Siegel was one of Kaufmans last law clerks, starting in 1991 and serving until the judges death in February 1992. In evaluating Kaufmans appeals court tenure, Siegel notes but does not discuss his enduring contribution to antitrust law: a lengthy decision for the Second Circuit in Berkey v. Kodak in 1979. The Rosenbergs, who insisted they were innocent, were found guilty. 2009 Vassiliev notebooks based on KGB archives. How on earth did they triumph over such a traumatic childhood? Kaufman lobbied to try the case, exercised his discretion at times to support the government at trial, and sentenced Ethel Rosenberg to die even though her role in the conspiracy was minor. Wer sich registriert ist ein Profi! That stay resulted from intervention in the case by Fyke Farmer, a Tennessee lawyer whose efforts had previously been scorned by the Rosenbergs' attorney, Emanuel Hirsch Bloch. After being interviewed this second time, he said that he had given this information to Julius in the living room of the Rosenbergs' New York apartment. Or my mother or my father, OK? . [11] By this time, following the invasion by Nazi Germany in June 1941, the Soviet Union had become an ally of the Western powers, which included the United States after Pearl Harbor. "[67] He said he gave false testimony to protect himself and his wife, Ruth, and that he was encouraged by the prosecution to do so. In Tony Kushners play Angels In America, Ethel haunts Cohn. He flattered publisher Punch Sulzberger and executive editor A. M. Rosenthal while pressing its reporters for coverage. [49], The funeral services were held in Brooklyn on June 21. I wonder if theres a little voice in the back of my head thats saying, You know, Julius, you really shouldnt have done it, because you had kids, he says with some effort. In those days, that wasnt the thought process. The brothers struggles began on 17 July 1950 when their father, Julius, was arrested in the familys home on New Yorks Lower East Side on suspicion of espionage. The Rosenbergs were named in them. ", Rosenberg Fund for Children Fr den redaktionellen Aufbau unsere webseiten suchen wir freie Redakteure, die fachspezifisch Ihr know how zum Thema Links online zur Verfgung stellen mchten. In reality, as Sebba reveals in her book, she was a particularly devoted mother, with a progressive interest in child psychology. The Rosenbergs are still the only Americans ever put to death in peacetime for espionage, and Ethel is the only American woman killed by the US government for a crime other than murder. She became involved in labor disputes and joined the Young Communist League, where she met Julius in 1936. [30], On March 29, 1951, the Rosenbergs were convicted of espionage. In total, its a disturbing portrait. In addition, Siegel says, as the son of immigrant parents, Kaufman was sympathetic to legal claims made by various forgotten [men]at least those who did not betray their country, as Kaufman believed the Rosenbergs had. He said that he and Julius had been spies together, and confirmed that Julius had not helped the Russians build the bomb. Yale Law School Professor Harold Hongju Koh calls the latter decision, in Filrtiga v. Pea-Irala, the Brown v. Board of Education of human rights litigation. The just-disclosed grand jury testimony of David Greenglass, the government's star witness in the 1951 espionage trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, raises new questions about whether the prosecutors suborned perjury.The Rosenbergs were convicted and executed. Some prosecutors believed that both Julius and Ethel Rosenberg should be sentenced to death, while Hoover, among others, felt that Ethel should be spared. Perhaps just as importantly, they have been there for one another as adults, as more evidence about their parents case has trickled out, and theyve had to keep reframing their own past. Tender. [62] Ethel did not have a codename;[24] however, KGB messages which were contained in the Venona project's Vassiliev files, and which were not made public until 2009,[63][64] revealed that both Ethel and Julius had regular contact with at least two KGB agents and were active in recruiting not only Ethel's brother David Greenglass, but also another Manhattan Project spy named Russell McNutt. It was the most high-profile espionage trial of the Cold War, and Irving R. Kaufman and his liberal and controversial legacy remain a source of debate. While Siegel does not excuse or apologize for Kaufmans misconduct in Rosenberg, he puts the judges actions in a biographical and political context. Angebote und Ansprechpartner finden Sie bei suche-profi.de unter der jeweiligen fachspezifischen Profi Rubik. