Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed at Sing Sing in 1953 after being convicted of sending atomic secrets to the Soviets, but the case was a cultural flash point from the beginning. Photo by Robert Higgins via Library of Congress

Humanities

BU Libraries Symposium Will Revisit the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Spy Case

Sons Robert and Michael Meeropol will donate declassified document to BU’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center that shows their mother may have been wrongly convicted

Americans Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed 73 years ago on charges that they passed atomic secrets to the Russians. But their prosecution has inspired bitter debate ever since, with many believing that Ethel, in particular, was wrongly convicted.

Now “we have what many believe is the smoking-gun document” to make the case for her, says Jennifer Gunter King, Boston University’s associate university librarian for academic engagement and special collections.

The August 22, 1950, document is called the Gardner Memo for author Meredith Gardner, a codebreaker for the Armed Forces Security Agency, precursor of today’s National Security Agency. It was made public in 2024 through the Freedom of Information Act. 

Based on decrypted Soviet communications, the memo describes each of the individuals the government connected to the “Atomic Energy Spy Ring” and what the intelligence agencies and FBI knew about them. 

The handwritten document, marked Top Secret, says that “Mrs. Rosenberg was a [communist] party member, a devoted wife, and that she knew about her husband’s work, but due to ill health, she did not engage in the work herself.”

The Rosenbergs’ sons, Robert and Michael Meeropol, will donate the declassified document to the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center on Thursday, when the BU Libraries present Archives and Accountability: Revisiting Justice in the Rosenberg Case, a symposium taking place at the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground.

The event will focus on how the Gardner Memo “shapes, challenges, or confirms public perceptions” of the Rosenberg case and the role that FOIA requests and archives play in creating a fuller account of history. 

The memo and other documents will be donated by the Meeropols to join the rest of their parents’ letters and other papers, which were acquired by the Gotlieb in 2014, and can now be accessed in the Boston University Digital Library.

“We want to take a moment to take a deeper look into the history of the Rosenberg case, especially with the idea that perhaps students and faculty at BU today may not know that these archival resources are in the Mugar Memorial Library,” says Gunter King. “They’re important resources, and we’re hoping that students or faculty studying areas that relate to this period—whether it’s American Jewish history, the Cold War, communism, the McCarthy era, or even just the legal technicalities of this case—have the opportunity to do research in this collection.”

The Rosenbergs were charged with providing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets, convicted of espionage, and executed in the electric chair at New York’s Sing Sing prison in 1953. Several others charged in the case went to prison.

The Rosenbergs maintained their innocence to the end and refused to give evidence against the others. Their case became a cause célèbre among many in America and around the world who considered it a frame-up driven by antisemitism and Cold War hysteria. Documents revealed after the fall of the Soviet Union made clear that Julius had indeed worked for the Soviets, but the case against Ethel remained controversial.

To the Meeropol brothers and others, the Gardner Memo shows that the government knew Ethel was innocent three years before she faced the electric chair. At the 1951 trial, her brother testified that she had been involved in the spy operation, but only after he was threatened with his own wife’s prosecution—and he recanted his testimony many years later.

“The bulk of the Rosenberg collection are the letters that Ethel and Julius wrote to each other during their period of incarceration, as well as letters that they wrote to family and friends,” Gunter King says. “They are intimate portraits of a youngish couple who had small children navigating a terrifying and complex situation.”

“I would say that three-quarters of the letters are basically them just trying to keep each other’s spirits up,” says Ryan Hendrickson, research and instruction archivist at the Gotlieb. 

“There are several letters from Ethel where she’s trying to basically coordinate child care for the two boys from prison,” Hendrickson says. “It’s pretty mind-blowing when she’s writing to her sister-in-law saying, ‘Could you pick up the boys from the home and take them to the zoo on Saturday and then bring them back?’”

The Meeropol brothers were adopted by activist Abel Meeropol, best known for writing the anti-lynching song “Strange Fruit,” made famous by Billie Holiday.

At the symposium, Ivy Meeropol, Michael’s daughter and an award-winning documentarian, will present a screening of her film Heir to an Execution, followed by a talkback session with all three.

There will also be a panel discussion moderated by Nancy Harrowitz, director of BU’s Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies and a professor of Italian and of Jewish studies at the College of Arts & Sciences. The panelists are New York Times journalist and author Clay Risen, Ethel Rosenberg biographer Anne Sebba, and J. Wells Dixon, the attorney who filed the FOIA for the memo.

The libraries are holding the symposium in partnership with the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, BU’s Fineman & Pappas Law Libraries, and the Rosenberg Fund for Children.

“We’re very committed to ensuring that these resources are preserved and available,” says Gunter King. “I think that it is essential for citizens, students, and faculty, to have access to the direct documentation of challenging events in history.”