THE LOVE STORY AND ESPIONAGE OF JULIUS AND ETHEL ROSENBURG

Julius Rosenburg, an engineering major at New York City College, met his future wife, Ethel Greenglass, on New Year’s Eve in 1935. She was nervous about singing in front of everyone at the party that they were at, but he helped her calm down. Soon, “the two became inseparable” (Stories of Love and Longing) and married once Julius graduated in 1939. The couple then went on to have two sons, Robert and Michael and lived modestly in New York.

Both were members of the open Communist Party, which was most likely due to the fact that “Hollywood was producing movies…that depicted life in the Soviet Union in a Utopian way” (Linder). However, they dropped out of the party supposedly so that they would have more time to spend with their first-born child. However, according to Ethel’s brother, David, Julius planned to undertake espionage actions for the Soviets. When David began work in Los Alamos laboratory, he was able to send Julius “handwritten notes and sketches relating to a high-explosive lens mold being developed” (Linder). Then, as stated by David, Julius began urging him that they flee the country when Julius gained information from Soviet intelligence about Americans knowing about the espionage. Neither of them went anywhere, and eventually, Julius was arrested because of David’s confessions. As for Ethel, the FBI’s only evidence against her was that she heard conversations about the espionage, but they arrested her anyway “in the possibility of threatening her with prosecution as a means of convincing Julius to talk” (Linder). “Without each to sustain the other, it is likely that they would have succumbed to the government” (Stories of Love and Longing). However, neither of them confessed, which led both of them to be tried for espionage.

During the trial, Julius basically denied everything in his testimony from receiving gifts from the Russians to recruiting for espionage, as did Ethel. It is said that “the jury’s sympathies might easily have extended to her had the defense strategy allowed her to talk openly and emotionally” (Linder). However, this was not the case, as both were convicted and sentenced to the electric chair. This is the end to the Rosenburg story as most people have come to understand it, but there is actually more to their love story that went on after the conviction.

“Each sang to the unseen other in adjoining jail cells on the night after they received their death sentences” (Stories of Love and Longing). On their way to separate prisons, their lips locked, despite a mesh screen, “in an endless kiss” (Stories of Love and Longing). Once separated, they were only allowed to see each other through visitor’s screens on “wondrous Wednesday,” as Ethel dubbed it. They wrote each other mushy love letters constantly. In one such letter, Ethel wrote: “Sweetheart, I love you with a strength that defies my pain.” Eventually, they were allowed to meet in a conference room, but as soon as they laid eyes on each other, they went at each other like wild animals. They had to be separated, each having lipstick all over their faces and their hair rustled all over the place. Because of this, they were ordered that they would never be allowed to even touch each other ever again. There was actually one final time when they broke this order, however. On the way to their execution, “Julius touched his fingers to his lips. He pressed his fingers through the mesh screen as Ethel did the same. Blood dribbled down the screen as they finger-kissed each other goodbye” (Stories of Love and Longing). This was the true ending of Julius and Ethel Rosenburg.

By: Keith Stickel