Letter to the Rosenberg Son

Front Page Magazine ^ | 6/18/03 | Ronald Radosh

[DPB101]

Radosh needs to write an open letter to Harry Belafonte, Susan Sarandon, Pete Seeger and other famous "activists". They held a memorial for the Rosenbergs and are planning a fundraiser for Robert Meeropol's "Rosenberg Fund for Children.Details on this thread:

Activists Mark 1953 Rosenberg Execution

[thegreatbeast]

Thinking about this I was awash in sadness. These two little boys lost their parents in such an awful way and their plight(?) has been the subject of a lot of literature and even film.
But they persist in refusing to recognize the truth: their parents were traitors. And they, some 50 years later, still are enmeshed in the Red Brigades.
Recently I saw them in a documentary about their ADOPTED father, supposedly some genius NYC public school teacher who wrote the Billie Holiday song "Strange Fruit", yet another communist anthem. Ol' Man River, DeNial, is mighty be river indeed.

[backhoe]

The Rosenberg Case- Spies, Scapegoats, or something inbetween?

[MEG33]

Thanks for the post..

[DPB101]

Well said. It is sad on two levels. Shows what a powerful religion communism is. The cult closed around these two boys and destroyed their lives even further. Seen interviews with the children of prominent Nazis and, while the sadness is there for what their parents did, there is no bitterness toward the world. Robert even admits he is out to get even. Maybe he knows how destructive communism is and that is why he wants to inflict it on America.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

You think the writer was lurking on our thread from the other day?

He's bringing up *similar* points :)

[lawdude]

"But they persist in refusing to recognize the truth: their parents were traitors. And they, some 50 years later, still are enmeshed in the Red Brigades. "

D'ya spoze Chelsea will have similar feelings in 50 years?

[HISSKGB]

Radosh is an exceptional man. He was groomed and nurtured in the same sort of environment as the Rosenbergs but he was smart and moral enough to eventually learn to value the real America instead of trying to destroy it.

[thathamiltonwoman]

Strange Fruit is not a communist anthem. It's about lynching.

[nopardons]

He might lurk here; however, it just proves, once again, that many FREEPERs are very well informed, knowledgeable, and intelligent. Heck, " our " other thread contained even more information. LOL

[nopardons]

Thanks for the ping. Great article and I would hope, that this and all of the info amassed on the other thread, would finally lay to rest, anyone's misguided belief in the Rosenbergs' " innocence " and the government's " wanton cruelty " twards them.

[caspera]

Strange Fruit is about lynching, not communism.

[caspera]

you beat me to it!

[Deb]

"Strange Fruit" is a Communist theme. It was the beginning of the "civil rights" movement to convince blacks they were victims instead of over-comers and to drive them to revolution. Proof is that it was written by a white Communist.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

"Strange Fruit" is a communist anthem? I thought it was about lynching. Am I missing something?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Always helps to read down the thread. That is my impression, as well.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves
Blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
for the rain to gather
for the wind to suck
for the sun to rot
for the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop

[DPB101]

The communists were not friends of blacks. No more than liberals are today. They used them. Those lyrics were designed to incite, nothing more. Trotsky had hopes of a black uprising in America. The CPUSA did everything it could to prevent blacks from staying in or entering the middle class. It was a source of alarm to the party that blacks , in some areas, were as bourgeois as whites.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Well, I'm sure what you say is true, to a degree - but I suppose what I don't understand is why anyone would read anything more into the lyrics than what is there at face value. It's clearly about black bodies hanging from trees. It happened. What is "communist" about saying so?

[js1138]

It was the beginning of the "civil rights" movement to convince blacks they were victims instead of over-comers and to drive them to revolution.

Oh please. I grew up in north Florida. The KKK burned crosses down the street from my house. The local police would have laughed at any complaint by a black against a white. There are still entire streets that show as continuous on maps, but have strange incompleted sections where they would have joined a black neighborhood to a white neighborhood. In my childhood, Jim Crow was the law, not a personal choice. We are damn lucky the civil rights movement was as successful as it was.