In the 1950's, the era of McCarthyism in America it, was a bad time to be a
suspected Communist and an even worse time to be a suspected spy. Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg were both and their trial and execution are an
historical landmark of an age of tremendous paranoia and political maneuvering.
Born to Polish immigrant parents in New York, Julius Rosenberg developed a passion
for politics before he had finished high school and by age 16 was a member of
New York City College's Young Communist League. He met Ethel at a fund raising
party and they married in 1939. Julius began work as a civilian employee of the
US Army in 1940 and began to talk with his brother in law, David, about doing espionage
work for the Soviet Union in 1943. When David was assigned to work at Los
Alamos, the two began collecting information. They became part of a spy ring
involved in selling nuclear technology secrets to the Soviet Union but in 1950
the FBI caught up with them and David gave information that lead to the arrest
of Julius and Ethel. Along with another co-conspirator they were convicted and
sentenced to death by electrocution for the capital crime of conspiracy to
commit espionage. After lengthy court battles, they were executed 2 years later,
in 1953, at Sing-Sing Prison in New York.
Ethel was the first woman in the United States to be executed since
the hanging of Mary Surratt for her role in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
These files contain documentation of the investigation and trial of Julius and
Ethel Rosenberg for espionage. They are only a summary. The complete
files concerning their activities, trial, and eventual execution are much larger,
and to a great extent the information about this pair is still considered
classified. The contents of these files are heavily edited as a result.
(Image: The Rosenbergs kiss after their indictment.)