The hurt was deep beyond measure We sat in stunned silence around the table piled up with newspapers filled with dire predictions of the fate descending upon the innocent young parents Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Found guilty on the perjured and patently absurd testimony of Ethel’s brother of stealing the “secret” of the atomic bomb (within the space of a matchbook cover) and transmitting it to the Soviet Union, a sentence of death had been meted out and upheld by the Supreme Court, closing out any hope for further judicial appeal. To justify the barbarity of this sentence, Irving Kaufman, the trial judge, said it was the Rosenbergs who were responsible for all the deaths sustained by American troops in the ongoing Korean War.
At the same time, the Rosenberg children, 6-year-old Robert and 10-year-old Michael, were sentenced as well – to a state orphanage and abandonment.
In spite of the huge wave of protests, particularly in Europe where, for example, 100,000 gathered in Rome to try to stop the executions, in spite of efforts of the world’s most notable intellectuals and artists, including Albert Einstein, among many others, President Dwight D. Eisenhower refused to intervene.
And having agitated, written, petitioned, picketed, marched, prayed and cried, all that was now left to us around the table was to silently share the common pain, counting the minutes to the final Horror.
And when it was done, the Rosenbergs went quietly, with dignity while we wept and raged.
The current that coursed through the bodies of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg had seared the fabric of American Justice, burnt through its pretensions. Wordlessly, we rose from the table and went our separate ways, nursing an anger that has smoldered for decades.
A half-century has now passed since the Rosenbergs were put to death, long enough, one would think, for them to sink into obscurity. And yet they spring to life with every new state execution, spring to life with each revelation of Washington’s Cold War lies and crimes, spring to life with each new unearthing of the sordid wellsprings of Government policy.
The children of the Rosenbergs have reclaimed their birthright. And, thanks to the Rosenbergs’ lifelong struggle, along with that of other millions, we, the people, are destined to reclaim ours.
