Allen Rosenberg (spy)
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Allan Robert Rosenberg (April 21, 1909 – April 1, 1991) was a 20th-century American labor lawyer and civil servant, accused as a Soviet spy by
Elizabeth Bentley Elizabeth Terrill Bentley (January 1, 1908 – December 3, 1963) was an American NKVD spymaster, who was recruited from within the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). She served the Soviet Union as the primary handler of multiple highly placed moles ...
and listed under Party name "Roy, code names "Roza" in the VENONA Papers and code name "Sid" in the Vasilliev Papers; he also defended Dr.
Benjamin Spock Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903–March 15, 1998), widely known as Dr. Spock, was an American pediatrician, Olympian athlete and left-wing political activist. His book '' Baby and Child Care'' (1946) is one of the best-selling books of ...
("Dr. Spock").


Background

Allan R. Rosenberg was born on April 21, 1909, in
Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood comprising more than in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, Dorset, E ...
. In 1926, he graduated president of his class from
Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...
. In 1930, he graduated from
Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
. In 1936, he graduated from Harvard Law.


Career


Government service

Rosenberg associated with members of the
Ware Group The Ware Group was a covert organization of Communist Party USA operatives within the United States government in the 1930s, run first by Harold Ware (1889–1935) and then by Whittaker Chambers (1901–1961) after Ware's accidental death on Augus ...
of Soviet spies, set up by
Harold Ware Harold or "Hal" Ware (August 19, 1889 – August 14, 1935) was an American Marxist, regarded as one of the Communist Party's top experts on agriculture. He was employed by a federal New Deal agency in the 1930s. He is alleged to have been a ...
. Upon Ware's unexpected death in 1935,
Nathan Witt Nathan Witt (February 11, 1903 – February 16, 1982), born Nathan Wittowsky, was an American lawyer who is best known as being the Secretary of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) from 1937 to 1940. He resigned from the NLRB after his commu ...
succeeded him, while
Whittaker Chambers Whittaker Chambers (born Jay Vivian Chambers; April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer and intelligence agent. After early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), he defected from the Soviet u ...
oversaw the group and couriered Government documents it obtained from Washington to New York. In 1936, Rosenberg was working "as an unpaid volunteer" for the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee, in fact a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor (where Ware Group member
John Abt John Jacob Abt (May 1, 1904 – August 10, 1991) was an American lawyer and politician, who spent most of his career as chief counsel to the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and was a member of the Communist Party and the Soviet spy network " Ware Gr ...
worked); Charles Kramer and
Charles Flato Charles S. Flato (also Charles Floto) (May 27, 1908 – January 1, 1984) was an American writer, American Communist Party member and a Soviet agent. Flato was employed by the United States government and spied for the Soviet intelligence duri ...
(another "secret communist") would join them there. Witt placed Rosenberg in charge of a group of six to eight attorneys during a Congressional investigation into the questionable activities of the
National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...
(NLRB) in 1938 and 1939. At the NLRB, Rosenberg "helped litigate charges of union-busting against
Republic Steel Republic Steel is a Mexican steel manufacturer that was once America’s third largest steel producer. It was founded as the Republic Iron and Steel Company in Youngstown, Ohio in 1899. After rising to prominence during the early 20th Century, ...
, and he want to Harlan County, Ky., to investigate abuses in towns controlled by coal companies. In 1937, he transferred briefly to the
Railroad Retirement Board The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency in the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the United States government created in 1 ...
and then in April 1937 joined the
National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States that enforces United States labor law, U.S. labor law in relation to collect ...
through 1941 at the suggestion of Max Lowenthal. There, Charles Kramer joined him the following year. In 1941, Rosenberg transferred from the NLRB to the Board of Economic Warfare (or Office of Economic Warfare). "A couple of years later," he joined the Foreign Economic Administration (FEA). Rosenberg became a member of the Perlo group of Soviet spies during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. (Perlo had been a member of the Ware Group earlier.) In November 1943,
Earl Browder Earl Russell Browder (May 20, 1891 – June 27, 1973) was an American politician, spy for the Soviet Union, communist activist and leader of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). Browder was the General Secretary of the CP ...
turned control of the Perlo Group over to
Jacob Golos Jacob Golos (born Yakov Naumovich Reizen, Russian: Яков Наумович Рейзен; April 24, 1889 - November 27, 1943) was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary who became an intelligence operative in the United States on behalf of the U ...
two months before his death; it subsequently was taken over by
Elizabeth Bentley Elizabeth Terrill Bentley (January 1, 1908 – December 3, 1963) was an American NKVD spymaster, who was recruited from within the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). She served the Soviet Union as the primary handler of multiple highly placed moles ...
. While employed as the Chief of the Economic Institution Staff for the
Foreign Economic Administration In the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Foreign Economic Administration (FEA) was formed on September 25, 1943 to relieve friction between US agencies operating abroad. Establishment The FEA was organized and run by Leo Crowley w ...
, Rosenberg allegedly supplied the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
with voluminous observations, recommendations, plans and proposals made by various government officials concerning the handling of postwar Germany. He also worked on the Board of Economic Warfare since 1941. Rosenberg's name appears in clear text in a December 1944 Venona decrypt as the source of a
State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
memo. Rosenberg appears in the
Venona project The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service and later absorbed by the National Security Agency (NSA), that ran from February 1, 1943, u ...
under his real name.


