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  • The Critic Magazine

    Scapegoat of a paranoid era

    May 27, 2021 5 minutes
    Gerald Jacobs

    ONE OF THE MOST POIGNANT documents I have ever read was a private letter, reproduced in the American press, from a mother to her two sons aged ten and six. It was dated 18 June 1953 and began: “Dearest Sweethearts, my most precious children,” later adding: “Your Daddy, who is with me … sends his heart and all the love that is in it for his dearest boys.”

    Then, amid a few lines of moral advice, she enjoins her sons to “be comforted”, and concludes by urging them to “always remember that we were innocent and could not wrong our conscience. We press you close and kiss you with all our strength. Lovingly, Daddy and Mommy.”

    “Daddy and Mommy” were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. And the innocence Ethel was protesting was of the charge of espionage,

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