A Betrayal of Justice: The Ethel Rosenberg Tragedy

I recently mentioned to a young friend that I was reading Anne Sebba’s piercing biography of Ethel Rosenberg and he responded “ you mean the spy?” This is a man who is well informed, sophisticated, astute and sensitive and I was shocked that history has continued to betray her memory.
The tragedy of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg is not primarily a story of espionage, it is a story of betrayal. Yes, Julius and David Greenglass passed atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, betraying their country. David, Ethels brother, betrayed her by lying about her participation with them. Tessie, Ethels mother, betrayed her by cosigning David’s lies and blaming Ethel for refusing to betray others. Irving Saypol, the prosecutor, Roy Cohn, his henchman and Judge Irving Kaufman, betrayed the high ideals of American justice by knowingly sending an innocent woman to the electric chair, orphaning two small children. The country betrayed itself by refusing to grant clemency despite worldwide protests and petitions to save them. In the last paragraph of her book, Anne Sebba writes “only Ethel betrayed no one, thus sealing her fate.”
It was a game of chicken right up to the end. In Ethels words, “…yesterday, ( 2weeks before the scheduled electrocution date) we were offered a deal by the Attorney General of the United States. We were told that if we cooperated with the government our lives would be spared…we solemnly swear, now and forevermore, we will not be coerced, even under pain of death, to bear false witness and to yield up to tyranny our rights as free Americans…our.respect for truth, conscience and human dignity is not for sale.”
Ethel Rosenberg was electrocuted, not because she was guilty of espionage; she was electrocuted because she refused to betray her ideals and principles. Her appearance, composure and steely commitment to principle ultimately betrayed her, making her appear cold and unsympathetic, deserving to die.
I was 14 years old when the Rosenbergs went on trial in 1951, 16 when they were sent to the electric chair. It was a seminal event, stamping me forever with a need to protest wrongful convictions and oppose the death penalty.
Looking back now through a retrospective lens at the climate of fear that Roy Cohn used to orchestrate this evil in order to rise to power on their ashes is frightening. His influence lives on in Roger Stone, Roger Ailes, Donald Trump and the Maga Klan. We are carrying on the tradition of weaponizing fear to create hatred and polarization in order to maintain power. Kevin McCarthy is an heir to Joseph McCarthy.
When will we ever learn?

Cover Photograph by Roger Higgins. Image is courtesy of the Library of Congress (Licensed via Creative Commons 2.0)