The Fourth World Festival of Youth and Students (WFYS) was held in 1953, in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. The World Federation of Democratic Youth organized this festival against a background of what it described as persecution of communists, such as in West Germany, where Philipp Müller, a delegate to the 3rd WFYS had been killed during a demonstration, and in the United States, where Julius and Ethel Rosenberg had been convicted of espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union, and executed. Other stated goals of the festival were to protest against the Korean War and to support the anti-colonial movements in the French colonies of Algeria and Vietnam. With this background, the festival and its preparation became anti-war demonstrations.