Spies Like Us: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were spies for the Soviet Union. They were caught, convicted and executed for their betrayal to the United States.

Julius Rosenberg was born on May 12, 1918, in New York City to Harry Harris Rosenberg and Sophie Rosenberg, Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire. His parents worked in the shops of the Lower East Side, as Julius attended Seward Park High School. He became interested in politics at an early age, participating in City College of New York's chapter of the Young Communist League. He graduated from City College in 1939 with a degree in electrical engineering. That same year, he married Ethel Greenglass and became a member of the Communist Party.

Ethel Greenglass was born on September 25, 1915, as the oldest child of Barney and Tessie Greenglass, a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City. She stared out as an aspiring actress and singer, but eventually took a secretarial job at a shipping company. She became involved in labor disputes and joined the Young Communist League, where she met Julius in 1936. They married in 1939 and together they had two sons, Michael and Robert.

In 1940 Julius Rosenberg joined the Army Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, where he worked as an engineer-inspector until 1945. He was fired when the US Army discovered his previous membership in the Communist Party. It was also around this time that he began working as a spy for the Soviet Union. Julius was originally recruited to spy for the interior ministry of the Soviet Union, NKVD, on Labor Day 1942 by former spymaster Semyon Semyonov. 

Julius provided thousands of classified reports from Emerson Radio. He procured information on how to make a proximity fuse, which is an electronic detonator that allows the weapon to explode when it comes within a preset distance of its target. He gave this information to his Soviet handler Alexander Feklisov in late 1944. The fuse was used in a weapon that shot down a U-2 spy plane in 1960 with the plane's pilot, Francis Gary Powers, being captured by the Soviets.

He also supplied 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, which was the first jet fighter used operationally by the United States Army Air Forces.

He recruited sympathetic individuals into NKVD service. Julius reportedly convinced his brother-in-law, David Greenglass, to gather information for the Soviets. David was a member of the U.S. Army, and was stationed at a base in Los Alamos, New Mexico, He was assigned to work on the Manhattan Project, which focused on the development of the atomic bomb.

In February 1944, Julius recruited Manhattan Project engineer, Russell McNutt, who worked on designs for the plants at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. McNutt's employment provided access to secrets about processes for manufacturing weapons-grade uranium.

In 1949, the Soviets detonated their first atomic bomb, this sent the U.S. government on a crusade to find out who had provided the Soviets with the knowledge on how to make the catastrophic weapon.

Even though the U.S. army broke the code Soviets used to send messages, some of which revealed Julius, code name "Liberal" was working with them, he wasn't the first to be caught. His brother-in-law David was and he informed the authorities about Julius activities. He initially left out his sister, Ethel's, involvement. 

On June 17, 1950, Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage. A few weeks later, On August 11, 1950, Ethel was arrested after testifying before a grand jury.

On March 6, 1951, proclaiming their innocence, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's trial began. The prosecution's primary witness was David Greenglass. He said that he turned over a sketch to Julius Rosenberg of the cross-section of an implosion-type atom bomb also called the "Fat Man". This was the nuclear bomb that was detonated over the Japanese city of Nagasaki by the United States on 9 August 1945. David also testified that his sister Ethel,  typed notes containing US nuclear secrets in the Rosenberg apartment in September 1945. When asked about their involvement in the Communist Party or their activities with its members, both Julius and Ethel plead the fifth.

On March 29, 1951, Julius and Ethel were both convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. And on April 5th, the couple was sentenced to death under what is now 18 US Code 794 under section 2 of the Espionage Act of 1917. This code  prohibits transmitting or attempting to transmit to a foreign government information "relating to the national defense." 

The presiding judge, Irving Kaufman, noted that he held the Rosenbergs responsible for espionage and that he considered their crime worse than murder. He stated,

“I consider your crime worse than murder ... 

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. 

Indeed, by your betrayal, you undoubtedly have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country. 

No one can say that we do not live in a constant state of tension. 

We have evidence of your treachery all around us every day for the civilian defense activities throughout the nation are aimed at preparing us for an atom bomb attack."

Julius claimed they were framed.

A series of appeals delayed Julius' and Ethel's execution for more than two years. They also had supporters who requested clemency for the couple from presidents Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Both presidents denied to issue a pardon.

The Rosenbergs were transferred to New York State's Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, for execution. On the night of June 19, 1953, Julius Rosenberg was executed, he died after the first electric shock. Minutes later, his wife died in the same electric chair, however, it didn't go as smoothly with her execution. After she was given the normal course of three electric shocks, attendants removed the strapping and other equipment. When doctor's checked Ethel, they determined that her heart was still beating, so they gave her two more electric shocks. Eyewitnesses reported that smoke rose from her head.

I think they should have just let her live if the first round didn't kill her.

They were the only two American civilians to be executed for espionage-related activity during the Cold War

On June 21st, 500 people attended their funeral in a Jewish cemetery in Brooklyn, while some 10,000 stood outside in the sweltering heat. The night before an all night vigil was held for the couple.

Julius and Ethel's sons, Michael and Robert Meerpool, spent years trying to prove their parents innocence. They and many others believed that Julius and Ethel were victims of the Cold War paranoia going on at the time. But with Rosenberg's college friend, Morton Sobell's, public confesssion in 2008, where he admitted that he had been a spy for the Soviet Union and his detailing of some Julius illicit activities, Michael and Robert concede that their father was a spy. However, they both still believe that their mother was innocent.

In 2015, Michael and Robert called on then US President Barack Obama’s administration to acknowledge that Ethel Rosenberg's conviction and execution was wrongful and issue a proclamation to exonerate her.

Also in 2015, the 100th anniversary of Ethel's birth, 11 members of the New York City Council issued a proclamation stating that "the government wrongfully executed Ethel Rosenberg," and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer officially recognized, "the injustice suffered by Ethel Rosenberg and her family," and declared it, "Ethel Rosenberg Day of Justice in the Borough of Manhattan."

In March 2016, Michael and Robert launched a petition campaign calling on President Obama and US Attorney General Loretta Lynch to formally exonerate Ethel Rosenberg.

As of yet, no US administration has taken action.