Heir to an Execution

Well I was looking forward to an earlyish night last night. But you know how it is when you leave the TV on just that bit too long and something hooks you. Last night it was a film/documentary on BBC4 (just about the best thing to come out of the digital broadcasting revolution). It was called Heir to an Execution and told the story of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a married couple who were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison in New York in 1953. They had been found guilty of treason - specifically passing on secrets to the Russians concerning the atomic bomb. This was during the height of McCarthyism and east-west paranoia.

The story was told by Ivy Meeropol, the grandaughter of the couple. The facts of the case are not clearcut. The Rosenbergs were both communist sympathisers and evidence which has since been made public would indicate that Julius probably was involved in espionage though to what extent, it is unknown. Ethel, however, though she could have known of her husband's involvement was probably not involved directly. One of the many tragedies of the case is that the couple were implicated by Ethel's own brother. He has since admitted perjuring himself to save his own life and that of his wife. Julius and Ethel both protested their innocence until the end. A third person charged at the same time as the Rosenbergs pleaded guilty and received a 30-year prison sentence. Evidence was flimsy to say the least and the Supreme Court Judge refused to admit vital evidence from the Defence. Rather than show clemency to the couple, the state chose instead to orphan the couple's two young sons. Family members declined to give a home to the two little boys who were later adopted. This was another great tragedy of the case.

The film was most thought-provoking and it is little wonder that this era in American history inspired playwright Arthur Miller to write his most famous play, The Crucible, about the Salem witch trials. Ivy Meeropol's film raises many questions about the power of the state and the moral rectitude of the death penalty. Many ordinary Americans protested at the appropriateness of the the death penalty in this particular case. To an outsider the case smacks of scapegoating to the nth degree. Ivy, her father, her uncle and the rest of the Meeropol family have had to live in the shadow of this appalling injustice for a lifetime.

What was heartening about this story is that in spite of the traumas of early life, the sons of Ethel and Julius appear, whatever they may privately feel, to have grown up without the obvious bitterness that one might expect. The making of the film was a journey for Ivy and her family, to rediscover the couple from the Lower East Side of Manhattan whose political interests became their undoing. It is a tragic story but it is one which Ivy has now reclaimed for her family.