Bookreading: AN EXECUTION IN THE FAMILY. Rosenberg son, Robert Meeropol

Robert Meeropol was six years old when his parents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, were sent to the electric chair, executed by the U.S. government after one of the most hotly debated trials in American history. On the 50th anniversary of that event, Meeropol has written AN EXECUTION IN THE FAMILY: One Son’s Journey, a memoir that tells how he survived the loss of his parents and established his own identity in the shadow of a case that drew world-wide protest. Meeropol- now an attorney, activist, and leader of a public foundation - will describe how he attempted to deal with the events surrounding his parents’ case as a very young child. He will discuss the family dynamics after the execution, and how his adoptive parents (Anne and Abel Meeropol, who wrote, among other songs, the anti-lynching lament “Strange Fruit,” made popular by Billie Holiday) managed to raise him in a loving home during the infamous McCarthy witch-hunts. The dangers of the current political climate and the use of the death penalty will also be themes in Meeropol’s addresses. The Bush Administration’s recent responses to the threat of terrorism share many chilling similarities with the McCarthy era that was symbolized by the trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, whose execution at Sing Sing Prison occurred 50 years ago this summer. Meeropol will explore these topics in a lecture format as well as in his book readings and interactions with the audiences.