Rosenbergs: The Rosenberg Trial

Many people thought that the Rosenbergs did not get a fair trial for a number of reasons. People thought that Ethel shouldn’t have even been prosecuted at all. There Camp 4

was no solid evidence against her and it was obvious that her brother and his wife had turned against her just to save themselves. The trial was a media sensation all over the world and it was difficult to get competent lawyers to handle their cases. Most of the top lawyers did not want to take on the federal government in a spy trial. Fear also kept some scientists from testifying that the information that Greenglass and Julius had given the sovets had already been obtained from other spies at Los Alamos. “Some observers argued
that media bias had influenced the verdict and/or the sentence imposed on the Rosenbergs.” (Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. United States History 12). By today’s standards many believe that Ethel wouldn’t even face jail time much less be convicted and sentenced to death. It is clear that, “Julius and Ethel were vulnerable because of the past political assoucations, and it was all too easy for David and Ruth to name their in-laws.” (Rohash, Milton. 47). Many Jewish-Americans also feared a backlash of anti-semitism over the Rosenbergs convictions. Other people involved got much lighter sentences. Fuchs was stripped of his British citizenship and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He served 9. Martin Sobell served more than 18 years, but was released. David Greenglass, the brother who betrayed his own family spent 10 years in prison. His wife did not face any jail time. Joel Barr fled to Czechoslovakia and assumed a new name. He later made his way back to Russia and worked with Al Sarant who fled to Mexico. The Russians, at first, were very upset with the verdict and outraged with the sentence. They started a long propaganda campaign. They exploited the Rosenbergs suffering. They desperately wanted to pull the international attention away from the Slansky trial that was going on in Czechoslovakia so they made Julius and Ethel Rosenbergs scapegoats of their propaganda war. While the Rosenbergs sat for two years on death row, the Russians put forth their case. While they sat on death row, the Rosenbergs wrote many letters proclaiming their innocence. Their letters showed a dislike of America and its people. They always maintained that they were going to be put to death for their unpopular opinions and not for their spying. They felt that they were being portrayed as martyrs of a Truman and Eisenhower government looking to find opposition to the Soviet Union. From their letters they seemed to enjoy being martyrs and thought that they had secured a place in history for themselves. The trial and conviction of the Rosenbergs, for some people, signified the paranoia of the Cold War and the height of the McCarthyism era. The day of the executions came. There was a thought hundreds of protesters would flood into the city to protest the executions. Demonstrations had been going on all over the world for two years after their conviction and sentence. Rosenbergs sympathizers warened of a march on sing sing prison six months before the executions. They had even sent bomb threats to the judge who did the sentencing. “The little Westchester community in which the dour electrical engineer and his wife were put to death was an armed camp on execution day.” (Lee. 2) All entrances to the prison were barricaded. The whole prison staff was on high alert. The little town of Ossining had only 25 policeman on its staff, but everyone was on duty that day. Fifty state troopers were sent to the railroad station in case protesters came on the trains. All

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the preparation, time, money, and energy spent turned out to be unnecessary. In the end, no one came to protest the Rosenbergs executions. The day was June 20, 1953. The headlines in the newspapers read the next day, “Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the A-Traitors who for two years had tried to out bluff Uncle Sam with the help of fellow Communists all over the world, finally were executed at Sing Sing Prison shortly after eight o’clock last night.” (Lee. 3) Julius was selected to go first. He had been placed in one of the pre-execution cells only forty feet away from the electric chair. As he was placed in the chair a rabbi was present reciting Psalms 23. He was pronounced dead at 8:06 p.m. He died maintaining his and his wife’s inncocence. Then it was Ethel’s turn.
“The only emotion was displayed by Ethel.” (Lee. 3) As shed entered the room she shook hand with mrs. Helen evans, the matron, and then she hugged and kissed her. She made no last remark. She was pronounced dead at 8:11. In summary, the Rosenberg trial was a world wide media event back in 1951. Obviously, early in Julius’ life, he learned not to trust the American justice system. Some of his theories were real, some were not, but he was heavily influenced by stories of injustice. When he met his wife, she also shared a mistrust of the American system and believed that the Soviets had a better way of dealing with the strains of helping a nation get back on its feet. Since the Cold War has ended, many new facts have come up which clearly show that, “the Rosenbergs were Soviet spies, and not minor ones either.” (Robash. 51). They tried their best to steal top atomic secrets from the Manhattan Project. They were successful in turning over to the Russians top military data on both sonar and radar projects. Russia used this information to shoot down American planes in korea and Vietnam. There was solid evidence that Julius had met with his Russian partner, Slexander Feklisov over fifty times during a three year
period. In the fall of 2008, Morton Sobell, who was the co-defendant in the trial, finally admitting that