Some of my happiest childhood memories are from the time I spent at Camp Kinderland. Despite an initial bout of homesickness my first summer, I soon felt like I had been part of the Kinderland community for years. Bunks and buildings were named after radical heroes I recognized from family discussions and Seders. I lived in Harriet Tubman, Emma Lazarus, and Ernestine Rose cabins, danced in the Paul Robeson theatre and played ultimate frisbee by the Roberto Clemente sports hut.

Today is the anniversary of my grandparents’ executions. As it approached, I prepared the statement below reflecting on the date’s significance. Many members of the Rosenberg Fund for Children network have firsthand memories of the grief and fear the executions elicited among left-wing progressives at the time – a community that felt very much under attack in that moment in history. Sixty three years later I still hear from people who were shaken to their core, but whose response was to resist the repression they were experiencing.