Strange Fruit By Billy Holli Day

By early 1952, Bubbie’s health and energy was declining and the Rosenbergs asked Emanuel Bloch to find a new home for the boys. In July 1952 the boys were temporarily placed with Ben and Sonia Bach, friends of the Rosenbergs. The Bachs had two children; Maxine, a teen-ager attending college, and Leo, who was Robbie’s age. During this period, Robbie developed a simple set of survival rules: don’t attract attention, put yourself in other’s shoes and be nice to people and make them laugh.
Three days before the June 18, 1953 execution date, Michael copied a letter composed by a family friend and the boys flew to Washington, D.C. to deliver the letter to President Eisenhower. In the letter Michael pleaded “please don’t leave my brother and
Abel wrote several patriotic songs during that time, including the lyrics to “Put the Heat on Hitler” and “Heil with a Smile”. He hated Hitler because of the Fuhrer’s Jewish persecutions and he drew similarities between the mistreatment of German Jews and the mistreatment of Blacks in America. His hatred of racism in America prompted him to write the song “Strange Fruit”, popularized by Billy Holliday. The song dealt with Southern Black lynching, using tormented images and stinging lyrics to impress its message. Abel said that he wrote the song “because he hated lynching and he hated the people who perpetuated the act”. Both Abel and Anne engaged in political activism throughout their lives.
The Meeropols lived in uptown Manhattan, near Harlem, in a small apartment. The boys shared the apartment’s single bedroom and Anne and Abel slept on a sofa-bed in the living room. In early January, 1954 Emmanuel Bloch visited the boys and was delighted with how happy the boys were, living with Anne and Abel. Within a week of his visit Bloch, at age fifty-two, died of heart failure on January 30,
Michael was now away at Swarthmore College. Changing schools was difficult for Robbie as his new neighborhood was not as liberal in their social and political views. He again struggled socially in school and spent much of his ninth grade year with his parents, discussing politics as he continued to differentiate his view of politics from his parents. In his junior year he joined the political group Students for Peace and Civil Rights, participated in several anti-war marches with his classmates and became friends with a boy whose parents were active Communists.