Rosenberg+Case+-+Thomas



In 1950, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Julius Rosenberg, an electrical engineer and his wife, Ethel. [|They were arrested on charges of conspiracy]. The government claims that Rosenburg had persuaded Ethel's brother, David Greenglass who was employed at the Los Alamos atomic bomb project, to provide them with a third-person, Harry Gold. They were to suppy Gold with top secret data on nuclear weapons. The evidence that concluded to this task came from Greenglass and his wife, Ruth. Julius was believed to be an active member of the Communist party. The Rosenburgs were found guilty in 1951 and were to recieve the death sentence. Harry Gold and Morton Sobell, a codefendent, were both sentenced to thirty years in prison. David Greenglass was charged later on and he recieved fifteen years. Despite all of the court pleas for executive clemency, the Rosenbergs were executed on June 19, 1953. They were the first known citizens of the U.S to be sentenced to death in an espionage trial.

The case caused much contoversy though. Many people claimed that it was not a fair case and that the political climate made it almost impossible because the only incriminating evidence came from a confessed spy. The communists in the U.S organized a compaign to save the Rosenburgs and the support of liberals and religious leaders.

Ten days before the start of the trial of the Rosenbergs, the FBI interviewed Greenglass again in an attempt to get him to release information about the other spies and against his wife. He was promised that Ruth would not be charged with being a member of the spy ring. In his original statement to the FBI, he said that he did indeed give information to Julius Rosenburg on a street corner in New York. When they took him in for another interview he stated that the handover had taken place in the living room of the Rosenberg's New York flat. When they interviewed Ruth Greenglass she argued that Julius had taken the information in the bathroom and read it and when he came out he told Ethel that she had to make a copy of it. Ethel sat down at the typewriter and started to type the information in which David had given to Julius.

The trial began on March 6, 1951. the chief prosecutor, Irving Saypol, stated that "This description of the atomic bomb, destined for delivery to the Soviet Union, was typed up by the defendant Ethel Rosenberg that afternoon at her apartment at 10 Monroe Street. Just so had she, on countless other occasions, sat at that typewriter and struck the keys, blow by blow, against her own country in the interests of the Soviets." They were found guilty.

This was significant to the Cold War because it was said that there was new information at which the Rosenbergs helped the Russians to create and atomic bomb. If the information is true then the Rosenbergs pretty much gave out our secret on how to make atomic bombs so that the Soviet Union could use them against America or other countries. []
 * **Who: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, David and Ruth Greenglass, and Harry Gold**
 * **When: March 6, 1951-Trial**
 * **June 19, 1953-Executed**
 * **Why: Conspiracy**
 * **Where: In room 110 in the federal courthouse at Foley Square, Manhattan on a Tuesday**