Verlag: Various publishers, Various cities, 1950
The execution of Communist spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on June 19, 1953 was a culminating event for the Red Scare zealots who preached that Communists had infiltrated the upper echelons of government and for the progressives who accused the Red Scare zealots of treating the Rosenbergs as sacrificial lambs. Support groups sprung up as soon as the Rosenbergs and their conspirators were arrested in 1950 and the material in this small collection reflects the campaigns to free them, to give them clemency, or in the case of one item to reopen their case. Most of the items were issued before their execution, one soon after, and one many decades later (9 items total). They include: Boyer, Richard O. The Cold-War Murder: The Frame-Up Against Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. New York City: Civil Rights Congress, 1952. Stapled, newsprint wrappers, 47 pp., photographs. Chipping along the spine, a few tiny nicks or closed tears to the wrapper edges. Six items by the National Committee to Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case, including a form letter by Chairman Joseph Brainin, an Amicus Brief in the Rosenberg Case (both 11" x 8 ½"), A Fact Sheet on Anti-Semitism in the Case: Newspaper Comment (mimeographed on both sides of a 14" x 8 ½" sheet), a pamphlet, The Rosenberg Case: A Fact Sheet (8 pp.), a pamphlet, To Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case by William A. Reuben (32 pp.) and an appeal flyer that calls for clemency. All published in 1952. Segal, Edith. I Call To You Across the Continent: Poems and songs by Edith Segal for Morton Sobell in Alcatraz, and to the memory of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, executed June 19, 1953. New York: People's Artists, Inc., 1953. Stapled, illustrated wrappers, 23 pp. Includes an introduction by Helen Sobell, wife of Morton who was one of the Rosenberg conspirators who ultimately spent 17 years in prison (who many years later acknowledged his guilt). Lehrman, N. S. (editor). Newsletter of the National Committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case. New York, 1985. A single sheet folded (11" x 8 ½"), 4 pp. Single issue of the NCRRC's newsletter calling for a Congressional Commission of Inquiry into the Rosenberg case. An editorial maintains that it was purely Red Scare hysteria and anti-Jewish/leftist animus that led to the Rosenbergs' execution. Wilcox Collection stamp to the front page.