David Greenglass, Ethel Rosenberg's Brother, Spy Ring Co-Conspirator dead at 92

The New York Times this week published a belated obituary for David Greenglass, 92, whose spy-trial testimony helped seal the fate of his sister and brother-in-law, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. The article reads, in part:

“For his role in the conspiracy, Mr. Greenglass, an Army sergeant whohad stolen nuclear intelligence from Los Alamos, N.M., went to prison for almost a decade, then changed his name and lived quietly until a journalist tracked him down. He admitted then, nearly a half-century later, that he had lied on the witness stand to save his wife from prosecution, giving testimony that he was never sure about but that nevertheless helped send his sister and her husband to the electric chair in 1953.”

A variety of sites provide a wealth of primary source material on the Rosenberg trial, and the Greenglass’s role in those proceedings. The Wilson Center’s Rosenberg Archive: A Historical Timeline contains a variety of digitized items, among them are the code-breaking VENONA files which provided evidence of the Rosenbergs' One Soviet intelligence cable in that collection notes that Liberal (Julius Rosenberg’s code name) “recommended the wife of his wife’s brother, Ruth Greenglass.” The National Security Archive provides access to Rosenberg Grand Jury Files, including testimony of Ruth Greenglass. The Famous Trials website from the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Law includes trial testimony, images and the text of the Rosenberg’s last letter to their children.

involvement with the Soviet spy ring.

The image show above depicts Mr. Greenglass and his late wife, Ruth. That image, along with a number of others, is available at The National Archives.

Lethal Illness: A Historical Perspective

As you can see from the above title-page, debates over governments’ responses to outbreaks of deadly, contagious illnesses are nothing new. The image above comes from a work published during the Great Plague of London in and is the digital archive Contagion: Historical View of Diseases and Epidemic. That archive, part of Harvard University’s Open Collections Program, features material relating to a variety of lethal sicknesses, from the pestilence of the late 15^th Century to the Spanish Influence Epidemic of 1918-1919.