Julius Rosenberg (Engineer electrician, born the May 12th 1918 with New York) and his wife Ethel Rosenberg (born the September 28th 1915 with New York) are an American couple Communiste stopped in July 1950 by FBI and shown to have delivered secrecies relating to the American atomic bomb to the the USSR. They were considered to be guilty the April 5th 1951 and were carried out on the Electric chair the June 19th 1953 in the prison of Sing Sing, in spite of international calls in leniency and a very mediatized campaign denouncing a miscarriage of justice. They always protested their innocence.

Facts

June 15th, 1950, the FBI stops David Greenglass, a former mechanic of the atomic power plants of Los Alamos ( Nouveau Mexico , the United States). Greenglass recognizes whereas it touched money of spy Harry Gold in exchange of information on the projects of the factories of Los Alamos, and it is accused of espionage to the profit of the USSR on July 6th, 1950.

July 17th, 1950, it is with the turn of Julius Rosenberg to be stopped, then on August 11th Ethel, his wife, is also stopped: David Greenglass and his wife had just shown the Rosenberg husbands to be in the middle of the plot. Without this charge, according to the Court, “ without their deposition, the judgment could not have been cancelled ”. The judgment of Rosenberg thus rests, at the time where they are judged, almost entirely on this testimony. The charge (the US government) will quote 118 witnesses, of which only 23 will appear with the bar. On these 23, five mentioned Rosenberg, and only three implied them in the business of espionage of the atomic power plants of Los Alamos. “ No material proof could be produced against Rosenberg, which is thus sent on the electric chair on simple oral testimonys. ”. June 19th, 1953, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are put at died at a few minutes of intervals in the prison of Sing Sing. They left two children (Robert and Michael) who were adopted by friends of the couple and they rest with the cemetery Beth Moses with Island Length.

Remote regions at the time of the facts

• Le Monde of December 11th, 1952 wonders whether one can “ regard these pilot as having deposited " without hatred and crainte" , whereas the Greenglass had any interest to charge Rosenberg to save themselves. ”. Le Monde adds: “ which strange character moreover that this Greenglass which practically kills by its charge his/her sister and her brother-in-law, with which it had had formerly sordid discussions of interests. ”

• Le Monde of December 11th, 1952 also wonders if transmitted information had well the value and the importance that the charge (the US government) gave them. Principal the witnesses of the charge, David Greenglass, claimed to have reconstituted the sketch of an atomic bomb whereas he admitted having failed many examinations. In addition, the atomic scientists Robert Oppenheimer and Harold Clayton Urey, quoted by the charge, never had to appear.

• Then, the same edition of the Le Monde of December 11th, 1952 wonders whether “ the decision of the jury and the sentence pronounced by the judge they were not distorted by the atmosphere in which the lawsuit proceeded”. One was then in full period of the Maccarthysme, a campaign violently anticommunist in the United States of 1950 to 1956, during the Guerre of Korea. The charge made an effort, at the time of the lawsuit of Rosenberg, to make them say if they were communist. “ Those refused to answer, written Le Monde of the time, but no doubt was possible on their opinions. Past of marked (Julius had been returned for opinion subversive of an administrative employment), their relations, their readings, and their own declarations indicated to sworn that they were well in the presence of Communists ). ”

• Enfin, Le Monde of December 11th, 1952 mentions the fact that the defendants were Jewish. The question of the anti-semitism arises, underlines the World of the time, because no sworn was Jewish (“ what can appear surprising in a city as New York where the Jewish community represents one the third of the population ”). Kaufman judge, Jew himself, had left the choice of the sanction with sworn and Le Monde wonders whether it did not show a greater severity to dissociate the American Jewish community of marked and not to make carry on all the members of the Jewish community a suspicion of espionage (charge traditional anti-semite). “ Because finally no death sentence until now summer had pronounced at the United States for crime of espionage, even in time of war. Other spies of a greater scale having made and acknowledged facts much more serious were condemned only to custodial sentences. (...) a gesture of leniency , continues Le Monde , would be enough to dissipate it Malayan which in the spirit of any impartial observer a lawsuit creates that the prosecutor Irving Saypol described itself as “by-product necessary of the atomic age” …”

What one knows 50 years afterwards

Several additions, from which the new version of the memories of the Soviet secret agent Alexandre Feklisov in 1997 came to support the thesis according to which Julius Rosenberg had not delivered the atomic bomb, but that it was well with the service of the Soviet Union and had forwarded secret documents.

According to the files which the CIA had in its possession and which it made public more than forty years after the facts (1995), the US government (accusing of Rosenberg) had evidence against the couple but their revelation would have destroyed the cover of the agents which had gotten them. The fact that information having led to the inculpation was not mentioned in the file, because classified at the time, illustrates the character ambiguity of the lawsuit.

Jean-François Revel supports that Rosenberg were spies with the pay of the USSR, in a book published in 2002; the fact that the Rosenberg husbands “were well with the pay of Moscow” east established since 1995 in an article of the Monde of July 13rd of this year, then confirmed in 2003 by historians.

Supports

The denunciation of an unjust lawsuit and miscarriage of justice started after the lawsuit and was launched in 1952. The Soviet Union maintains and exploits the business ; she shows the the United States Fascisme and of Antisémitisme. The fate of the Rosenberg husbands then moves the world opinion (America, Europe, Algérie, Israel, Japan, etc) beyond political cleavages.

There remains difficult up to what point to determine the demonstrations in favor of the Rosenberg couple were influenced by communist activism, but the world opinions were particularly struck by the publication of a photograph taken by an unknown (entitled the kiss ). This photography remains one of most known 20th century.

The people who wish today the revision of this lawsuit support primarily on the following arguments:

• Even if the documents diffused by NSA within the framework of the Project VENONA (operation of against-espionage by decoding), made public in 1995 by the commission Moynihan (the CIA), indicate that if the Rosenberg husbands were undoubtedly guilty reprehensible activities, they were judged on other bases. They should have been recognized innocent of the charges carried at the time.
• At the time of the pled facts (1942-1945) the United States and the USSR were combined against the Nazi Germany, Julius (being Jewish) and having already attended a congress Nazi, the fall of this mode wanted at all costs.

The fact that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were Communists who provided certain information to Soviet is advanced by several sources as being a justification of the setting with died of Rosenberg. The question is not then any more to know if Rosenberg were guilty of activity of espionage, but if they deserved to die.

Ethel Rosenberg wrote a few hours before its execution: My husband and me naps innocent, we could not betray our conscience : one proposed the safe life in exchange of consents to the couple , no power will separate us in the life or death. I ask you only for one thing: comfort my small.