Sixty Years Ago Today

By Robert Meeropol 
Director's Blog, The Rosenberg Fund for Children
April 05,2011

http://www.rfc.org/blog/article/905

Sixty years ago today, Federal Judge Irving R. Kaufman
sentenced my parents to death. He justified the death penalty
for their 'Conspiracy to Commit Espionage' (planning to
commit espionage) conviction by saying their '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
fifty thousand.'

The hoopla about Morton Sobell's recent statements that he
and my father engaged in non-atomic espionage to help the
Soviet Union both during and after World War II serves to
distract attention from Judge Kaufman's towering lie: that
the government of the United States knew that neither Ethel
nor Julius Rosenberg stole the secret of the atomic bomb, and
that Ethel Rosenberg did not actively participate in any
illegal activity. Nevertheless, the government arrested,
charged, tried, convicted and ultimately executed her, solely
to put pressure on my father to acquiesce to the lie that he
stole atomic secrets.

Judge Kaufman's statement remains as false today as it was in
1951. The FBI, the Justice Department and Judge Kaufman were
guilty of a much more serious conspiracy than any my father
was involved in. The formers' involved the fabrication of
evidence, the subornation of perjury, the manipulation of the
jury and the wrongful execution of two young parents. It
subverted the rule of law, violated the constitution and
damaged our democracy. Sixty years later, the government
still refuses to come clean, and most of the corporate-
controlled media continue to ignore this scandal.

I'd be less than honest if I did not admit that the latest
news that Morton Sobell, my father and two others provided
aeronautical information to the Soviet Union in 1948 gives me
pause. My parents wrote in their last letter to me and my
brother: 'Always remember that we were innocent and could not
wrong our conscience.' My father, at least, doesn't seem
quite so innocent anymore.

Right-wing cold warriors trumpet that Sobell's recent
statement proves that my parents were lying manipulators, but
it is much more complicated than that. Neither Julius nor
Ethel was guilty of the crime for which they faced the
executioner. Ethel was not a spy and Julius was ignorant of
the atomic bomb project. They were innocent of stealing the
secret of the atomic bomb and they were fighting for their
lives. It would have been next to impossible for them to
explain to their children and supporters the subtle
distinction between not being guilty of stealing atomic
secrets and blanket innocence. Given that, I can understand
the course of action they took from a political standpoint

But how does this impact me personally? How could they engage
in such high-risk activities that could potentially leave
their children orphans? When I wrote An Execution in the
Family, I thought my father might only have engaged in
helping the Soviet Union fight fascism during World War II
and I asked, 'How many tens of thousands of American men with
young children willingly went to fight during World War II
knowing that they might not survive the conflict? Was my
father, whose poor eyesight disqualified him for military
service, taking a greater risk by choosing this role in the
battle?'

I disagree with my parents' uncritical support for the USSR
and the strategy my father employed to aid it after World War
II. And knowing the terrible toll parents' activism can take
on the family, I believe parents should always take their
children into account when they engage in risky activity. But
I do not believe it axiomatic that all parents of young
children should refrain from such activity. The RFC helps
parents who engage the world and take courageous actions even
though they have children. Our best chance of building a more
humane and just society rests on the activism of ordinary
citizens with family concerns.

Still, I question my parents' actions more than I used to.
I've had the luxury of living a much longer life than they
did and hopefully I've learned from many experiences that
were foreclosed to them. I may question my parents' judgment,
but I remain proud of them, even if my father did what he
could to aid the Soviet Union throughout the 1940's and my
mother supported him. Despite the awful consequences of their
choices and of Judge Kaufman's lie, my parents acted with
integrity, courage and in furtherance of righteous ideals,
and passed their passion for social justice on to me and my
brother.

___________________________________________

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