INDEPENDENCE BETRAYED: The Rosenberg Files (Part 1) "Atomic Traitors"

0:03 Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Read Carter, and welcome to a very special weekend edition of Celebrity Trials. It's Saturday, July fifth, the day after Independence Day, and while you're probably still recovering from fireworks and barbecues, I want to take you back to a time when America's very independence felt under attack from within. Today we're diving into one of the most controversial trials in American history, a case that asked the ultimate question, what's the price of betraying your country. This is the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the couple who went from anonymous New Yorkers to the most hated people in America, and ultimately to their deaths in the electric chair. It's a story about espionage, atomic secrets, cold War paranoia, and whether two Americans deserve to die for what they allegedly gave to the Soviet Union. Over the next two days, we're going to explore every aspect of this case, the crime, the investigation, the trial, and the execution that divided America, because seventy four years later, we're still asking the same questions. Were the Rosenbergs guilty, did they deserve to die, And what does their case tell us about justice in times of national fear? Picture this, It's August nineteen forty five. America has just dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II and

1:36 establishing the United States as the world's only nuclear superpower. The bomb was our ultimate weapon, the secret that would keep America safe in an increasingly dangerous world. But what if I told you that even as those bombs were falling, American citizens were already stealing our atomic secrets and handing them to our enemies. Julius Rosenberg was twenty seven years old, an electrical engineer working for the US Army Signal Corps. His wife, Ethel was twenty five, a former aspiring actress turned housewife and mother. They lived in a modest apartment on Manhattan's Lower East Side, raising their two young sons and seemingly living the American dream. But according to the FBI, the Rosenbergs were living a double life. Julius, they alleged, was recruiting a network of American citizens to steal military secrets and pass them to the Soviet Union. The most devastating theft information about the atomic bomb itself passed along by Ethel's brother, David Greenglass, who was working on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The FBI claimed that Julius convinced green Glass to sketch details of the bomb's implosion device, which Julius then passed to Soviet contacts.

2:55 The information was so valuable prosecutors later argued that it accelerated the Soviet nuclear program by years, fundamentally altering the balance of power in the Cold War. The Rosenberg case began to unravel in nineteen fifty when British physicist Klaus Fuchs was arrested in London for passing atomic secrets to the Soviets. Fuch's confession led investigators to Harry Gold, an American chemist who had served as a courier between Soviet agents and American spies. Gold's arrest led to David Greenglass, Ethel's brother, who was working as a machinist at Los Alamos. Faced with the prospect of life in prison or death, green Glass made a deal he would testify against his sister and brother in law in exchange for a lighter sentence.

3:44 On July seventeenth, nineteen fifty, FBI agents knocked on the door of the Rosenberg apartment. Julius was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit espionage. Ethel was arrested a month later in what prosecutors later admitted was lefe largely a strategy to pressure Julius into confessing. The arrests sent shockwaves through America. Here was a case that seemed to confirm every Cold War fear that communist sympathizers were living among us, stealing our secrets and undermining our security from within. The trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg began on March sixth, nineteen fifty one, in the Federal Courthouse in Lower Manhattan.

4:27 Judge Irving Kaufman presided over what would become one of the most sensational trials of the twentieth century. The prosecution's case was built largely on the testimony of confessed spies who had already pleaded guilty and were testifying in hopes of lighter sentences. David Greenglass testified that Julius had recruited him to steal atomic secrets, and that Ethel had typed up the stolen documents on their home. Typewriter Harry Gould testified about serving as a courier between the Rosenbergs and Soviet agents. Morton Sobel, Julius's college friend, was charged as a co conspirator for allegedly helping to recruit other spies.

5:08 The defense, led by A. Manuel Block, argued that the Rosenbergs were being scapegoaded for America's Cold War fears. They pointed out that much of the evidence was circumstantial, that key witnesses were testifying to save themselves, and that the government had failed to prove any atomic secrets had actually reached the Soviet Union. But the prosecution had one devastating piece of evidence, a console table that Julius had allegedly given to the Rosenbergs, which contained a hidden compartment for storing stolen documents. When FBI agents used a saw to open the table in court, revealing the secret compartment, it seemed to confirm every allegation against the couple more in a moment. On March twenty ninth, nineteen fifty one, after deliberating for less than a day, the jury returned guilty verdicts against Julius, Ethel and Morton Sobel. The rosenberg showed no emotion as the verdicts were read. But the real shock came a week later when Judge Kaufman announced their sentences.

6:23 Julius and Ethel Rosenberg would die in the electric chair. Morton Sobel received thirty years in prison. David Greenglass, who had cooperated with the government, received fifteen years. Judge Kaufman's sentencing statement was extraordinary in its harshness. I consider your crime worse than murder. Plain, deliberate, contemplated murder is dwarfed in magnitude by comparison with the crime you have committed. In committing the act of murder, the criminal kills only his victim. The Rosenbergs, by helping the Russians in their development of the atomic bomb, have altered the course of history to the disadvantage of our country. That's where we'll pick up tomorrow, with the rosenberg sitting on death row, their case becoming an international cause celebrate, and America grappling with whether two parents deserve to die for their alleged crimes.

7:19 We'll explore the massive protests, the legal appeals, the last minute clemency please, and ultimately the June nineteenth, nineteen fifty three execution that made the Rosenbergs the first Americans executed for espionage during peacetime, but we'll also examine the doubts that emerged decades later. Was Ethel Rosenberg actually guilty or was she executed simply for being Julius's wife? Did the stolen information actually help the Soviet bomb program? And what does the Rosenberg case tell us about justice in times of national fear? This is Celebrity Trials, your new daily addiction. Make sure you're subscribed, because tomorrow we'll conclude this holiday weekend special with the dramatic final chapter of the Rosenberg story.

8:07 I'm read, Carter, Sometimes the most American thing you can do is question what justice really means. See you tomorrow