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Themes: Sin's Penalty - death L.C. In September, 1949, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover studied a top secret report. His face flushed with shock. The secret of the atomic bomb had been stolen. Shortly afterwards, President Truman jolted the nation with the news that there was evidence that the U.S.S.R. had exploded an atomic bomb.
Immediately the F.B.I. sent orders to find the thieves. Hoover's men swarmed the various atomic research centers including Los Alamos in Santa Fe New Mexico. Within a few days the FBI concluded that a key figure in the crime was a member of a foreign mission, most probably a British physicist. The net was starting to close on a man named Klaus Fuchs. On the surface it seemed unlikely. He was now the respected head of the Theoretical Physics Division of Britain's atomic energy establishment. But an agent digging through old Nazi records seized after the war came across a file. It read: "Klaus Fuchs, student of Philosophy, December 29, 1911, Russelsheim, RSHA-IVA2, Gestapo Field Office, Kiel." RSHA stood for Central Office of Security and A2 identified him as a communist. The FBI notified the British Intelligence agency.
Fuchs would give only a vague description of the man to whom he passed the information. He was perhaps a chemist and called himself, "Raymond". Beyond this shadowy image, he could give no information. With these few leads, the FBI tracked down their man. He was Harry Gold, working in Philadelphia.
In May, 1950 the FBI questioned him. He denied any knowledge of what they were talking about. He said that he had never been west of the Mississippi. He allowed them to search his home. Behind a book case, a map of Santa Fe fell out. For a long minute, Gold said nothing. Then he crumbled and confessed, "I am the middleman who transferred atomic information to the Russian Vice counsel." The maze of treachery began to unfold.
On November 29, 1944, three months after T/4 Sgt. David Greenglass was transferred to the secret Los Alamos project as a machinist, his wife met him and asked if he would give information to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Ethel was David' sister and Julius had been his hero when he was younger. David agreed to help.
All seemed to go well until Fuchs was arrested, February 3, 1950. Julius gave David money and told him to flee the country. He didn't go. Later, David, along with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were captured and tried. David was sent to prison for 15 years, but the Rosenbergs were executed. The judge who tried them said that he didn't have the power to forgive them. He could find no reason for mercy.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg died for their crime. It was called the crime of the century. Our Bible story tells about two people who died for their sin: Ananias and Saphira. But there is a crime greater than the crime of the century. The Crime of the Ages is man's sin against God.
The Bible tells us that "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Rom.3:23. But unlike the judge in the trial of the Rosenbergs, God does have mercy and is able to forgive. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom.6:23.
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Peter Orasuk