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a Jewish-American couple with two young sons, were arrested by the FBI in 1950 for conspiracy to commit espionage. [46] Bloch asked for more time, filing a complaint that execution on the Sabbath offended the defendants' Jewish heritage. [45], The execution was scheduled for 11p.m. that evening, during the Sabbath, which begins and ends around sunset. The Rosenberg boys: The Cold War's most famous orphans 05:50. Among other things, Kaufman wrote decisions that vindicated criminal defendants constitutional rights, updated the insanity defense, reformed prisons, upheld the rights of conscientious objectors drafted to serve in the Vietnam War, protected John Lennon from deportation, and opened the federal courts to claims of human rights violations by foreign torturers. Get a weekly dose of our best stories in your inbox. Du Bois wrote a poem titled "The Rosenbergs", which began "Crucify us, Vengeance of God, as we crucify two more Jews" and ended "Who has been crowned on yonder stair? Warum brauchen wir Link? Siegel notes that there was an element of self-promotion in Kaufmans rulings: At the same time Kaufman was protecting the press, he was energetically courting it, he writes, nowhere more so than the Times. After our initial interview, I end up speaking to them, together and separately, several times over the course of a month, mainly because I have so many questions, but also because they are so delightful to talk to: wildly intelligent, always interesting, completely admirable. They were accused of sending a rough sketch of the atomic bomb to Russia. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged the Rosenbergs and several other defendants, including David Greenglass, with conspiracy to commit espionage. But when describing the recruitment of Ruth, the cable said, Liberal and his wife recommend her as an intelligent and clever girl.. [The government] took a small-fry spy and framed him to be an atomic spy, is Michaels take on his father. 32), executed by the federal government of the United States, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, National Committee to Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case, Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Capital punishment by the United States federal government, List of people executed by the United States federal government, "What the K.G.B. [72], The notebooks make clear that the KGB considered Julius Rosenberg an effective agent and his wife Ethel a supporter of his work. After his brother-in-law was assigned to Los Alamos, Julius persuaded Greenglass and his wife Ruth to pass along what he knew about the bomb to Julius or other intermediaries to share with the Soviet Union in 1944 and 1945. Ethel has long been portrayed as a cold woman, one who, as Kaufman said in his sentencing, loved communism more than her children. The Rosenbergs were executed at Ossining, NY They continue to campaign for Ethel to be posthumously legally exonerated. It made me want to hug and kiss him all the time, says Michael. I think she knew [what her husband was doing], but for that you dont kill people.. Viele Fragen und fr alles gibt es hier Yet there is more to Kaufman than the Rosenberg case, as Martin J. Siegel shows in his excellent biography, Judgment and Mercy: The Life and Turbulent Times of the Judge Who Condemned the Rosenbergs. Like many on the left, the Meeropols were shocked by Trumps victory. Indeed, when she and her husband, Julius, were charged with espionage, attempts were made by their fellow "leftists" to link their prosecution with antisemitism. Then theres the question that baffled officials at the time, and has become the defining mystery about her: why did Ethel choose to stay silent and die with Julius, over staying with her children? But then I realised this was as close to a smoking gun we would ever get, because it said that Julius and Ethel didnt do the thing they were killed for. Lovingly, Daddy and Mommy. Just after 8pm that day, the Rosenbergs were executed. in Ihren eigenen Shop an! Ethel Rosenberg underwent three successive shocks, only to have two amazed physicians report her still alive. Its easy today to criticise them, but these were people who grew up in poverty during the Depression and saw the rise of fascism. In 1990, he founded the Rosenberg Fund for Children, a nonprofit foundation that provides support for children of targeted liberal activists, and youth who are targeted as activists. Michael, aged 10, left, and Robert, six, with their grandmother Sophie Rosenberg, at a demonstration to try to save their parents just days before their execution in June 1953. After he died in 1992, the opening sentence of the Timess article began: Judge Irving R. Kaufman, who gained national attention in 1951 as the judge who sentenced Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair But his extensive efforts to develop a record as more than just the judge in that case were rewarded, for the rest of the sentence read, and who wrote landmark decisions in First Amendment, antitrust and civil rights cases for more than 30 