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{
    "localId": "12608524",
    "label": "Memorandum from James Bennett to Herbert Brownell with Report of Interview with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg",
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{
    "id": "12608524",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/12608524",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Memorandum from James Bennett to Herbert Brownell with Report of Interview with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/12608524",
    "collections": [
        "Herbert Brownell Jr. Papers",
        "Personal Files"
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    "naId": 12608524,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "day": 3,
            "logicalDate": "1953-06-03",
            "month": 6,
            "year": 1953
        }
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{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/eisenhower/dde-1026/580532/580532_001_02.jpg",
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    "ocrText": "of ..\n-2-\nan\nThe third part of his conversation consisted of a denunciation\nof Judge Kaufman and the sentence he gave. How, he asked, could it be\npossible under any circumstances that a death sentence be meted out to\nhim and his wife in the face of the sentence of thirty years given to\nHarry Gold and fifteen years to David Greenglass, who were admittedly\narch-conspirators in an espionage plot. He contended that he was in no\nsense guilty of espionage and that the sentence WEB savage in the\nextreme.\nJulius lacked the detached calmness and self-assurance that\ncharacterized my former conversations with him. He no longer seems to\nhave the attitude of the martyr, which I felt marked his conversation\nthe last time I saw him. Notwithstanding the fact that he told me several\ntimes that he understood I was not there to make any deal with him or put\nhim on the rack, as he phrased it, he nevertheless was quite belligerent,\nexcitable and made some statements that on questioning he was willing to\nmodify. He talked much of Fascist tactics used in his case and inferred\nthe sentence was not what one could expect of a great democracy, that he\nand his wife were of such snall importance peoples abroad would never be\nable to understand our action in condenning then to death.\nI next went to the women's cellblock where I saw Mrs. Rosenberg.\nI followed about the sane approach in telling her that the purpose of my\nvisit was to see how she was getting along and also to ascertain whether\nshe by any chance desired me to put her in touch with the proper Government\nagents so that she could have an opportunity to make any statement or give\nany information about her case that would be helpful to the Government in\nsolving some unanswered questions relating to the whole matter. Evidently\nshe and Julius had anticipated some such inquiry because her attitude and\nher statements were substantially the same as those of her husband, al-\nthough she wasn't quite as verbose or excited as he was. She said that\nobviously the Government could not prove whatever suspicions they had\nabout certain aspects of the case or we would not be turning to her for\ncooperation and that she had no intention of putting her finger on somebody\nelse or giving false or misleading information even though it might have the\neffect of staying her own execution. She said that if the Government\nwanted her testimony on any matter she would have to be brought into open\ncourt.\nRealizing that I wagn't getting anywhere, I asked the Warden to\nbring in Julius and to be present while I again repeated the purpose of\nmy presence in the institution and told him that I would appreciate it if\nhe would transmit promptly any message that either Julius or Ethel wished\nto have brought to the attention of the Department. Both Julius and Ethel\nagain protested that they would have no messages and no information and\nthat the only thing I could do for them would be to present to the Attorney\nGeneral a recommendation that their sentence be commuted. My finel word"
}