Private practice

After World War II, Rosenberg left government service and went into private practice. He opened a law firm in Washington, DC. On July 9, 1947, US Representative George Anthony Dondero included Rosenberg when publicly questioneing the "fitness" of
United States Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the President of the United States, U.S. president's United States Cabinet, Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's Presidency of George Washington, administration. A similar position, called either "Sec ...
Robert P. Patterson Robert Porter Patterson Sr. (February 12, 1891 – January 22, 1952) was an American judge who served as United States Under Secretary of War, Under Secretary of War under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and US Secretary of War, U.S. Secretary of ...
for failing to ferret out Communist infiltrators in his department. The cause for concern arose from what Dondero called Patterson's lack of ability to "fathom the wiles of the international Communist conspiracy" and to counteract them with "competent personnel." Dondero cited ten government personnel in the War Department who had Communist backgrounds or leanings: * Colonel
Bernard Bernstein Bernard Bernstein (30 November 1908 – 6 February 1990) was an American economist and public official. Background Bernard Bernstein was born on November 30, 1908, in New York City. He had at least one brother and one sister. He receiv ...
* Russel A. Nixon * Abraham L. Pomerantz * Josiah E. DuBois Jr. * Richard Sasuly * George Shaw Wheeler * Heinz Norden * Max Lowenthal * Allan Rosenberg (member of Lowenthal's staff) Dondero stated, "It is with considerable regret that I am forced to the conclusion the Secretary Patterson falls short of these standards." In June 1948, after the 1947 conviction of Carl Marzani for false and fraudulent statements Rosenberg represented Marzani in appeal, with
Arthur Garfield Hays Arthur Garfield Hays (December 12, 1881 – December 14, 1954) was an American lawyer and champion of civil liberties issues, best known as a co-founder and general counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union and for participating in notable cas ...
''
pro hac vice Pro is an abbreviation meaning "professional". Pro, PRO or variants thereof might also refer to: People * Miguel Pro (1891–1927), Mexican priest * Pro Hart (1928–2006), Australian painter * Mlungisi Mdluli (born 1980), South African retire ...
'' plus Charles E. Ford and Warren L. Sharfman, while Belford V. Lawson Jr. filed a brief on behalf of the
National Lawyers Guild The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 193 ...
and
Joseph Forer Joseph Forer (1911 – 20 June 1986) was a 20th-century American attorney who, with partner David Rein, supported Progressive Era, Progressive causes, including discriminated communists and African-Americans. Forer was one of the founders of the N ...
filed a brief on behalf of the
Civil Rights Congress The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) was a United States civil rights organization, formed in 1946 at a national conference for radicals and disbanded in 1956. It succeeded the International Labor Defense, the National Federation for Constitutional L ...
as ''
amicus curiae An amicus curiae (; ) is an individual or organization that is not a Party (law), party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Wheth ...
'' urging reversal. In 1949, Rosenberg joined the firm of Putnam, Bell & Russell, where he became a partner. In April 1951, Rosenberg argued for the complainant Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee in ''Anti-Fascist Committee v. McGrath'' before the U.S. Supreme Court. On June 23, 1952, and again on February 21, 1956, Rosenberg testified in Congress before
HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty an ...
. Counsel in 1952 was David Scribner, counsel in 1956 Benjamin Loring Young. In January 1969, Rosenberg represented Dr. Benjamin Spock. In 1962, Spock had joined The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, otherwise known as SANE. Spock was politically outspoken and active in the movement to end the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. In 1968, he and four others (
William Sloane Coffin William Sloane Coffin Jr. (June 1, 1924 – April 12, 2006) was an American Christian clergyman and peace activist. He was ordained in the Presbyterian Church, and later received ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ. In his young ...
, Marcus Raskin,
Mitchell Goodman Mitchell Goodman (December 13, 1923 – February 1, 1997) was an American writer, teacher, and activist. He is best known for his role in the Vietnam draft resistance movement, which drew the high-profile 1968 federal prosecution of the "Boston ...
, and Michael Ferber) were singled out for prosecution by US Attorney General
Ramsey Clark William Ramsey Clark (December 18, 1927 – April 9, 2021) was an American lawyer, activist, and United States Federal Government, federal government official. A progressive, New Frontier liberal, he occupied senior positions in the United States ...
on charges of conspiracy to counsel, aid, and abet resistance to the draft. Spock and three of his alleged co-conspirators were convicted, although the five had never been in the same room together. His two-year prison sentence was never served; the case was appealed and in 1969 a federal court set aside his conviction. Spock's legal team included
Leonard Boudin Leonard B. Boudin (July 20, 1912 – November 24, 1989) was an American civil liberties attorney and left-wing activist who represented Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame and Benjamin Spock, the author of '' Baby and Child Care'', who advoca ...
with Victor Rabinowitz of Rabinowitz, Boudin & Standard (New York City) and Allan R. Rosenberg of Putnam, Bell & Russell (Boston). In March 1969, Rosenberg wrote a letter to the U.S. Senate in which he upheld the reputation of Henry S. Kahn MD of Harvard Medical School in the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service. For Putnam, Bell & Russell, Rosenberg represented the United Electrical Workers union in New England, as well as the New England
Subaru is the automaker, automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate (company), conglomerate Subaru Corporation (formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries), the Automotive industry#By manufacturer, twenty-first largest aut ...
Dealers Council. He also counseled "hundreds of workers" in front of the Massachusetts Industrial Accident Board. In 1987, Rosenberg had been living in Boston when he retired from the firm that year.


