Infamous 1940s spy Rosenberg claimed ‘loyalty, patriotism’ to America

Eight years before he and his wife Ethel were executed in the electric chair at New York‘s notorious Sing Sing prison, Soviet spy Julius Rosenberg pleaded with federal officials to keep his job with the Army Signal Corps.

In a secret two-page memo to officials who had just suspended Rosenberg, he claimed he was wronged because of a “discredited charge” that he had joined the Communist Party.

“It only serves to persecute me, prevents me from making my contribution to the war effort as an electronic engineer and earning my livelihood in the established American way, and thereby denies me my inalienable right to maintain myself, my wife and child,” he wrote on Feb. 13, 1945.

“I refer you to all the contractors and their representatives at whose plants I’ve been stationed, to all my former Resident Inspectors in Charge and my former Officers in Charge, as to my technical ability, efficiency and character; they can testify also as to my loyalty, patriotism and devotion to my country,” he added in his failed plea.

The memo is one of the prizes in an online auction this week from Alexander Historical Auctions. It could fetch $40,000.

The two-day sale, which begins on Thursday, also includes paintings by former Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Alexander Historical Auctions President Bill Panagopulos reviewed the sale with Secrets and said the Rosenberg memo is a very rare offering.

In his online preview, he wrote that it includes Rosenberg’s signature, giving it an added feature for history buffs. “An autograph — with content — of the utmost rarity!” he said.

Panagopulos included some of the spying history of the criminal duo in his preview and said that at the time he begged to keep his job in 1945, Rosenberg was already spying for Moscow.

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“In 1940, Rosenberg joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a civilian engineer, working at the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories at Fort Monmouth. By 1942, he had become involved in espionage for the Soviet Union, providing numerous classified documents, including a model of a proximity fuze. He also attempted to recruit others to spy for the Soviet Union, including his brother-in-law David Greenglass, a member of the Special Engineer Detachment at Los Alamos who passed details about the Manhattan Project to Rosenberg,” the preview said.

In 1950, Greenglass revealed Rosenberg as a spy, and the Rosenbergs were arrested. They were tried and executed three years later without giving a statement, making his Signal Corps memo even more valuable.