Was Ethel Rosenberg A Spy?

HISTORY This Week

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History, Education, Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

March 29, 1951. The world is waiting for the jury’s verdict. Ethel and Julius Rosenberg have been accused of spying for the Soviet Union, conspiring to send atomic secrets to America’s enemy in the Cold War. Ethel and Julius are tried in court together, and after the jury finds both Rosenbergs guilty, they receive the same punishment – the death penalty. But while they were treated the same, these two individuals have very different stories. Today, who was Ethel Rosenberg, the only woman executed for espionage in U.S. history? And why is her guilt still a topic of debate today? Special thanks to Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy; Michael and Robert Meeropol, the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg; and Steven Usdin, journalist and author of Engineering Communism: How Two Americans Spied for Stalin and Founded the Soviet Silicon Valley. ** This episode originally aired March 28, 2022. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History Channel, original podcast.
0:04.4	History this week, March 29th, 1951.
0:10.4	I'm Sally Helm.
0:15.3	It's after midnight, and the jury still doesn't have an answer.
0:20.6	They've been deliberating for hours in the courthouse at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan.
0:25.6	And their verdict will be big news, because this trial has been a sensation.
0:32.6	Ethel and Julius Rosenberg are accused of conspiracy to commit espionage.
0:39.3	The prosecution has tried to make the case that Julius helped recruit a network of spies
0:44.3	to send atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.
0:48.3	They say Ethel was a part of it too, that she was just as guilty as her husband.
0:55.0	She's facing the same punishment as Julius.
0:58.0	They could both be sentenced to death, leaving their two children orphaned.
1:04.0	That's why one of the jurors is still a holdout.
1:09.0	James Gibbons is an accountant.
1:12.7	He lives in the Bronx with his wife and two kids,
1:14.6	and he can't help but fixate on Ethel
1:17.2	and how convicting her would destroy a family.
1:21.3	Journalist Ted Morgan later tracks down this juror and others
1:24.5	for a 1975 piece in Esquire magazine.
1:30.1	In it, Gibbons explains, quote,
1:38.2	it was the thought of those two small children. Finally, after hours of discussion, the jury decides they need to sleep on it. The court scrambles to find them 12 rooms together at a hotel, all on the
1:43.9	same floor so officials can keep an eye on them.
	...

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