HEIR TO AN EXECUTION

A Granddaughter's Story

DIRECTED BY | Ivy Meeropol
PRODUCED BY | Marc Levin, Daphne Pinkerson and Ivy Meeropol
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER | Sheila Nevins
SUPERVISING PRODUCER | Nancy Abraham
DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY | Matthew Akers and Ivy Meeropol
EDITED BY | Ken Eluto, A.C.E. and Eric Seuel Davies
MUSIC BY | Human

PREMIERED | 2004, HBOSYNOPSIS | On June 19th, 1953, the U.S. Government executed a young Jewish couple for “conspiracy to commit espionage.” That day, as the world looked on in horror, the names Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were seared into history as both martyrs and Atom Spies. Today they remain political icons, hailed as heroes or vilified as traitors. Yet there is more to this story than history remembers.

When the Rosenbergs died, they left two sons, Michael (10) and Robert (6) and an extended family of siblings, one of whom, David Greenglass, testified against his sister and brother-in-law, providing the only evidence the government had to convict them. Because no family member would take them in, Michael and Robert were adopted by complete strangers to the Rosenbergs, a couple named Ann and Abel Meeropol. The Rosenbergs' sons grew up believing in their parents’ innocence and as adults they aggressively pursued the truth about their case.

Fifty years later, a new generation has its’ own questions. In "Heir to An Execution" the eldest granddaughter of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, embarks on a quest to understand who her grandparents were and how this could have happened to her family.

Directed by Ivy Meeropol, HEIR TO AN EXECUTION takes the Rosenberg story from the public eye to the private world of the children and families they left behind.

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