An Execution in the Family: One Son's Journey

by Robert Meeropol

Book Overview

An Execution in the Family details Robert Meeropol's political odyssey from Rosenberg son to political activist in his own right, and chronicles a very personal story of self-discovery. It is the story of how he tried to balance a strong desire to live a normal life and raise a family, with a growing need to create something useful out of his nightmare childhood. It is also a poignant account of how, at age forty-three, he finally found a way to honor...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312306377
• ISBN13: 9780312306373
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Powerful and Inspiring

This book is an inspiring read that speaks to all of us. Not only has he given us a mvoing personal account of his own life, but Robert Meeropol challenges us all, as he challenges himself, to lead a life of purpose and humanity.As a child of his generation, I could not help but see bits of myself and the inner conflicts of my life throughout the book. I laughed and read passages aloud to my spouse, but also shed more than a few tears. But in the end, this is a story of triumph and struggle. Not to be missed.

Excellent Job

Robert Meeropol manages to write a book about what must be an intensely painful subject for him -- his parents' execution -- with few traces of bitterness or rancor. He also deals honestly with the anger he does have, most of which is reserved for his uncle, David Greenglass. His approach to the question of their guilt or innocence is remarkably evenhanded, which makes the book all the more credible. Although he and his brother have lived their lives in the shadow of their parents' executions, both seem to have carved out productive, happy lives for themselves, which gives a glimmer of hope to this tragic story, well told.

Powerful and Deeply Moving

Robert Meeropol's memoir of life as one of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg's two sons, with its sardonic title echoing James Agee's novel "A Death in the Family" (although strictly speaking it's incomplete, since Meeropol had *two* executions in his family), is a powerful and moving account of growing up under the shadow of the legalized murder of both his parents by the United States government.Having a parent in prison is not easy for a child. Having a parent executed is even worse. But having had *both* your parents executed for crimes they almost certainly did not commit, and having them become for a time the most vilified couple in America is a huge psychic burden, one which Meeropol repressed for a long time. In many ways, as he points out, he was fortunate -- he was adopted by a loving couple who raised both him and his older brother well. He received a good education, married and began a career and a family. But underneath it all was a secret he told to almost no one until he was in late twenties: that his parents had been sent to the electric chair for conspiracy to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union.Not all of Meeropol's book is about the Rosenberg Case. He has had an interesting life on his own merits, and much of it makes for engrossing reading. If I have any reservations at all about the book it's because, maybe due to his being dyslexic, possibly because he's worked with children for many years, Meeropol's prose style is a little simplistic. To put it mildly. He uses commas so sparingly that I began to suspect he'd read way too much Hemingway. An average paragraph will read: CLAUSE COMMA CLAUSE FULLSTOP CLAUSE COMMA CLAUSE FULL STOP CLAUSE COMMA CLAUSE FULL STOP. I'm not saying that he should have necessarily imitated the later Henry James, but the unintentionally faux-Hemingway prose style does get a little monotonous at times.The most gripping part of the book for me was Meeropol's growing realization that, while his parents were almost certainly not guilty of the charges for which they were executed, he was forced "to accept the possibility that my father had participated in an illegal and covert effort to help the Soviet Union defeat the Nazis" by supplying them with technical military information not related to the atomic bomb. Reading his son's account of how he came to grips with the fact that Julius Rosenberg allowed his devotion to the Communist ideology to enable him to give military secrets to the Russians (who, it should be pointed out, were our allies at the time) in spite of the disaster that it brought to his family, you are impressed with Robert Meeropol's desire to find out the truth about his parents, no matter what it might be. Meeropol makes a strong case that, not only was his father not guilty of providing the Russians with the secret of the atomic bomb, he was executed along with his wife as the result of a criminal conspiracy between the attorney general of the United States and a Supreme

Fascinating

I never knew that the Rosenberg children were basically forced to assume a different last name so they wouldn't be persecuted by children and adults throughout their lives. Instead of understandably seeking revenge against those that did wrong by his parents (and our democracy), Robert Meeropol has adopted a philosophy of the highest order, to create something constructive out of something terribly heinous. His argument against the death penalty in Chapter 9 is so eloquently convincing that it should be read by every citizen of the free world. I don't believe this to be an understatement. If you read this review, don't just sit there... get the book and read that chapter!! The author also describes his support of Mumia Abu Jamal and how the Fraternal Order of Police stance for execution is more vengeance than truth-oriented. It's a controversial stance, and he doesn't belabor the point. On top of it all, he even suggests that he isn't quite convinced that his father wasn't guilty of something, just that there was no evidence to support the government's case against him, and even moreso with his mother. It seems that had the Rosenbergs admitted some guilt, their lives would be spared, Because they refused to lie, they chose death instead. Turns out they were brave, and their executioners cowards. Not a great moment for the USA.Written simply and with a voice free of self righteousness, Meeropol suggests the proper way our species should think, without moral relativism, and without the hysterics of today's political talking heads. This book makes places like Fox News obsolete.

One Son's Journey

This is a wonderful, inspiring, truth-telling account of the Rosenbergs' younger son's life and growth into a most impressive survivor of the loss of both parents, neglect, and serious mistreatment by the government that executed his parents. Meeropol's view of their innocence is so balanced, so comprehensive, so sane. His commitment to continue their work and ethic is very convincing. The writing is superb--unvarnished and in his own voice, whether as a 5 year-old child or a 56 year-old fully developed social activist.