years on the Federal bench, died on Saturday night in the Mount Sinai Medical Center.. In 1996, David Greenglass gave an interview in which he finally admitted he lied about his sister: I told them the story and left her out of it, right? They were orphaned by the executions and were not adopted by their many aunts or uncles, although they initially spent time under the care of their grandmothers and in a children's home. As a result of this new testimony, all charges against Ruth Greenglass were dropped. June 9, 2021 12:48 PM EDT O n June 19, 1953, Ethel Rosenberg was electrocuted, having been found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage on behalf of Robert, centre, and Michael, right, with their adoptive mother Anne Meeropol: Living with Abel and Anne, it felt like we won the lottery., ichael and Roberts campaign for their mothers exoneration was struck a major blow with the election of Donald Trump, whose. . As a historian, Sebba has built up a reputation for writing in particular about women, such as Wallis Simpson. Was macht so ein Link? Hier finden Sie Tipps und Tricks - alles rund um das Thema Links. suche-profi.de Ihre fachspezifische Dienstleistung Many hundreds of people filed past the biers. After she was given three electric shocks, attendants removed the strapping only to have doctors determine that Ethel's heart was still beating. Bewerben Sie sich bei uns als freier Redakteur - als redax-networker - fr das Thema Links! We have dealt with so many struggles, so we are very enmeshed, says Michael. David originally had said that he had passed the atomic data he had collected to Julius on a New York street corner. At first, of course, you will grieve bitterly for us, but you will not grieve alone. While the author shares stories and impressions from that time, most of the book is based on interviews and research, including a thorough review of Kaufmans papers at the Library of Congress. None of those accused of stealing atomic secrets had any training in physics or any other field that would allow them to understand the workings of the Manhattan Project. A rabbi had reportedly asked to Initiated when the Soviet Union was an ally of the U.S., the program continued during the Cold War when it was considered an enemy. Initially, David testified that his sister had not been involved in any espionage. When their parents were arrested, Michael, always a challenging child (Thats putting it kindly, he says), acted out even more, whereas Robert withdrew into himself. And I think he thought if he confessed to anything they would kill him, so denying everything was the best option. Robert developed a strong physical resemblance to Ethel. "[51], The Rosenbergs were the only American civilians executed for espionage during the Cold War. Sie ersparen sich zuknftig viel Zeit fr Angebote They decided to put the exposure to good use by campaigning for their parents. In early 1950, Scotland Yard arrested Klaus Fuchs, a German-born British scientist who worked at Los Alamos, for sharing information about the atomic bomb with the Soviet Union. In addition, Kaufman allowed the government to present evidence of the Rosenbergs Communist views on the theory that it would establish the couples motive for conspiring to commit espionage. Sebba tells me that she asked the same thing of Elizabeth Phillips, the child therapist Ethel used to consult, whom she interviewed before her death. Ethel Rosenberg by Anne Sebba is published by Orion at 20. The governments views were muddled, Siegel notes. [18][19], On July 17, 1950, Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage[20] based on David Greenglass's confession. Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (ne Greenglass; September 28, 1915 June 19, 1953) were an American couple who were accused of spying for the Soviet Union, including providing top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs. Indeed, by your betrayal you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country. The American Civil Liberties Union refused to acknowledge any violations of civil liberties in the case. eine andere Farbe hat oder unterstrichen ist. [52][53][54], Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, investigated how much the Soviet spy ring helped the USSR to build their bomb. But there was little about Ethel. Sie haben Spass am schreiben? His wife Helen, described by one former law clerk as warm, forthright, unpretentious . The family moved to the Lower East Side by the time Julius was 11. After all, Greenglass was arrested a month before Julius, so they had plenty of time to flee the country, but didnt. - Sei es die Anfahrtkosten zum Projekt I mean, I dont sleep with my sister, you know. He added, I frankly think my wife did the typing, but I dont remember. It is possible that Ethel helped to recruit Ruth and David, but they needed little encouragement. Myles Lane, a member