Download
1 / 6
E N D
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg By Cadet Stone
Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (1915-1953) and Julius Rosenberg (1918-1953) were American Communists who captured and maintained world attention after being tried, convicted, and executed for spying. Specifically, the couple were charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and were accused of passing nuclear weapons secrets to the Soviet Union
The accuracy of these charges remains controversial, though decades later, Soviet communications decrypted by the VENONA project became publicly available and appeared to indicate that at least Julius Rosenberg was actively involved in espionage (although they provided no new evidence that he performed the specific acts of espionage for which he was convicted).
Julius Rosenberg was born on May 12, 1918 in New York. He graduated from the City College of New York with a degree in electrical engineering in 1939 and in 1940 joined the ArmySignal Corps where he worked on radar equipment. He became a leader in the YoungCommunist League, where he met Ethel in 1936, before marrying Ethel three years later. Ethel Rosenberg was born on September 28, 1915 in New York. She was an aspiring actress and singer, but eventually took a secretary job at a shipping company. She became involved in labor disputes and joined the Young Communist League, where she first met Julius. The Rosenbergs had two sons.
The couple were executed by the electric chair on June 19, 1953. Reports of the execution state that Julius died after the first application of electricity, but Ethel did not succumb immediately and was subjected to two more electrical charges before being pronounced dead. • The chair was designed for a man, and Ethel Rosenberg was a petite woman
