The year was 1950. The Cold War with the Soviet Union was raging, and McCarthyism and the Red Scare were reaching a fever pitch. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a young married couple living in New York with their two small sons, were arrested for Conspiracy to Commit Espionage in what was then dubbed “The Crime of the Century”. Following a trial and conviction, Julius Rosenberg was led on June 19, 1953, followed just moments later by his wife Ethel, to the electric chair, where they were both executed. They were the only spies executed during the Cold War.
Few death-penalty executions can equal the controversy created by the electrocutions of the Rosenbergs, accused of overseeing a spy network that stole American atomic secrets and handing those over to the Soviet Union.
Michael Meeropol, the oldest son, and attorney Craig B. Bluestein, who developed a keen interest in the case while in undergraduate school, share their experiences and views on the case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They are joined by Seton Hall Law Professor Emeritus Mark P. Denbeaux and Anne Sebba, biographer, lecturer and journalist, who have studied and written about the Rosenberg Case.
These materials supplement their discussion, which takes you on a journey from how the prevailing anti-communist hysteria influenced the case, to the arrest, trial and execution of Michael’s parents, to the aftermath and campaign to have Ethel Rosenberg pardoned.
Summary of Contents
- The Rosenberg Case
- Overview of the Seminar with Resources
- The Rosenberg Case: A Summary
- Rosenberg Case Fact Sheet
- The Government’s Hostage: The Conviction and Execution of Ethel Rosenberg
- A Spy Who Turned His Family In”: Revisiting David Greenglass and the Rosenberg Case.
- Matthew Vassar Lecture, September 21, 1995
- Testimony
- Case Law