What do you think?
The Rosenberg Letters: A Complete Edition of the Prison Correspondence of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
In 1950 the Cold War was escalating dramatically. The House Un-American Activities Committee hearings were in full swing. The Soviet Union had tested its first atomic bomb and anti-communist hysteria was sweeping the nation. On July 17, Julius Rosenberg, partner in a small machine shop on New York's lower east side, was arrested on charges of having recruited his brother-in-law, David Greenglass, into a Soviet spy ring. On August 11, Ethel Rosenberg was arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. After a fourteen-day trial in which they denied the espionage charges and refused to discuss their political affiliations, the Rosenbergs were convicted and sentenced to death. They died in the electric chair on June 19, 1953. The Rosenbergs spent three years in the death house at Sing Sing Prison. During that time, they conducted voluminous correspondence with one another, with their children (aged 7 and 3 at the time of the arrests), and with their attorney. Previous publication of these letters had been partial, fragmentary, of limited circulation, and frequently distorted. This volume makes available for the first time the complete and unedited text of all the surviving Rosenberg letters. Here in their entirety are over 500 letters in which the Rosenbergs discuss their trial and conviction, the ongoing appeals process and efforts on their behalf, the welfare of their two young sons, their feelings for one another and the situation in which they found themselves, current events, books they read, and other personal matters. The letters, in the personal collection of the Rosenbergs' sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol, have been collected and painstakingly transcribed exactly as written, including misspellings and lapses in grammar. When possible, omitted or crossed-out words are identified. The letters have not been edited in any way. To help orient the reader, extensive footnotes identify names, places, documents, and events referred to in the letters. In a
792 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1994
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 19, 2011
There must have been an earlier version of this book, because my parents gave it to me when I was 12. What were they thinking ? I was traumatized.
Read
October 29, 2024Very sad
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet....
MY VERY DEAREST,
I sit here feeling like a perfect hog for wallowing in tears of self-pity instead of writing you this weekend; reading your words and knowing there are none from me to make up for our separation this 12th anniversary of our marriage.
Yet I never was so much in love with you as I am today—
It is incredible that after 12 years of the kind of prin-cipled, constructive, wholesome living together that we did, that I should sit in a cell in Sing Sing awaiting my own legal murder, greeting you in this anguish of what would have been a joyous celebration of two memorable days. Incred-ible, too, that you should receive felicitations as husband and father in another cell, in which you sit in anticipation of a similar doom!
Bless you for that indomitable spirit that beats within you and gives me renewed cousege and strength.
I love you with all my being and want desperately to be worthy of you. Always and forever, Ethel
My VERY DEAREST,
I have the curious feeling of living in a world beyond whose walls no other world exists; in jail terminology, I've
"made it." I've "arrived," because the "street" no longer forms the magnet, the painfully plaguing goal, it once did.
The carefully drawn demarcations of the area in which I am permitted have dissolved, because there is no longer any other area.
This seems to be the frame of mind toward which I tend.
I am conscious of a need to remain immersed in my own thoughta tad felines an a re stance to sto the chay.
dren, and you, but-it's as though I don't really believe these events will transpire; they are dreams I have yet to dream. I withdraw into myself and a lethargy and lassitude envelop me. Yet this outside world which I apparently have renounced is more sharply with me than ever, by dint of the fact that the situation here holds so much less strangeness and terror for me than it did.
I know it's all very paradoxical and maybe my brain is so worn with poking and pulling that it can't function—I love you,
Ethel
ETHEL DARLING,
What does one write to his beloved when faced with the very grim reality that in eighteen days, on their fourteenth wedding anniversary, it is ordered that they be put to death?
The approaching darkest hour of our trial and the grave peril that threatens us require every effort on our part to avoid hysterics and false heroics, but only maintain a sober and calm approach to our most crucial problems.
Dearest, over and ver again, I have tried to analyze in the most objective manner possible the answers to the position of our government in our case. Everything indicates only one answer-that the wishes of certain madmen are being followed in order to use this case as a coercive bludgeon against all dissenters. However, 1 still have faith that the more responsible elements in the administration will let sanity be the better part of judgment and spare our lives. It seems to me that at this moment it is still touch and go, and therefore we must see to it that the maximum is done in our behalf.
