For Rosenberg sons, full story of case still out of reach
Published on /GazetteNET/ (http://www.gazettenet.com)
By Larry Parnass
September 23, 2008
EASTHAMPTON - To some, an old man's admission this month about
Soviet-era spying closes the book on one of the most divisive cases in
American legal history.
But two Valley men who've lived this story for a half century - since
their parents' execution June 19, 1953 - continue to believe the full
story cannot yet be written.
After declining interview requests last week, Robert and Michael
Meeropol, the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, broke their silence
Monday with a detailed written appraisal of the significance of the
latest developments in the case.
Two weeks ago, Morton Sobell, a college friend of Julius Rosenberg who
is now 91, admitted that he and his friend provided non-atomic military
secrets to the Soviet Union during World War II in the hope of aiding
that allied country's fight against the Nazis. Sobell, an engineer,
received a 30-year sentence for conspiring to commit espionage - the
same charge that sent the Rosenbergs to the electric chair at Sing Sing
Prison.
Historian Ronald Radosh, in a Los Angeles Times essay reprinted Saturday
in the Gazette, said Sobell's statements mean "the end has arrived for
the legions of the American left wing that have argued relentlessly for
more than half a century that the Rosenbergs were victims, framed by a
hostile, fear-mongering U.S. government."
Radosh chided the Meeropols for not facing up to facts and attacked
people on the political left for holding dear the idea that the case
"showed the essentially repressive nature of the U.S. government."
Robert Meeropol, in an interview Monday in his home town of Easthampton,
offered a calm critique of those who, like Radosh, want to declare the
Rosenberg case closed.
"There are those who want this to be simple, and it's not simple - and
it never has been," he said from his perch in the Rosenberg Fund for
Children offices on the third floor of the Eastworks building.
"It's very hard to know when you're really going to get to the bottom of
something," said Meeropol.
In a statement they released Monday, the brothers write: "All that we
have learned in the last two weeks, coupled with all that we have
gleaned from the information already available, reinforced the biggest
lesson of our parents' case: The U.S. government abused its power in
truly dangerous ways that are still very relevant today."
Whether their message will be widely heard remains to be seen. Meeropol
spoke Monday with a reporter from the Washington Post and was scheduled
to speak today with NPR, the BBC, local television stations and - in
case anyone doubted the global reach of this story - Radio New Zealand.
*Missing piece*
Even so, Sobell's recent admission that he and Julius Rosenberg provided
information to the Soviets is, Meeropol made clear, the bottom of that
particular mystery.
The brothers had long asked Sobell whether he had spied, Meeropol said.
Sobell repeatedly denied he had anything to tell the brothers.
In retrospect, Robert Meeropol notes that when Sobell was interviewed
for the documentary "Heir to an Execution," he said he did not engage in
espionage. But Sobell's body language, Meeropol now believes, tells
another story.
In his 2003 book, "An Execution in the Family: One Son's Journey,"
Meeropol considers the possibility that his father did spy for the
Soviets. This week, he said he is glad that he did so, for it created a
place to grasp this month's revelation.
The brothers' search for truth about the case took a major step forward
in 1975, when they filed a Freedom of Information Act request for
documents related to the arrest, prosecution and execution of their
parents.
"I came to terms with it," Meeropol, 61, said of the possibility that
his father had engaged in criminal acts. "It made me very glad that I
dealt with it, that I confronted that issue. ... This is an evolution,
it's not a revolution, in my thinking."
But case closed? Not for a family that has been working to obtain sealed
documents about the case for more than three decades.
And not when the core legacy of the case - that Julius Rosenberg was
executed for passing atomic secrets - remains untrue, the Meeropols say.
An estimated 100,000 pages of documents remain out of reach, Meeropol
said. They've won the release of 300,000 other pages.
While Sobell's statements received the most attention this month,
another significant development came Sept. 11 with the release of
transcripts from the grand jury that heard the espionage case in 1950
and 1951.
As Meeropol spoke Monday, those documents sat in a tall stack - 930
pages worth - on a nearby table. The release of information, though
considered a breakthrough for researchers, remains incomplete. The
transcripts cover 43 of 46 witnesses, but not those of David Greenglass,
Ethel Rosenberg's brother. Greenglass, who is still alive, was able to
block release of the testimony.
"It's like you're putting together a jigsaw puzzle and the main piece is
still missing," Meeropol said.
Transcripts that were released, however, include several "bombshells,"
the brothers say, and call into question the role that David and Ruth
Greenglass played in the government's case.
"The release of this material is a triumph for American democracy,"
Meeropol said, but one that is incomplete.
Today, Robert Meeropol continues to oversee the Rosenberg Fund for
Children, a nonprofit that provides grants to children in the United
States whose parents have been the subject of political persecution. In
its 18 years, it has provided more than $3 million.
Michael Meeropol, who lives in Wilbraham and teaches at Western New
England College, is 65 and preparing to retire at year's end.
Robert Meeropol said he wants his foundation - which works to honor and
celebrate people who live out their beliefs - to be a key part of his
parents' legacy. At foundation events, no one mourns for Julius and
Ethel, he said. "Instead, we celebrate their resistance. They were asked
to lie about atomic secrets and they refused."
Larry Parnass, the Gazette's managing editor for news, can be reached at
lparnass@gazettenet.com <mailto:lparnass@gazettenet.com> [1].
Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2008 All rights reserved
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