unjustice

Today, Sept 12, the Washington Post gives new evidence of perjury used to convict and then execute Ethel Rosenberg some 55 years ago. I was 11 when she was put to death. She was my Mom's age. She and her husband Julius had two sons one of whom later became a college classmate of mine. Her electrocution was ugly, an ugly event at a time when immorally ambitious men put themselves at the head of a mob of frightened citizens not caring what damage they would do to the Constitution and the ideals on which the United States was founded. Our home was only a few miles from Sing Sing Prison. At the time they pulled the switch to kill Ethel Rosenberg we said we could see the lights dim. That is not a literal fact, but -- more powerfully I think -- a metaphorical one.

Here is the citation for the WaPo article:
Witness Changed Her Story During Rosenberg Spy Case
By Holly Watt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 12, 2008; Page A04


Link to the Wikipedia article on the Rosenbergs: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg



Ethel Rosenberg's mug shot.

Image source: Wikimedia

Web page on a film about the family.
HEIR TO AN EXECUTION: The Rosenbergs’ Granddaughter Makes a Film about Their Legacy

The son my age, Michael, is on the left.

Emanuel “Manny” Block, the Rosenbergs’ attorney, with Michael & Robbie at Sing Sing. After the Rosenbergs were executed, the boys were adopted by Abel & Anne Meeropol. (Associated Press – 1953)

Picasso, untitled lithograph of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, 1952; souce: www.graphicwitness.org.

The following photos come from http://mujeresriot.webcindario.com/Ethel_Rosenberg.htm

This is Ruth Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg's sister in law.


Ethel Rosenberg in 1950






Funeral cortege in Brooklin