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The Rosenbergs were executed as spies in 1953
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Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (Photo by Roger Higgins)
June 19, 1953: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed for conspiracy to commit espionage. Julius was a member and eventually a leader in the Young Communist League (YCL). Ethel, two years older than Julius, was also a member of YCL, meeting her future husband there in 1936. The couple married in 1939, the same year Julius graduated from City College of New York with an electrical engineering degree. Julius joined the Army Signal Corps in 1940 and worked with radar equipment. Ethel was an actress and singer and also worked as a secretary.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were not the only spies arrested. They were the only ones executed. David Greenglass, Ethel's brother, was sentenced to 15 years and served 10. Harry Gold served 15 years and Morton Sobell served 11 years and 9 months. Klaus Fuchs, also a member of the group but residing in England, served 9 years of his 14 year sentence. The people involved had relayed information to Soviet Russia. They were accused of sending information to the enemy regarding the building of atomic bombs. The Rosenbergs' trial began on March 6, 1951 and they were convicted on March 29. Sentencing took place on April 5.
There was much controversy surrounding the sentencing. Their guilt was not questioned but the punishment was hotly debated. Claims of anti-Semitism and witch hunt tactics have been leveled. Since the end of the Cold War, new documentation has come to light. According to Alexandre Feklisov, the Rosenbergs' handler, Julius was recruited by the KGB on Labor Day 1942 by spymaster Semyon Semenov. The ringleader was recalled to Moscow in 1944 and Feklisov took over the role.
Feklisov said he was given thousands of documents supplied by Julius Rosenberg. Classified reports, including a complete design of a proximity fuse, were passed to the Soviets. A complete drawing of a Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star and secrets from Los Alamos filtered through to Russia. The couple was suspected of passing on vital information about the atomic bomb and US readiness for an atomic confrontation. The judge found the couple guilty of passing technical information as well as substantially influencing the Soviets in regards to the Korean War. They were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
"He didn't understand anything about the atomic bomb and he couldn't help us." - Alexandre Feklisov
"[Julius Rosenberg was] in a conspiracy that delivered to the Soviets classified military and industrial information and what the American government described as the secret to the atomic bomb." - Morton Sobell
"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." - Judge Irving Kaufman
"This death sentence is not surprising. It had to be." - Julius Rosenberg
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