Surely, the American government doesn't want such a damaging record as is documented in our case to go down in history, for it will stand condemned for all time for this gross miscarriage of justice and this brutal sentence against two innocent people. For in good conscience and self-respect we could never deny the simple truth that we are innocent.
By every reasoned consideration, we should be allowed to live while there remains grave doubt to afford us the chance to clear our name and bring the true facts to light. At this late hour, I am still confident the good people of our country will make their will felt in Washington and stop the execution.
* Sweetheart, I know that our children and our family are suffering a great deal right now and it is natural that we be concerned for their welfare. However, I think we will have to concentrate our strength on ourselves. First, we want to make sure that we stand up under the terrific pressure, and then we ought to try to contribute some share to the fight.
To my way of looking at the problem, this is the way we can look out for our children's interests best.
Honey dear, the Sunday issue of the New York Times had an excellent editorial on the essence of June, with particular emphasis on the physical beauty of the lush green around us. This month was ours, because then we were united as husband and wife and found the boundless joy of a flourishing, beautiful relationship. Precious noble woman, even to the end, I am completely devoted to you. All the love I possess is yours—
Julie
MY DEAREST DARLINGS,
This is the process known as "sweating it out," and it's tough, that's for sure. At the same time, we can't let a lot of chickens that go about their business without panic, even when something's frightening them—we can't let them put us to shame, can we? I was sorry afterward that I had not remembered the "example of the chickens" as you had put it to me in your last letter for it might have given you some comfort at the time of our parting.
Maybe you thought that I didn't feel like crying too when we were hugging and kissing goodbye, huh, even though I'm slightly older than 10. And maybe you thought I was just too matter of fact to stand, when your outraged feelings demanded acknowledgment in kind. Darlings, that would have been so easy, far too easy on myself; and I had to resist a very real temptation to follow your lead and break down with you. As I say it would have been only too easy, but it would not have been any kindness, at all. So I took the hard way instead of the easy, because I love you more than myself, and because I knew you needed that love far more than I needed the relief of crying.
Instead, I reassured you, as well as I could, in the minutes we had, and promised to write. There is one thing among many ethers I'd like you to know. The kisses are there between Daddy and myself even though we may not exchange them presently. And while it would be sweet to be able to do so, it is only to the degree that parents are able
to give each other and their children the strength and en-suragement to cope with their problems and to "sweat it out" if need be, it is only to that degree, I say, that people really love.
I know, sweethearts, an explanation of this kind cannot ever substitute for what we have been missing and for what we hope to be able to return to, nor do I intend it as any such thing. Only, as I say, we need to try to remain calm and free from panic, so that we can do all we can to help one another to see this thing through!
I shall continue writing you after Daddy's visit this morning but am sending out this incomplete letter in the mean-time.
All my love and all my kisses-Mommy
DEAREST MANNY,
The following letter is to be delivered to my children.
Dearest Sweethearts, my most precious children:
Only this morning it looked like we might be together again after all. Now that this cannot be, I want so much for you. to know all that I have come to know. Unfortunately I may write only a few simple words; the rest your own lives must teach you, even as mine taught me.
At first, of course, you will grieve bitterly for us, but
you will not grieve alone. That is our consolation and it must eventually be yours.
Eventually, too, you must come to believe that life is worth the living. Be comforted that even now, with the end of ours slowly approaching, we know this with a conviction that defeats the executioner!
Your lives must teach you, too, that good cannot really flourish in the midst of evil; that freedom and all the things that go to make upea truly satisfying and worthwhile life must sometimes be purchased very dearly. Be comforted, then, that we were serene and understood with the deepest kind of understanding, that civilization had not as yet progressed to the point where life did not have to be lost for the sake of life; and that we were comforted in the sure knowledge that others would carry on after us. gratication of living our lives out with you. Your any who is with me in these last momentous hours, sends his heart and all the love that is in it for his dearest boys.