of the prosecution team, said that the case against Ethel Rosenberg was "not too strong", but that it was "very important that she be convicted too, and given a stiff sentence. Agent Plays Down Atomic Role Of Rosenbergs", "The September 21, 1944 cable: The Rosenbergs and the Greenglasses", "In This True-Life Spy Story, It's America vs. Russia, the Early Years", "Grasping at Straws to Try to Exonerate Ethel Rosenberg", "Why Ethel Rosenberg Should Not Be Exonerated", "Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America", "David Greenglass, the Brother Who Doomed Ethel Rosenberg, Dies at 92", "Witness Changed Her Story During Rosenberg Spy Case", "For First Time, Figure in Rosenberg Case Admits Spying for Soviets", "Father Was a Spy, Sons Conclude With Regret", "My Parents Were Executed Under the Unconstitutional Espionage Act", "The Meeropol Brothers: Exonerate Our Mother, Ethel Rosenberg", "The Meeropol brothers: Exonerate our mother, Ethel Rosenberg", "The Rosenberg boys: The Cold War's most famous orphans", "Sen. Warren joins call for Ethel Rosenberg's exoneration", "Warren, Neal ask Obama to consider pardoning Ethel Rosenberg" (, "Flashback: Hear Bob Dylan's Lost 1983 Song 'Julius and Ethel', "Billy Joel We Didn't Start the Fire Lyrics", "David Greenglass grand jury testimony transcript", "Secret Grand Jury Testimony From Ethel Rosenberg's Brother Is Released", Learn how and when to remove this template message, Guide to the Playscript about the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Espionage Trial, An Interactive Rosenberg Espionage Ring Timeline and Archive. Ivy Meeropol remembers visiting the AIDS Quilt on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1987. [8], Ethel Greenglass was born on September 28, 1915, to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City. We wish we might have had the tremendous joy and gratification of living our lives out with you. They wrote a memoir, We Are Your Sons, and sued the FBI and CIA under the Freedom of Information Act, obtaining more than 300,000 once secret documents which they believed proved their parents innocence. [25], On August 11, Ethel Rosenberg testified before a grand jury. Equally significantly, the Korean war had just begun, which was seen by the US as a fight to stop communism destroying the American way of life. The cable also makes clear that the sister's husband is involved enough in espionage to have his own codename ("Antenna" and later "Liberal"). This sounds to me like a son hoping that their parents at least tried to protect their sons. Finally, Siegel notes, the judges pursuit of justice combined with his feverishly active personality, unable to rest until [his] wish became fact. Judicial restraint was something of an oxymoron for Kaufman. [68], Numerous articles were published in 2008 related to the Rosenberg case. It was further amended on 13 January 2022 to clarify that Morton Sobell served 18 years in a number of different prisons, not just Alcatraz as an earlier version indicated. The Rosenbergs were convicted on March 29, 1951, and sentenced to death by Judge Irving Kaufman on April 5, 1951. [24], After the publication of an investigative series in the National Guardian and the formation of the National Committee to Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case, some Americans came to believe both Rosenbergs were innocent or had received too harsh a sentence, particularly Ethel. Von Profis fr Profis. This dynamic still holds true: Robert is more reserved and I tend to fly off the handle, says Michael, 78, a retired economics professor, whose eyes spark with fire when he recalls old battles. Wer Benutzt Links? "[70], He said that he thought the hand-drawn diagrams and other atomic-bomb details that were acquired by David Greenglass and passed to Julius were of "little value" to the Soviet Union, and were used only to corroborate what they had already learned from the other atomic spies. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Robert says that when he thinks of his family before his parents were arrested he has, this feeling of a golden age, of a wonderful loving family before it was ripped apart. But Julius and Ethel seemed to have little understanding of the danger they were putting the family in. A Cold Warrior, the judge said at the sentencing hearing that the U.S. was engaged in a life and death struggle with a completely different system. As the son of Jewish immigrants, Kaufman was determined to show his loyalty to the nation that had provided him with the opportunity to succeed rather than his co-religionists who had betrayed it. They were persuaded to change their original stories. All other appeals were also unsuccessful. [61] For example, a 1944 cable (which gives the name of Ruth Greenglass in clear text) says that Ruth's husband David is being recruited as a spy by his sister (that is, Ethel Rosenberg) and