Born in the eye of the FBI It is 50 years since Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed as spies. Their son Robert was just one of the 'red diaper' babies - children of communists, targets of McCarthy. Gary Younge tracks them down Thursday June 05 2003 The Guardian
On the evening of June 19 1953, Robert Meeropol was sent out to play while his parents were being executed. He was six years' old, and while he had only a vague idea of what was happening, he knew that whatever was going on did not bode well for his future. "We were watching a ball game at a friend's house when this newsflash crawled across the bottom of the screen," says Meeropol, "but I didn't know what it said." His brother Michael, however, who was 10, knew only too well what it meant and what was about to happen: "That's it, goodbye, goodbye," he said. With the whole drama unfolding on the cusp of his infant consciousness, Robert's experience was more impressionistic. "I didn't know what was going on, but I must have sensed the essence of Michael's reaction," says Meeropol, now 56, who was adopted by Abel and Anne Meeropol, friends of his parents, after the execution. "The only way to get away from it was to be sent outside to play ball. It was never difficult to get me to go outside and play ball, or to get adults to distract me, because I wanted to be distracted. I wanted to get away from whatever was causing the trouble. When it got too dark, they called us in. They sent me to bed and I went to sleep. I wanted to avoid the situation." More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,970822,00.html ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today! _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
