By Robert Meeropol
September 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of my mother, Ethel Rosenberg’s, birth.
At the height of the McCarthy period this woman, with two young children, was executed along with her husband Julius, after being convicted of Conspiracy to Commit Espionage.
My mother remains the only American woman executed in peace time for an espionage-related crime. One of the reasons the Rosenberg case is notable is that it has been thoroughly researched. From this we know that my mother was not an espionage agent who helped to steal what was called the secret of the Atomic Bomb.
But the public knows almost nothing about her life or achievements before her arrest. Ethel graduated from Seward Park High School at the age of 15. Her teachers considered her voice so special that they called her out of class to sing the national anthem at assemblies. Too poor to attend college during the Great Depression, she found work in the garment district where she helped lead a strike at the age of 19. She was fired and then won one of the first cases ever brought before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). After the start of World War II she joined the East Side Defense Council as its only full-time volunteer. It was the first such civil defense organization in the nation and soon became a model for others. Ethel organized drives for blood donations and gave speeches on the importance of the war effort.
After her arrest, Ethel demonstrated her integrity by refusing to confess to something she did not do. The FBI files never claimed she was guilty, but consistently described her as “cognizant and recalcitrant.”
Her hundredth birthday is the perfect time to recognize the achievements of this courageous, cognizant and recalcitrant woman.
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