her husband. The Rosenbergs made a public statement: "By asking us to repudiate the truth of our innocence, the government admits its own doubts concerning our guilt we will not be coerced, even under pain of death, to bear false witness". Online Documents. But in 2008 he finally accepted them when Morton Sobell who had been convicted for espionage along with the Rosenbergs and served 18 years in Alcatraz and other prisons gave an interview to the New York Times. She told me it was down to three things, Sebba says. [78] In October 2016, both Michael and Robert Meeropol spoke with Anderson Cooper in an interview which aired on 60 Minutes. Robert and Michael are optimistic that President Biden will look favourably at their campaign to exonerate their mother, Ethel Rosenberg. [35], Across the world, especially in Western European capitals, there were numerous protests with picketing and demonstrations in favor of the Rosenbergs, along with editorials in otherwise pro-American newspapers, and a plea for clemency from the Pope. At the trial, under Cohns questioning, David testified that in September 1945 he gave Julius a sketch and description of the atomic bomb, and that Ethel was deeply involved in the discussions between them. Despite some public outrage and failed appeals, the Rosenbergs were executed by electric chair at Sing Sing Prison on June 19, 1953. [12] Perl supplied Feklisov, under Rosenberg's direction, with thousands of documents from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, including a complete set of design and production drawings for Lockheed's P-80 Shooting Star, the first U.S. operational jet fighter. Ethel, he said, had nothing to do with this, she was completely innocent. We always had a good time on the prison visits: singing, talking, enjoying ourselves, says Michael. Robby and I think that when our father got involved in helping the Soviets, our mother stayed out of it so that if he got arrested, she could take care of us, says Michael. He was one of the youngest federal judges in the nation. EL Doctorows 1971 novel, The Book Of Daniel, the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact, a songwriter whose biggest hit was Strange Fruit, original mentor was none other than Roy Cohn. (Kaufman did not second-guess his decisions in that case but was very sensitive to criticism of them.) But we now know how important those early years of life are, and Ethel must have given those two boys so much in those years that it lasted all their lives. The initial allegations against Ethel were that she had a discussion with Julius Rosenberg and others in November 1944, and had a discussion with Julius Rosenberg, David Greenglass and others in January 1945 in other words, that she talked to her husband and brother. Neither offered any further information. But for the serendipity of Ethels younger brother, David Greenglass, being assigned to work as a machinist at Los Alamos, the New Mexico laboratory where the United States developed the atomic bomb, neither Julius nor Ethel ever would have been charged with a capital crime. [17], On June 15, 1950, David Greenglass was arrested by the FBI for espionage and soon confessed to having passed secret information on to the USSR through Gold. Rob and I are unusual siblings in so many ways. Nevertheless, she was charged because, in the words of FBI Director Hoover, proceedings against [Juliuss] wife will serve as a lever to get him to talk. [71], In 2009, extensive notes collected from KGB archives were made public in a book published by Yale University Press: Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, written by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev; Vassiliev's notebooks included KGB comments concerning Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Ethel was executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, on June 19, 1953, just minutes after her husband was put to death. She was the mastermind of this whole conspiracy, assistant prosecutor Roy Cohn told the judge. Her death was so brutal that eyewitnesses reported that smoke rose out of her head. Two years later, Siegel writes, a fatal want of mercy in Kaufmans most famous case cast shadows he could never outrun.. Her attorney asked the U.S. commissioner to parole her in his custody over the weekend, so that she could make arrangements for her two young children. They were sentenced to death on April 5 under Section 2 of the Espionage Act of 1917,[31] which provides that anyone convicted of transmitting or attempting to transmit to a foreign government "information relating to the national defense" may be imprisoned for life or put to death. forces. On August 17, the grand jury returned an indictment alleging 11 overt acts. My wife is my wife. Kaufmans judicial record follows the path of liberalism from the statist-centered philosophy of the early days of the Cold War to the