La trahison des Rosenberg (French Edition)

Based on documents that had remained secret for decades, here is the full, unique, gripping story of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, accused of high treason against the United States government and sentenced to the electric chair exactly fifty years ago.

The two scientists were accused by the FBI of delivering confidential information to the Soviets during the height of the cold war. During their trial, one of the most controversial of the twentieth century, many eminent personalities across the globe spoke in their defense from Jean-Paul Sartre to Pope Pious XII, feeding rampant anti-Americanism, notably in France. Since then, many questions had remained.

The opening of the trial archives in 1995 and the published memoirs of Russian spy Feklisov in 1997 revealed that the couple had in effect transmitted top secret information to the NKVD (future KGB) of which they were members. This proof had remained secret so that the Soviets would not realize that their secret code had been cracked.

Before they were cleverly metamorphosed into martyrs, the Rosenbergs were an astonishing couple. Two Jewish immigrants, profoundly in love, who thought themselves above reproach. Their story reads like a passionate police investigation into the heart of American counter-espionage and the tiny but fascinating world of atomic bomb research. It is also a compelling psychological study of the motivations of a traitor. Can a certain ideology blind even a highly intelligent and clairvoyant scientific mind? Are there circumstances where treason can be morally justified?

Florin Aftalion, engineer and doctor of physics, taught at New York University and at the University of Tel-Aviv. Today he teaches finance and history of economics at ESSEC. He is the author of several historical and economic documents.

Florin Aftalion a enseigné à la New-York University et à l'université de Tel-Aviv . Ingénieur de formation, il enseigne la finance et l'histoire économique à l'ESSEC. Il est notamment l'auteur de Socialisme et Economie (PUF) et de l'Economie de la Révolution Française (Hachette). Passionné par période depuis longtemps, il a enquêté depuis 1995 et consulté toutes les nouvelles archives soviétiques et américaines. Il est déjà l'auteur de La trahison des Rosenberg en 2003. Il vit à Paris XVI.