Always remember that we were innocent and could not wrong our conscience.
We press you close and kiss you with all our strength,
Loviugly, Daddy and Mommy.
Julie, Ethel.
P.S. to Manny-The Ten Commandments religious medal and chain-and my wedding ring—I wish you to present to our children as a token of our undying love.
P.S. to Manny-Please be certain to give my best wishes to S* Me Tell him I love and honor him with all my heart— Tell him I want him to know that I feel he shares my triumph. For I have no fear and no regrets Only that the release from Trap was not completely effectuated and the qualities that I possessed could not expand to their fullest • capacities-I want him to have the pleasure of knowing how much he meant to me, how much he did to help me grow up-All our love to all our dear ones-Love you so much,
Ethel
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet....
MY VERY DEAREST,
I sit here feeling like a perfect hog for wallowing in tears of self-pity instead of writing you this weekend; reading your words and knowing there are none from me to make up for our separation this 12th anniversary of our marriage.
Yet I never was so much in love with you as I am today—
It is incredible that after 12 years of the kind of prin-cipled, constructive, wholesome living together that we did, that I should sit in a cell in Sing Sing awaiting my own legal murder, greeting you in this anguish of what would have been a joyous celebration of two memorable days. Incred-ible, too, that you should receive felicitations as husband and father in another cell, in which you sit in anticipation of a similar doom!
Bless you for that indomitable spirit that beats within you and gives me renewed cousege and strength.
I love you with all my being and want desperately to be worthy of you. Always and forever, Ethel
My VERY DEAREST,
I have the curious feeling of living in a world beyond whose walls no other world exists; in jail terminology, I've
"made it." I've "arrived," because the "street" no longer forms the magnet, the painfully plaguing goal, it once did.
The carefully drawn demarcations of the area in which I am permitted have dissolved, because there is no longer any other area.
This seems to be the frame of mind toward which I tend.
I am conscious of a need to remain immersed in my own thoughta tad felines an a re stance to sto the chay.
dren, and you, but-it's as though I don't really believe these events will transpire; they are dreams I have yet to dream. I withdraw into myself and a lethargy and lassitude envelop me. Yet this outside world which I apparently have renounced is more sharply with me than ever, by dint of the fact that the situation here holds so much less strangeness and terror for me than it did.
I know it's all very paradoxical and maybe my brain is so worn with poking and pulling that it can't function—I love you,
Ethel
ETHEL DARLING,
What does one write to his beloved when faced with the very grim reality that in eighteen days, on their fourteenth wedding anniversary, it is ordered that they be put to death?
The approaching darkest hour of our trial and the grave peril that threatens us require every effort on our part to avoid hysterics and false heroics, but only maintain a sober and calm approach to our most crucial problems.
Dearest, over and ver again, I have tried to analyze in the most objective manner possible the answers to the position of our government in our case. Everything indicates only one answer-that the wishes of certain madmen are being followed in order to use this case as a coercive bludgeon against all dissenters. However, 1 still have faith that the more responsible elements in the administration will let sanity be the better part of judgment and spare our lives. It seems to me that at this moment it is still touch and go, and therefore we must see to it that the maximum is done in our behalf.
Surely, the American government doesn't want such a damaging record as is documented in our case to go down in history, for it will stand condemned for all time for this gross miscarriage of justice and this brutal sentence against two innocent people. For in good conscience and self-respect we could never deny the simple truth that we are innocent.
By every reasoned consideration, we should be allowed to live while there remains grave doubt to afford us the chance to clear our name and bring the true facts to light. At this late hour, I am still confident the good people of our country will make their will felt in Washington and stop the execution.
* Sweetheart, I know that our children and our family are suffering a great deal right now and it is natural that we be concerned for their welfare. However, I think we will have to concentrate our strength on ourselves. First, we want to make sure that we stand up under the terrific pressure, and then we ought to try to contribute some share to the fight.
To my way of looking at the problem, this is the way we can look out for our children's interests best.