individual-oriented 1960s and 70s to its defensive posture after the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Decades later, he would be known on the federal bench by his initials, IRK. And Intelligent" and the course they took was one of "courage and heroism. This article was amended on 22 June 2021 to describe the Los Alamos laboratorys focus as atomic weapons rather than atomic power. In a draft of written remarks addressed to friends, Kaufman commented, My dream came true and sounded a patriotic note: This can only happen in America.. David quickly admitted his guilt, and his lawyer advised him that the best thing he could do for himself, and to give his wife immunity, would be to turn in someone else. She was guilty of supporting her husband, Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy, tells me. [11], In February 1944, Rosenberg succeeded in recruiting a second source of Manhattan Project information, engineer Russell McNutt, who worked on designs for the plants at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Red Resurrection? As noted earlier, there now is a consensus that Julius Rosenberg ran a spy ring that provided information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union while Ethel, at most, supported her husbands efforts. Documents relating to the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Case, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, A statement by the Rosenberg's sons in support of their exoneration, An Interview with Robert Meeropol about the adoption, National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case, Annotated bibliography for Ethel Rosenberg from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues, Annotated bibliography for Julius Rosenberg from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues, The Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), Rosenberg Son: "My Parents Were Executed Under the Unconstitutional Espionage Act", History on Trial: The Rosenberg Case in E.L. Doctorow's, Julius Rosenberg at court sentenced to death, The WSWS speaks to Julius and Ethel Rosenbergs son An interview with Robert Meeropol, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg&oldid=1151973397, American people convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, Pages containing links to subscription-only content, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2021, Articles with failed verification from November 2022, Articles with French-language sources (fr), Wikipedia external links cleanup from October 2020, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Images of the Rosenbergs are engraved on a memorial in, The execution is explored in great detail and serves as the premise of, Clune, Lori. But yes, I have some ambivalences., Michael, who has clearer memories of his parents, sees his fathers behaviour differently: Should a man not have children if he goes off to war? On June 19, 1953, hours before their execution, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg wrote one final letter to their two young sons: Michael, age 10 and Robby, age six. Gordon Dean, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, said: "It looks as though Rosenberg is the kingpin of a very large ring, and if there is any way of breaking him by having the shadow of a death penalty over him, we want to do it." The same qualities that enabled Kaufman to become a federal judge at a young agerestless ambition, domineering assertiveness that sometimes reflected insecurity rather than its absenceexacted a toll on his family. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sent to the electric chair for being Soviet spies, but their sons have spent decades trying to clear their mothers name. The government and FBI hoped that, too. We want to be people who take charge of our lives, he says. "My wife is more important to me than my sister. Ethels innocence raises more questions than it settles. WebEthel Rosenberg, convicted in 1953 alongside her husband for conspiracy to divulge atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, became the second woman in the United States to be In 1995, the Venona papers were declassified. With their extended family still unwilling to look after them (People later said to me, A Jewish family and no family members took in the kids? These were messages sent between Soviet intelligence agencies that had been intercepted and decrypted by US counterintelligence from 1943 to 1980. Kaufman had the support of New Yorks Republican Senators (Jacob Javits and Kenneth Keating), Attorney General Robert Kennedy knew Kaufman from his presiding over a school desegregation case in New Rochelle and well-known organized crime trial involving more than twenty criminal defendants, and even Judge Hand supported his nomination. Julius emphasized that, as an ally of the U.S., the Soviet Union should have the atomic bomb too.