On New York City's Lower East Side, Knickerbocker Village sits between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. On the 11th floor of 10 Monroe St., a Cold War drama unfolded in the apartment at the end of the hall.
Michael Meeropol remembers it clearly. It was July , and he was 7 years old. He was listening to "The Lone Ranger" on the radio when he heard the knock on the door. He assumed the men who filled his family's apartment were friends of his father's, but when his mother yelled "I want a lawyer," he knew something was strange. When his father left that day, he never came back.
That's because the men were F.B.I. agents who arrested his father, Julius Rosenberg, accusing him of running a spy ring to help the Soviet Union make an atomic bomb. Julius' wife, Ethel, was arrested about a month later, and three years later, the couple was convicted and executed. Never before had a husband and wife been sentenced to death, and the dramatic execution made Michael and his brother, Robert, orphans.
This week on 60 Minutes, correspondent Anderson Cooper speaks with Michael and Robert Meeropol about what it was like to be the children of accused Communist spies during th
The song “Strange Fruit,” the devastating protest anthem made famous by Billie Holiday in , is famously one of the first songs to express the inhumanity of racism. Recorded in , it’s considered the civil rights movement’s first significant song and the first direct musical assault on racial lynchings in the South. What you may not know is that the song was written by a Jewish man from the Bronx, whose personal journey included encounters with Communism and a surprising connection to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
Abel Meeropol was born in to Russian-Jewish immigrants. He studied at City College of New York, then at Harvard, and became an English teacher at a New York high school. Meeropol was also a poet and social activist who was deeply disturbed by American racism in the South. His son later recalled that his “ferocious anti-racist beliefs” were deeply rooted in his Jewish identity. One of Meeropol’s first poems was titled “I am a Jew,” in which he wrote about the intersection of anti-Semitism and racism towards African-Americans. These beliefs led him to join the Communist Party, and many of his early poems and songs in the s were contributions to left-leaning organizations.
70 Years After Their Executions, Rosenberg Sons Still Looking to Clear Mother’s Name
Seventy years after the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, their sons, Michael and Robert Meeropol, have renewed their efforts to clear their mother’s name. Just ten and six years old when their parents were executed for federal charges of conspiracy to commit espionage, both men grew up believing in their parents’ innocence. The Rosenbergs remain the only individuals put to death for peacetime espionage in American history.
There have always been serious questions about Ethel’s guilt in particular. The key testimony against her (by her brother) was a lie, as he later admitted. The government also used the prosecution of Ethel to force Julius to confess. In July , the Meeropols filed two additional FOIA requests with the NSA and National Archives, requesting the release of all documents relating to their mother.
In the post-Watergate era, both men advocated for greater governmental transparency, ultimately bolstering the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as a tool to request files regardin
Where Are Michael and Robert Meeropol Now?
‘Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn’ is a look into the role Roy Cohn played in Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s espionage trial, and how later he was tied to several prominent political figures, making him and several of his activities being-deemed as extremely notorious. Decades after his death, his involvement in the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg has been brought to notice by the couple’s children, Michael, and Robert Meeropol.
Who Are Michael and Robert Meeropol?
Michael and Robert Meeropol are Julius and Ethel Rosenberg’s children who were minors at the time their parents died. After the death of their parents, none of their relatives adopted them. In an interview, Robert Meeropol said, “They were terrified. Like, for instance, my father’s older sister wanted to take us in. But her husband owned a small grocery store. And he said, If people find out I’ve taken in the children of the Rosenbergs&#; they won’t buy food from my store.” The two have also stayed in an orphanage, but their saving grace was their high school teacher, a renowned songwriter and s
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