Honey dear, the Sunday issue of the New York Times had an excellent editorial on the essence of June, with particular emphasis on the physical beauty of the lush green around us. This month was ours, because then we were united as husband and wife and found the boundless joy of a flourishing, beautiful relationship. Precious noble woman, even to the end, I am completely devoted to you. All the love I possess is yours—
Julie
MY DEAREST DARLINGS,
This is the process known as "sweating it out," and it's tough, that's for sure. At the same time, we can't let a lot of chickens that go about their business without panic, even when something's frightening them—we can't let them put us to shame, can we? I was sorry afterward that I had not remembered the "example of the chickens" as you had put it to me in your last letter for it might have given you some comfort at the time of our parting.
Maybe you thought that I didn't feel like crying too when we were hugging and kissing goodbye, huh, even though I'm slightly older than 10. And maybe you thought I was just too matter of fact to stand, when your outraged feelings demanded acknowledgment in kind. Darlings, that would have been so easy, far too easy on myself; and I had to resist a very real temptation to follow your lead and break down with you. As I say it would have been only too easy, but it would not have been any kindness, at all. So I took the hard way instead of the easy, because I love you more than myself, and because I knew you needed that love far more than I needed the relief of crying.
Instead, I reassured you, as well as I could, in the minutes we had, and promised to write. There is one thing among many ethers I'd like you to know. The kisses are there between Daddy and myself even though we may not exchange them presently. And while it would be sweet to be able to do so, it is only to the degree that parents are able
to give each other and their children the strength and en-suragement to cope with their problems and to "sweat it out" if need be, it is only to that degree, I say, that people really love.
I know, sweethearts, an explanation of this kind cannot ever substitute for what we have been missing and for what we hope to be able to return to, nor do I intend it as any such thing. Only, as I say, we need to try to remain calm and free from panic, so that we can do all we can to help one another to see this thing through!
I shall continue writing you after Daddy's visit this morning but am sending out this incomplete letter in the mean-time.
All my love and all my kisses-Mommy
DEAREST MANNY,
The following letter is to be delivered to my children.
Dearest Sweethearts, my most precious children:
Only this morning it looked like we might be together again after all. Now that this cannot be, I want so much for you. to know all that I have come to know. Unfortunately I may write only a few simple words; the rest your own lives must teach you, even as mine taught me.
At first, of course, you will grieve bitterly for us, but
you will not grieve alone. That is our consolation and it must eventually be yours.
Eventually, too, you must come to believe that life is worth the living. Be comforted that even now, with the end of ours slowly approaching, we know this with a conviction that defeats the executioner!
Your lives must teach you, too, that good cannot really flourish in the midst of evil; that freedom and all the things that go to make upea truly satisfying and worthwhile life must sometimes be purchased very dearly. Be comforted, then, that we were serene and understood with the deepest kind of understanding, that civilization had not as yet progressed to the point where life did not have to be lost for the sake of life; and that we were comforted in the sure knowledge that others would carry on after us. gratication of living our lives out with you. Your any who is with me in these last momentous hours, sends his heart and all the love that is in it for his dearest boys.
Always remember that we were innocent and could not wrong our conscience.
We press you close and kiss you with all our strength,
Loviugly, Daddy and Mommy.
Julie, Ethel.
P.S. to Manny-The Ten Commandments religious medal and chain-and my wedding ring—I wish you to present to our children as a token of our undying love.
P.S. to Manny-Please be certain to give my best wishes to S* Me Tell him I love and honor him with all my heart— Tell him I want him to know that I feel he shares my triumph. For I have no fear and no regrets Only that the release from Trap was not completely effectuated and the qualities that I possessed could not expand to their fullest • capacities-I want him to have the pleasure of knowing how much he meant to me, how much he did to help me grow up-All our love to all our dear ones-Love you so much,
Ethel
July 19, 2007
Still going. Long, heavy, and heavily annotated transcriptions by the Rosenbergs' older son. Interesting to dip into for Julius's self-styled p.r. campaign and touching for Ethel's growing hysteria.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews