The Unquiet Death and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg...Ethel (Greenglass) Rosenberg, September 28, 1915 - June 19, 1953 born in New York City to impoverished Jewish parents worked as a

The Unquiet Death and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

Cold War – Rosenberg Timeline

• July 24, 1945 –Truman informs Stalin at Potsdam Conference about A-Bomb

• August 6, 1945 – B-29s dropped a uranium gun-type bomb ("Little Boy") on Hiroshima.

• June 24, 1948 – Berlin Blockade begins.

• August 16, 1948 – Harry Dexter White, former Treasury Department official and architect of World Bank and International Monetary Fund, dies of a heart attack shortly after grand jury investigation of his spying for Soviet Union.

• April 4, 1949 – NATO formed

• May 31, 1949 – Alger Hiss’s perjury (espionage) trial begins

• August 29, 1949 – Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb

• October 14, 1949 – top Communist Party-USA leaders convicted in Dennis case.

• January 21, 1950 – Alger Hiss convicted after second trial for perjury

• February 2, 1950 – Klaus Fuchs, atomic spy, arrested in Canada

The Cold War

Cold War – Rosenberg Timeline

• February 9, 1950 – Senator Joseph McCarthy in a speech in Wheeling West Virginia claims there are 205 Known communists working in the State department

• June 25, 1950 – Korean War begins

• July 17, 1950 – Julius Rosenberg arrested

• March 6, 1951 – trail of Rosenbergs and Martin Sobell begins

• April 5, 1951 – death penalty imposed on Rosenbergs

• November 4, 1952 – Eisenhower elected president (takes office January 20, 1953)

• June 19, 1953 – Rosenbergs executed

• July 27, 1953 – Korean War armistice ends hostilities.

Julius Rosenberg, May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953

born New York City of Polish Jewish immigrant parents

electrical engineering at City College New York

…and joined communist youth organization

Graduates and marries Ethel Greenglass

becomes civilian employee of Army Signal Corps

…and member of Communist Party

Ethel (Greenglass) Rosenberg, September 28, 1915- June 19, 1953

born in New York City to impoverished Jewish parents

worked as a clerk in shipping company after high school

organized workers, fired, joined Communist Party

married Julius 1939, two children, stayed home to care for them

Klaus Fuchs, Physicist and Atomic Spy,December 29, 1911 – January 28, 1988

born in Germany, joins Communist Party, flees Nazis

in Great Britain gets PhD in physics

briefly interned when war breaks out

works on British atomic bomb research

1943 transferred to US, works at Columbiathen Los Alamos on Manhattan Project

Morton Sobell, April 11, 1917 – December 26, 2018

born in NYC to Russian Jewish immigrant parents

meets Julius Rosenberg at City College.;degree in engineering

worked as civilian for Naval Ordinance and GE during war

fled to Mexico with family in 1950, “kidnapped” back to US

Harry Gold, December 11, 1910 – August 28, 1972

born in Switzerland, parents Ukrainian Jews, family moved toUS in 1914

high school and two-years in college during Depression

work Pennsylvania SugarCompany

recruited to Communist Party by former classmate, passed industrialsecrets

Judge Irving Robert Kaufman, June 24, 1910 –February 1, 1992

born of Jewish parents, educated inCatholic schools (Fordham Law)

worked in various federal prosecutorpositions

President Truman appoints him a federaljudge

Note: later in life, he headed an appeals court that quashed a deportation order against John Lennon for his British conviction for hashish possession

Emanuel Hirsch Bloch, May 12, 1901 – January 30, 1954

City College, Columbia University

private practice, then WWII service

retained in 1949 by left-wing Civil Rights Congress to defended African American defendants charged with murder in Trenton New Jersey

The Trail to Julius Rosenberg

Doug Linder’s FamousTrials recreation of probable connectionsamong Rosenberg case Soviet figures and American spies

Arrests

February 1950 - Karl Fuchs arrested in England

May 1950 – Harry Gold arrested because of Fuchs’s confession

June 1950 – David Greenglass questioned about spying and confesses

July 1950 – Julius Rosenberg arrested based on David Greenglass’sconfession

Decision to Arrest and Charge Ethel Rosenberg• "There is no question" that "if Julius Rosenberg would furnish details of his

extensive espionage activities, it would be possible to proceed against other individuals. [P]roceeding against his wife might serve as a lever in this matter." J. Edgar Hoover

Trial for Espionage

Irving Saypol, prosecutor, assisted by Roy Cohnv. Emanuel Bloch, defense lawyer.

Jury: 10 white males, one woman, one African American male

Prosecution: David and Ruth Greenglass, Harry Gold

Defense: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

David Greenberg’s Sketch of Lens Mold

Jury Verdict

Two days and Eight Hours – only question, putting a mother to death

Judge Kaufman’s Sentencing Statement

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. The immediate family is brought to grief and when justice is meted out the chapter is closed. But in your case, 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.

Supreme Court Intervention?

Felix Frankfurter William O. Douglas

Questions Left Unansweredinappropriate collusion between FBI and Prosecutor

Inappropriate prosecutorial actions

statute used to try Rosenbergs

severity of sentence of Ethel Rosenberg

FBI-prosecutorial “conspiracy so immense”

International Protest over Pending Execution

Execution

Venona

Rearguing the Trial in Print

The Trial as Fiction

Trial as Autobiography

The Trial in Film

The Unquiet Death and Ethel and Julius RosenbergCold War – Rosenberg TimelineThe Cold WarCold War – Rosenberg TimelineJulius Rosenberg, May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953Ethel (Greenglass) Rosenberg, �September 28, 1915- June 19, 1953Klaus Fuchs, Physicist and Atomic Spy, December 29, 1911 – January 28, 1988Morton Sobell, �April 11, 1917 – December 26, 2018Harry Gold, December 11, 1910 – August 28, 1972Judge Irving Robert Kaufman, June 24, 1910 – February 1, 1992Emanuel Hirsch Bloch, �May 12, 1901 – January 30, 1954The Trail to Julius RosenbergArrestsDecision to Arrest and Charge Ethel RosenbergTrial for EspionageDavid Greenberg’s Sketch of Lens MoldJury VerdictJudge Kaufman’s Sentencing Statement Supreme Court Intervention?Questions Left UnansweredInternational Protest over Pending ExecutionExecutionVenonaRearguing the Trial in PrintThe Trial as FictionTrial as AutobiographyThe Trial in Film