Personal life and death

Rosenberg married Erna Rothschild; they had two sons and two daughters. Rosenberg was a friend of Charles Kramer (the only member of the Ware Group known to continue on into the Perlo Group). Rosenberg was also an amateur photographer with a dark room in his home. In 1937, Rosenberg joined the
National Lawyers Guild The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 193 ...
, where he remained a member as a late as 1956 during his second appearance before
HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty an ...
). Allan R. Rosenberg died age 81 on April 1, 1991, at his home in
West Newton, Massachusetts West Newton is one of the thirteen villages within the city of Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Among the oldest of the thirteen Newton villages, the West Newton Village Center is a National Register Historic Distric ...
, following surgery on a brain tumor.


Legacy

Rosenberg's name appears without cover in Venona but with a
cryptonym A code name, codename, call sign, or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in ...
in the Gorsky Memo.


See also

*
Ware Group The Ware Group was a covert organization of Communist Party USA operatives within the United States government in the 1930s, run first by Harold Ware (1889–1935) and then by Whittaker Chambers (1901–1961) after Ware's accidental death on Augus ...
* Perlo Group *
Venona project The Venona project was a United States counterintelligence program initiated during World War II by the United States Army's Signal Intelligence Service and later absorbed by the National Security Agency (NSA), that ran from February 1, 1943, u ...
*
National Lawyers Guild The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 193 ...
*
La Follette Committee In the United States Senate, the La Follette Civil Liberties Committee, or more formally, Committee on Education and Labor, Subcommittee Investigating Violations of Free Speech and the Rights of Labor (1936–1941), began as an inquiry into a Nati ...


References


External links

*
''Anti-Fascist Committee v. McGrath''
(1951) Allan R. Rosenberg argued the cause before the U.S. Supreme Court.

21 February 1956 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenberg, Allen 1909 births 1991 deaths Harvard Law School alumni National Labor Relations Board officials Boston Latin School alumni 20th-century American Jews Jewish socialists American spies for the Soviet Union American people in the Venona papers Espionage in the United States 20th-century American lawyers