Ethel+and+Julius+Rosenberg+and+Others-1

By: Bryn Ethel and Julius Rosenberg

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg and Others

Basic info.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were tried for Communist acts during WWII and the married couple were both sentenced to the electric chair. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg transported information about the atomic bombs to a Soviet spy. They grew up in the lower east side of New York and were born twenty years apart and got married. They had two children, who were sent to live with their grand parents after the arrest, and are still alive today. They were American citizens, and were the first civilians to be put to death for Wartime spying.

Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were born in New York City, in the Lower East side. They were both brought into radical politics at a young age. Ethel was a stay at home mother and Julius worked for the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a Civil Junior engineer. When he was fired for being a communist in 1945 he started working for Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, in his small work shop in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Julius worked at this shop as a machinist working on the Atomic bomb there.

Ethel's brother David, was arrested for Communist spying in the early 1950's and was put in prison. And three years later the Rosenbergs were found guilty by trial by jury, and on June 19th 1953 Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were sentenced to the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York. A while before this was going on, Alger Hiss was on trial for perjury and on suspicion of giving away secret documents to the Soviets, by passing them to Whittaker Chambers, a reformed Soviet spy. Hiss was sentenced to prison for five years on new evidence that was found. Then after 3 years and 8 months spent in prison, he, was paroled.

In that same year, Klaus Fuchs, was charged of being a Communist and of giving atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets. He had explained why he had joined the Communist party, that was because it seemed like the only reasonable party to enter when he lived in Germany, Hitler had come to power and was taking over, and it seamed to be the only way out, so he joined. There was other evidence to prove he was a spy though, he had met with Harry Gold, a Communist, which he only knew as Raymond, he gave Gold information and plans on the Atomic bombs that had been dropped, including the "fatman". His trial only lasted two hours because he pleaded guilty to being a Communist spy. And was sentenced to prison in Great Britain for 14 years. When Gold was released, after serving only nine years in prison, he immediately left Britain and headed for East Germany where he resumed his scientific career.

Extra info.

Okay, first thing how does a Communist spy that gets arrested and helps the Soviets get back into a scientific career? I'd really like to know how that can happen, because that is what happened to David Greenglass. I mean how lucky can a man get? Also, what I thought was interesting was that the government and the President turned down a plead for clemency, twice, to pardon Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Also, afterward there were pardons because of the fact that Albert Einstein and Pope Pius XII urged for clemency for the Rosenberg trials.

On another note, the Soviets had so many spies that had infiltrated our government that had been so much more involved that got off with a light sentence, so why didn't the Rosenbergs get a light sentence? Well, it was because they were the first civilians to be caught with special Government Official Documents, a fact that scared Americans. So, they were sent to the electric chair. Another thing the Rosenbergs were sentenced to death when Julius's brother was only put in jail! That was not fair for Julius and Ethel.

Importance

I think the importance of this was, well, for America to learn from its mistakes and to do more advanced background checks. Also, I think America learned that the electric chair is too painful and cruel. Also we learned another thing, not all political parties are wrong, some maybe good but, some may be bad. But its not up to the government to decide, its for the PEOPLE to decide. And to not let the government take hold of your mind and just be you. So I think we learned a few good lessons from this happening. and we've also let out a monster...Nuclear Weapons... it will take lives from people in the future and already has in the past. So basically, we unleashed a beast, and caused it to spread. Thats an important thing to remember and to know what we may have done to ourselves.