Background
He was born in 1901 to Alexander Bloch, an attorney.
He was born in 1901 to Alexander Bloch, an attorney.
Two weeks before the date scheduled for their deaths, the Rosenbergs were visited by James V. Bennett, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. After the meeting they issued a statement: "Yesterday, we were offered a deal by the Attorney General of the United States. We were told that if we cooperated with the Government, our lives would be spared.
By asking us to repudiate the truth of our innocence, the Government admits its own doubts concerning our guilt.
We will not help to purify the foul record of a fraudulent conviction and a barbaric sentence. We solemnly declare, now and forever more, that we will not be coerced, even under pain of death, to bear false witness and to yield up to tyranny our rights as free Americans.
Our respect for truth, conscience and human dignity is not for sale. Justice is not some bauble to be sold to the highest bidder.
If we are executed it will be the murder of innocent people and the shame will be upon the Government of the United States."
He would not have had to name anybody other than Harry Gold and David Greenglass who had already made full confessions.
Following their executions, Bloch delivered the eulogy at their funeral and he served as guardian for Michael Meeropol and Robert Meeropol until they were adopted. He died of a heart attack at age 52 on January 30, 1954 in his Manhattan apartment.
He defended Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Julius wrote to Bloch that Julius himself was "the first victim of American Fascism".
He and Marshall Perlin defended Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. lieutenant has been suggested that Bloch was under the orders of the Communist Party of the United States who realised that the execution of Ethel would give them a cause that would provide them with propaganda against the "inhumanity of capitalism". He also defended the Trenton Six.