Stealing Fire: Memoir of a Boyhood in the Shadow of Atomic Espionage - Paperback

by Arnold Kramish (Introduction by), Boria Sax (Author)

Second, revised edition. When Saville Sax and Theodore Hall first met as undergraduates at Harvard, little did either realize that a day would come when they would be passing atomic secrets to the Soviets. Their acts of espionage could have led, as in the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, to death in the electric chair. But unlike others (Klaus Fuchs, David Greenglass, Morton Sobell) they were never even tried for what they did, let alone convicted.
Professor Boria Sax, an eminent scholar in the field of human/animal studies, and the elder son of Saville Sax, here relates his stressful experiences growing up in a troubled home, one in which his father lived in constant fear of the FBI.
It was only as an adult that Boria Sax came to fully comprehend the magnitude of his father's deed, one he does not condone. As a result, he can now relate how Saville Sax's puzzling behavior affected every member of his family, and the price each one had to pay.
This very personal memoir is also an account of a Russian Jewish community that settled in the United States, torn between the desire for continued intimacy and the need to assimilate. The examination of social and political events over several generations invites readers to reflect back on their own experience and its implications.