Anne Sebba’s Psychologically Astute Account of Ethel Rosenberg

Review of Anne Sebba’s Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2021), ISBN 1-978-1-250-19863-1, pages 313, hardbound, $28.99.

On July 17, 1950, Julius Rosenberg was arrested in New York City and charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. Three and a half weeks later, his wife Ethel was also arrested and, like Julius, was charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. Now, 71 years after it all began, Anne Sebba has crafted a psychologically astute biography of Ethel Rosenberg, showing not only that Ethel was innocent but that she was prosecuted and psychologically harassed for the sole purpose of breaking her husband Julius.

Soon after Julius’ arrest, Ethel was called to testify before a grand jury. Then on August 11, 1950, she too was arrested. At that time, the government’s eventual case against Ethel Rosenberg didn’t yet exist, and didn’t exist until late February in the following winter, 1951. Then, new testimony from Ethel’s sister-in-law Ruth Greenglass, soon seconded by Ruth’s husband David (Ethel’s brother), gave the government what it wanted against Ethel Rosenberg.

The new testimony from Ruth and David Greenglass came about under questioning by federal prosecutors Irving Saypol and Roy Cohn. Ten days later, on March 6, 1951, the Rosenbergs’ trial began. Anne Sebba’s new book makes clear that during the trial, when the Greenglasses were on the stand being questioned by these prosecutors, they were following a script, which had emerged ten days before while Saypol and Cohn had questioned them in private. Ruth and David Greenglass knew what to say at the Rosenbergs’ trial thanks to leading questions—cues—given to them by the prosecutors. David and Ruth Greenglass had been coached by the prosecutors and very plausibly had been suborned by them to commit perjury. The prosecutors were able to achieve this “breakthrough” because, like Julius Rosenberg, David and Ruth Greenglass were in very deep trouble. As for Ethel, no actual documentation of any spying or accessory role on her part has ever been revealed. Yet Ethel was sentenced to death while Ruth was never charged with anything at all.

The false new testimony that first Ruth, and then her husband David, delivered was that back in mid-September 1945, Ethel had typed up from David’s handwriting some secret atomic bomb-related information which David had brought home from Los Ala-

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mos National Laboratory in New Mexico where he worked as a machinist. Long afterward, the journalist Sam Roberts managed to track down David, who admitted to Roberts that Ethel didn’t actually type anything of the sort and that if anyone at all had typed such information from his handwriting, it would have been his wife, Ruth (see also Sam Roberts, The Brother, 2^nd Edition, 2014, 291-302, 332-344, 488-491, 512-513).

The prosecutors thus used the Greenglasses to frame Ethel Rosenberg. Why? Anne Sebba suggests it was because Julius Rosenberg was a courier, whereas David Greenglass was merely a spy. Julius transmitted secrets from a fluctuating but significant number of American spies to Alexander Feklisov, a Russian intelligence agent who worked in New York City for the legitimate U.S.-Soviet trading company Amtorg. Besides Julius’ brother-in-law David Greenglass, another spy who funneled information through Julius was Morton Sobell, a radar scientist who was tried with Julius and Ethel but wasn’t accused of anything atomic.

Julius and Ethel were sentenced to death on April 5, 1951. Sobell was sentenced to 30 years. Later, David Greenglass was sentenced to 15 years, which stunned his wife. She and David had received the impression he would be dealt with more leniently.

The government’s reason for arresting and charging Ethel was to induce Julius to “sing”—induce him to name others for whom he transmitted secret information to Feklisov. Ethel was prosecuted, framed, and sentenced to death as a way to break Julius, either through his concern for Ethel and their two young boys or by Ethel herself breaking and asking Julius to cooperate with the government. It didn’t work, despite the government’s effort continuing until the very day in June 1953 when the Rosenbergs were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing prison. The state of New York meanwhile was trying to help break the Rosenbergs by institutionalizing their two sons, Michael aged 10 and Robert aged six, rather than letting them live in the loving home of schoolteachers Anne and Abel Meeropol. Thus Ethel wasn’t just framed but was also put through an emotional wringer.

Anne Sebba’s biography of Ethel is first and foremost psychological. It extensively documents Ethel’s emotional weaknesses and vulnerabilities, which were rooted in her mother Tessie Greenglass’s lifelong indifference to her. But the biography also extensively documents Ethel’s mental strength. From her late

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 teens, she had excelled in everything she attempted—acting in plays, singing semi-professionally both choral and solo, mastering difficult jobs, and organizing a successful labor strike. Her new challenge was far harder, but she faced it head-on.

What about Julius? Julius was an optimist. He thought something would turn up. If nothing else, then surely there’d be presidential clemency for his wife if not for himself. Ethel wasn’t a pessimist but compared to Julius she was a realist. Despite her fragile emotions, her strong mind sustained her through her three-year apotheosis from 1950 to 1953. Her final two years were in solitary confinement at Sing Sing and her emotions sometimes ran wild, but her strong mind held her to her lifelong values and her thought-out decisions. Back in the 1400s, even Joan of Arc had temporarily caved in. Ethel didn’t cave in even temporarily. I share her new biographer’s great admiration for her.

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