DOCSLIB.ORG

Opening the Rosenberg Files

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Opening the Rosenberg Files Opening the Rosenberg Files ministration (formerly the Atomic as en accompice of our father and spies. The Government never contested By Michael Meeropol Energy Commission). thoroughly investigated, hes no F.B.t. their denials with esplonape nu perjury Knowing that the New Mexico file file if the entories are to be believed. indictments. Mr. Perl was indicted for and Robert Meeropol on David Greenglase, the chief prosecu- Clearly, trip F.B.I. is hiding signifi- perjury unrelated to espionage, -__•--- ■ ••••• • tion witness, had been "pulped" in cant amounts of its Rosenberg files We reiterate that our FOIL for the SPRINGFIELD. Mass.---Contrary' to 1939, Judge June L. Green of the although Justice Department press re- files has only just begun. the impression one might get from the Federal District Court issued an in- leases are implying that virtually all The Government is resistin4 compli- press, our Freedom of Information Act junction against the defendant agen- the files are being reldaeed. ance with the law because, P.,. Jedge request fdr the files on our parents, cies that barred any further destruc- The American people must know William B. Jones of the Federal Dis- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, has tion of documents. that the 29,000 F.B.I. twee represent trict Court in Washington recently brought about the release of less than She rejected requests for up to eight only -10 percent of all the estntated said, "The F.B.I. just doesn't like the 30 percent—a conservative estimate-- months Of delays, ordered detailed files in all Government agencies—only Freedom of information Act." • of the Federal Bureau of investigation inventories, and set a timetable for 30 percent of what the F.B.I, has You can well imagine why, con- material, Every page has been released the release of material for which none admitted to having. Until we all eee eiderieg what we strnnerty believe it is at the Government's discretion. of the Act's exemptions were claimed. wheat they do not wish to release (re- hiding in our parents' case. • In other words, the Government is New efforts to stop us came concur- member Richard M. Nixon's edited still determined to control what rently with the production of the- transcripts?) the story of the Rosen- Americans can and cannot see about inventories. berg-Sobel case will remain covered the Rosenberg-Morton Sobel( caee. It The Energy Research and Develop- up. ment Administration asked the court 15 fighting tooth and nail to prevent Some material that. the Government to declare that the Energy Administra- the release of most of the Rosenberg willingly released has been 'con- tion had fully complied with the Act, files. sidered by some observers as damag- even though it had refused to release ing our claim that our parents were After myths of Government stall- some of the most important material. framed. ing on our initial requests, in l975 we The other agencies asked that their initialed a Freedom of Information inventories he declared complete • and The F.B.I. says our father told one Act lawsuit in Federal District Court that we be blocked from investigating Jerome Eugene Tartakow of his in Washington against. the F.B.I., Cen- if this were true. espionage activities white they were tral Intelligeuce Agency, Department When the F.B.I. released 29,000 incarcerated tngether before and dur- of Justice, United States Attorneys Of- pages with many blanked-out sections, ing the Rosenberg-Sobell trial. But ac- fice, for the Southern District of New it sought briefly to -charge art out- cording to a 1956 Justice Department York and for New Mexico, and the rageous $20,000 "search" fee hut pub- memorandum, Mr. Tartakow was of Energy Research and Development Ad- lic and press pressure forced a retreat. "unknown reliability." The Govern- However, less well publicized has ment did not use him against our Michael Mcernpol teaches economics been its exemption claims on 10,000 father at the trial. The memorandum at Western New England College, where complete pages and approximately indicated that five years of attempts Robert Meeropol taught anthropology. one-third of the 29,000 pages. to substantiate Mr. Tartakow's fan- Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were Even more striking are its affidavits tasies had only succeeded in refuting convicted on March 29, 1951, of con- that admit that the Rosenberg "main them. spiracy to commit espionage by com- file"' holds at least 73,000 pages, over Mr. Tartakow's mention of two municating information on the manu- half of which are not covered by the alleged members of the "spy .1117." facture of atomic bombs to the Soviet "complete" inventories it claims to William Perl and Ann Sidorovleb, Union. They were electrocuted in have filed! further-destroyed his story's credibil- 1953. For example, William Perl, accused ity. Under oath they denied being .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Want to Start a Revolution? Gore, Dayo, Theoharis, Jeanne, Woodard, Komozi
    Want to Start a Revolution? Gore, Dayo, Theoharis, Jeanne, Woodard, Komozi Published by NYU Press Gore, Dayo & Theoharis, Jeanne & Woodard, Komozi. Want to Start a Revolution? Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle. New York: NYU Press, 2009. Project MUSE., https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/10942 Access provided by The College Of Wooster (14 Jan 2019 17:31 GMT) 4 Shirley Graham Du Bois Portrait of the Black Woman Artist as a Revolutionary Gerald Horne and Margaret Stevens Shirley Graham Du Bois pulled Malcolm X aside at a party in the Chinese embassy in Accra, Ghana, in 1964, only months after hav- ing met with him at Hotel Omar Khayyam in Cairo, Egypt.1 When she spotted him at the embassy, she “immediately . guided him to a corner where they sat” and talked for “nearly an hour.” Afterward, she declared proudly, “This man is brilliant. I am taking him for my son. He must meet Kwame [Nkrumah]. They have too much in common not to meet.”2 She personally saw to it that they did. In Ghana during the 1960s, Black Nationalists, Pan-Africanists, and Marxists from around the world mingled in many of the same circles. Graham Du Bois figured prominently in this diverse—sometimes at odds—assemblage. On the personal level she informally adopted several “sons” of Pan-Africanism such as Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, and Stokely Carmichael. On the political level she was a living personification of the “motherland” in the political consciousness of a considerable num- ber of African Americans engaged in the Black Power movement.
    [Show full text]
  • Helen Sobell .Pdf
    Love, Betrayal, and the Cold War: An American Story This is the Accepted version of the following publication Deery, Phillip (2017) Love, Betrayal, and the Cold War: An American Story. American Communist History, 16 (1-2). 65 - 87. ISSN 1474-3892 The publisher’s official version can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14743892.2017.1360630 Note that access to this version may require subscription. Downloaded from VU Research Repository https://vuir.vu.edu.au/34767/ Love, Betrayal and the Cold War: an American story Phillip Deery I wait for your touch to spring into life Your absence is pain and torment and strife (Helen Sobell, “Empty Hours”, 1956) 1 Shall I languish here forgotten On the perjured word of one Or will valiant men and women Cry for justice to be done? (Edith Segal, “Thirty Years: A Ballad for Morton Sobell”, 1959) Introduction This article investigates, for the first time, two decades of political activism by one woman, Helen Sobell. Using previously untapped archives, it reveals how she waged a relentless struggle on behalf of her husband, Morton Sobell. She guaranteed that he did not “languish here forgotten”. Sobell was sentenced in 1951 to thirty years imprisonment after being convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg of conspiracy to commit espionage. This is a story, in part, about how their relationship unfolded through four prisons, eight Supreme Court appeals2 and nearly nineteen years of incarceration. It is also a story of harassment from the state, to which her FBI files abundantly attest. Ultimately, it is a story of political mobilization, stretching from the United States to Europe.
    [Show full text]
  • Rosenberg-Sobell Panel Discussion Speakers
    Rosenberg­Sobell Panel Discussion Speakers: Miriam Schneir, Michael Meeropol, Robert Meeropol, and Dave Alman [BACKGROUND NOISE] Moderator: Good afternoon, everybody. Just a couple announcements. One, this is the Rosenberg Panel. Second, if you have a cell phone, please turn it off. And third, and third, there is some literature here from the Rosenberg Fund for Children and for the National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case. So after the session, please take an opportunity to, to gather it if you would like. In one of the more than glorious moments, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover told the world that Ethel and Julius Rosenberg committed the crime of the century. What is clear to historians and others is that this together with the Sacco Vanzetti case, these trials and others, certainly were the trials of the century. The Rosenberg case was the centerpiece, the elaborate Cold War strategy of turning the United States away from the prevailing view that fascism was the main threat to humanity. The notion that the world was about to be engulfed by communism. It was also centerpiece of an effort to derail, if not destroy, the New Deal Coalition, and to stifle dissent and activism. Crucial to this far-flung ideological effort was the necessity to equate communism and dissent in general with treason. That proof was supplied by the Rosenberg-Sobell case, who purportedly told how the secret of the atom bomb had been stolen and given to the Russians. Over the last few years, there have been new revelations concerning this case. And we have an amazing panel today that will be both responding to these revelations as well as making some of their own.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Meeropol Was Only Six Years Old When His Parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Were Executed for Espionage
    Robert Meeropol was only six years old when his parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed for espionage. Now Meeropol is fighting to exonerate his mother while continuing to build his life’s work — an organization that provides support for the children of targeted activists. by BRIAN SHORT 30 LSA Magazine / SPRING 2016 PHOTO Space arrow minimum 8 to 9 picas from end of text. align with an element SPRING 2016 / LSA Magazine 31 all have moments in our lives when Weeverything in the world seems to stop. The wind drops. The clouds slow their crawl across the sky. Something deep is happening inside of us, some unseen reshaping whose eventual consequences we can feel but not see. For Robert Meeropol (A.B. ’69, M.A. ’70, C.A. ’72), one of those moments occurred during the fall of 1986. Meeropol had recently finished a yearlong clerkship, and he was preparing to start his new position as an attorney at a local law firm. He delayed the start of his job to be with his family, and he took one day — September 10 — to spend alone before his new career officially began. Meeropol found a secluded field in the Green Mountains of Vermont and ate his sandwich among the asters and goldenrod. Sitting there, Meeropol had a deep feeling of being at peace with the world, but not with the job he was about to start. The moment is described two-thirds of the way through Meeropol’s memoir An Execution in the Family. It is a rare moment of rest in a life of tragedy, tumult, movement, and action, a life whose story began at the dawn of the atomic age.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rosenberg Trial – Was Justice Fairly Served?
    Educational materials developed through the Howard County History Labs Program, a partnership between the Howard County Public School System and the UMBC Center for History Education. Cold War Case Files: The Rosenberg Trial – Was Justice Fairly Served? Author: Andrea Orndorff, Marriotts Ridge High School, Howard County Public School System Grade Level: High Duration: Two-three 50-minute class periods Overview: The Rosenberg case remains among the most controversial in American history. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were put to death for espionage on June 19, 1953 at the height of the Cold War. Considering the social and political climate of the early 1950s, it is important to ask whether justice was fairly served. Were the Rosenbergs guilty as charged and the death penalties appropriately imposed, or were they victims of McCarthy-era fear and hysteria? History Standards National History Standards Era 9: Postwar United States (1945 to early 1970s) Standard 2: Domestic policies after World War II Standard 2A: The student understands the international origins and domestic consequences of the Cold War. Explain the origins of the Cold War and the advent of nuclear politics. Historical Thinking Standards Standard 5: Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision Making Identify issues and problems in the past and analyze the interests, values, perspectives, and points of view of those involved in the situation Evaluate alternative courses of action, keeping in mind the information available at the time, in terms of ethical considerations, the interests
    [Show full text]
  • Does Treason Carry the Death Penalty
    Does Treason Carry The Death Penalty Claustral and unhorsed Eddy false-card: which Averell is suppler enough? Is Salomo penny-plain when Rollin fannings beyond? Davy infatuate blindly. Rosenbergs Executed for Espionage HISTORY. Capital punishment in New Zealand The amenity penalty. What happened Oleg Gordievsky? Donald Trump reinstates death hung for federal crimes US. On June 17 1950 Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage after its been named by Sgt David Greenglass Ethel's younger brother lay a former machinist at Los Alamos who also confessed to passing secret information to the USSR through a courier Harry Gold On August 11 1950 Ethel was arrested. Emanuel Manny Hirsch Bloch May 12 1901 January 30 1954 was an exquisite attorney known for defending clients associated with slow-wing and Communist causes He and Marshall Perlin defended Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Treason is the only curse that is explicitly defined in the US Constitution which describes it good when someone owing allegiance from the United States levies war against special or adheres to their enemies giving them aid and comfort worth the United States or elsewhere. Death Penalty States 2020 World bank Review. The Federal Death to Act provides that a capital sentence got a Federal. Capital Punishment The Death music in California. Ethics Capital punishment Introduction BBC. In most places that uphold capital punishment it is novel for murder espionage treason. The Federal Death an Act of 1994 was enacted as Title VI of the. Which retains the death penalty range does quickly use it often ground the. In several countries more recent executions were carried out for alleged war crimes treason genocide or other.
    [Show full text]
  • JAN 8 1976 Openin. G the Rosenberg Files
    JAN 8 1976 . g the Rosenberg Files ''NYTimes Openin ministration (formerly the Atomic as an accomplice of our father and By Michael Meeropol Energy Commission). thoroughly investigated, has no F.B.I. Knowing that the New Mexico file file if the inventories are to be believed. and Robert Meeropol on David Greenglass, the chief prosecu- Clearly, the F.B.I. is hiding signifi- tion witness, had been "pulped" in cant amounts of its Rosenberg files SPRINGFIELD, Mass.—Contrary to 1111169, Judge June L. Green of the although Justice Department press re- the impression one might get from the Federal 'District CotiFt issued an in- leases are implying that virtually all 'mess our Freedom of Information Act . junction against the defendant agen- the files are being released. • request for the files on our parents, cies that barred any further destruc- The American people must know Jali US and Ethel Rosenberg, has tion of documents. that the 29,000 F.B.L pages represent -brought about the release of less. than She rejected requests for up to eight only 10 percent of all the estimated 30 percent—a conservative estimate— months of delays, ordered detailed files in all Government agencies—only `.of the Federal Bureau of Investigation inventories, and set a timetable for 30 percent of what the F.B.L has soaterial. Every page has been released the release of material for which none admitted to having. Until we all see aa: the Government's discretion. of the Act's exemptions were claimed. what they do not wish to release (re- In other words, the Government is New efforts to stop us came concur- member Richard M.
    [Show full text]
  • The Inventory of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Collection #1283
    The Inventory of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Collection #1283 Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center Rosenberg, Julius (1918-1953) and Ethel (1916-1953) #1823 12/23/13 Preliminary Listing I. Financial Material. Box 2 A. Memorandum of money received for inmate [receipt of $15 for Julius Rosenberg from Bloch], Nov. 21, 1951. [F. 6] B. Notification of account charges. [Notification that the Rosenbergs' bank account was charged 25 cents in May 1951.] [F. 6-7] C. Account balance on 7/13/1951. [Account balance at $6.50 on July 13, 1951.] D. Receipt of account charges for June. [Notification that the Rosenbergs' account was charged 25 cents in June.] II. Correspondence. Box 3 A. Files. 1. “Committee Correspondence”; holograph letter, addressed 'Dear Friend', 2 p., n.d. [F. 1] 2. “Potentially Unpublished”; ALS, TL, Telegram, ANS to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, includes telegram from Ethel's mother about seeing the children, dated 10/9/1950; includes ALS from Ethel Rosenberg to 'Awful', and ALS from Ethen to 'my darling Saul', 1 p. each, (n.d., 11/15/52), (1950-1952, n.d.). [F. 2] 3. “Rosenberg Era Art Project,” TLS from Rob Okun to Vicki Gardiner, re: Rosenberg Art Project, 11/10/83. [F. 3] 4. "Rosenberg Reminiscences - to be answered" and "Rosenberg Reminiscences" 1977-1978, some undated; from Vicki Gabriner's Files on Committee to Reopen Rosenberg case. Contains TLS from writer responding for call for Rosenberg reminiscences and multiple copies of a letter (TLS) Vicki Gabriner would send out to people who responded. [F. 4-5] 5. "Rosenberg Children's Trust Fund Correspondence," 1953- 1959; correspondence of the Rosenberg Children's Trust Fund.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cold War State, Child Welfare Systems, and the Battles Over the Rosenberg Children
    University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2018 The Lost Ones: The oldC War State, Child Welfare Systems, And The aB ttles Over The Rosenberg Children Megan Bennett University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Bennett, M.(2018). The Lost Ones: The Cold War State, Child Welfare Systems, And The Battles Over The Rosenberg Children. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/4731 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE LOST ONES: THE COLD WAR STATE , CHILD WELFARE SYSTEMS , AND THE BATTLES OVER THE ROSENBERG CHILDREN by Megan Bennett Bachelor of Arts University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2010 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts in History College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2018 Accepted by: Lauren Sklaroff, Director of Thesis Kent Germany, Reader Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Megan Bennett, 2018 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION To my grandparents John and Rilla Murphy, who taught me to love history, to never take education for granted, and that I should surround myself with those who encourage me to stand up and make myself be heard. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the product of a long research and writing process at the University of South Carolina.
    [Show full text]
  • Taking Great Cases: Lessons from the "Rosenberg" Case Brad Snyder
    Vanderbilt Law Review Volume 63 | Issue 4 Article 1 5-2010 Taking Great Cases: Lessons from the "Rosenberg" Case Brad Snyder Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Litigation Commons, and the National Security Law Commons Recommended Citation Brad Snyder, Taking Great Cases: Lessons from the "Rosenberg" Case, 63 Vanderbilt Law Review 885 (2019) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol63/iss4/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Taking Great Cases: Lessons from the Rosenberg Case Brad Snyder* I. INTRODUCTION ........................................ 886 II. DIVIDED JUSTICES, DIVIDED SCHOLARSHIP .... ........... 892 III. REORIENTING THE ROSENBERG SCHOLARSHIP ............. 895 A. The First Rejection. ....................... .... 896 B. The Second Cert Petition ........ ............. 900 C. Douglas's Change of Heart ................ ..... 903 D. New Evidence of Perjury ......................... 908 1. June 12: Jackson Recommends Oral Argument on Stay................ ...... 910 2. June 13: Court Rejects Jackson's Recommendation .................. ..... 910 3. June 15: Finerty Petitions the Court.......... 912 E. Douglas's Stay ........................ .... 913 * Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading the Rosenbergs After Venona Bernice Schrank
    Document generated on 09/26/2021 2:37 a.m. Labour/Le Travailleur Reading the Rosenbergs After Venona Bernice Schrank Volume 49, 2002 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/llt49cnt02 See table of contents Publisher(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History ISSN 0700-3862 (print) 1911-4842 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Schrank, B. (2002). Reading the Rosenbergs After Venona. Labour/Le Travailleur, 49, 189–210. All rights reserved © Canadian Committee on Labour History, 2002 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Reading the Rosenbergs After Venona Bernice Schrank IN THE SUMMER OF 1950, first Julius and then Ethel Rosenberg were arrested on charges of conspiring to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union. Morton Sobell, a former classmate of Julius', was also arrested and charged with being part of the Rosenberg spy network. Played out against the hysteria generated by the onset of the Korean War, and the Smith Act, and the prosecution of the leadership of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), the Rosenberg trial in March 1951 took a brief two weeks to complete and ended with the jury delivering a guilty verdict.
    [Show full text]
  • The Meeropol Brothers: Exonerate Our Mother, Ethel Rosenberg
    The Meeropol Brothers: Exonerate Our Mother, Ethel Rosenberg... http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/10/opinion/the-meeropol-brot... http://nyti.ms/1TcYaKf The Opinion Pages | OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS The Meeropol Brothers: Exonerate Our Mother, Ethel Rosenberg By MICHAEL MEEROPOL and ROBERT MEEROPOL AUG. 10, 2015 OUR parents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were executed on June 19, 1953, after being convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. That was the formal legal charge, but in the public’s mind they were executed for providing our archenemy, the Soviet Union, with the ability to destroy our country with atomic bombs. Theirs was the most sensational case of the McCarthy period. Last month, the grand jury testimony of our uncle David Greenglass, who died last year, was made public, the latest in a trove of material released since 2008 after we and others filed a legal action. Back then, we concluded that our father was legally guilty of the conspiracy charge, but not of atomic spying, and we maintain that neither of our parents deserved the death penalty. The newly released 46-page transcript — along with previously released testimony and other records — demonstrates conclusively that our mother was prosecuted primarily for refusing to turn on our father. We now call on President Obama to acknowledge that Ethel Rosenberg was wrongly convicted and executed. The evidence presented against Ethel at the trial, in March 1951, consisted mainly of testimony by her brother, David, and his wife, Ruth. They testified that in November 1944, Ethel helped Julius persuade Ruth to recruit David (an Army machinist working at the weapons installation in Los Alamos, N.M.) into Julius’s espionage ring.
    [Show full text]