34 Facts About David Greenglass

David Greenglass was an American machinist who worked on the Manhattan Project and was an atomic spy for the Soviet Union.

David Greenglass was briefly stationed at the Clinton Engineer Works uranium enrichment facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and then worked at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico from August 1944 until February 1946.

David Greenglass provided testimony that helped convict his sister and brother-in-law Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were executed for their spying activity.

David Greenglass's parents were Jewish immigrants Barnet "Barney" Greenglass, from Minsk, Russian Empire, and Theresa "Tessie" Feit, from Kombornia, Austrian Galicia.

David Greenglass attended Haaren High School and graduated in 1940.

David Greenglass attended Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute but did not graduate.

David Greenglass married Ruth Printz in 1942, when she was 18 years old.

David Greenglass worked as a machinist at Fort Ord in California and then at the Mississippi Ordnance Plant in Jackson, Mississippi.

In July 1944, David Greenglass was assigned to the secret Manhattan Project, the wartime project to develop the first atomic weapons.

David Greenglass was first stationed at the Clinton Engineer Works uranium enrichment facility at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but was there for less than two weeks.

David Greenglass was then recruited into Soviet espionage by Ruth at Rosenberg's behest in November 1944.

David Greenglass began to pass nuclear secrets to the USSR via the courier Harry Gold, and more directly with a Soviet official in New York City.

David Greenglass was codenamed "KALIBR" and Ruth "OSA".

David Greenglass turned down requests from the Los Alamos Laboratory to work on the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll because he wanted to be with Ruth.

David Greenglass was honorably discharged from the Army in February 1946.

David Greenglass was taken to Gouverneur Hospital for skin grafts.

David Greenglass suffered second degree burns to his right hand.

David Greenglass was already aware that the UK and US intelligence agencies had discovered that a Los Alamos theoretical physicist, Klaus Fuchs, had spied for the USSR during the war.

David Greenglass was arrested by the FBI for espionage in June 1950 and quickly implicated Julius Rosenberg.

David Greenglass explicitly denied Ethel's involvement when he testified before a grand jury in August 1950.

David Greenglass testified against his sister and her husband in court in 1951 as part of an immunity agreement.

David Greenglass was named a co-conspirator but was never indicted.

David Greenglass falsely attributed the passing of the cross-section drawing of the atom bomb to the Soviets to Julius, and he acknowledged having passed other sketches through Gold.

David Greenglass described his work on the molds into which were poured the component of the explosive lenses of the bombs used for the Trinity nuclear test and in the bombing of Nagasaki.

David Greenglass testified that Rosenberg had stolen and given to the Soviets a proximity fuze.

At David Greenglass' sentencing hearing, his attorney O John Rogge repeatedly told the court his client deserved "a pat on the back" for his testimony and argued that a light sentence, no more than five years, would encourage others to follow his example.

David Greenglass was released after nine and a half years and reunited with his wife.

David Greenglass wrote: "if these two die, I shall live the rest of my life with a very dark shadow on my conscience".

In 1996, David Greenglass recanted his sworn testimony in an interview with The New York Times reporter Sam Roberts and stated he had lied under oath about the extent of his sister's involvement in the spying plot in order to protect his wife.

At the trial, David Greenglass had testified that Ethel Rosenberg typed his notes to give to the Soviets.

In 2008, when a group of academic historians sought the release of the transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that indicted the Rosenbergs, David Greenglass objected to the release of his testimony.

David Greenglass never mentioned involvement by his sister in Rosenberg's delivery of atomic secrets to the Soviets.

David Greenglass was predeceased by his wife, Ruth, who died on April 7,2008.

David Greenglass's death was not publicly announced by his family and was only discovered on October 14,2014, when a New York Times reporter called the nursing home where he had been living under an assumed name.