Newly released memo clears Ethel Rosenberg of spying, but says she knew her husband did; sons seek her exoneration

NORTHAMPTON — A top U.S. codebreaker of secret Soviet Cold War communications concluded that Ethel Rosenberg knew about her husband’s spying activities but “did not engage in the work herself,” according to a recently declassified memo that her sons say proves their mother was not a spy and should lead to her exoneration in the 1950s atomic espionage case.

The previously unreported assessment, written days after Rosenberg’s arrest, adds to the questions about the criminal case against Rosenberg, who along with her husband, Julius, was put to death by electrocution in 1953 after being convicted of conspiring to steal secrets about the atomic bomb for the Soviet Union.

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