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On this edition of Parallax Views, is a recently declassified NSA memo the smoking gun document that proves Ethel Rosenberg was wrongfully convicted and executed for the charge of being a Soviet spy? That's the contention of her sons Michael and Robert Meeropol. Michael Meeropol joins the program to take us through exactly what this declassified memo says and what it means for the conventional understanding of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg espionage case.

For those unfamiliar, on June 19th, 1953, during the era of Joe McCarthy and the Red Scare, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed by electric chair at New York's Sing Sing Prison after being convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. They became the first Americans executed on espionage charges during a peacetime period in the United States.

Since then, the Rosenberg's sons, the aforementioned Michael and Robert Meeropol, have sought to find out the truth about their parents and whether they were wrongfully convicted and executed. In the intervening years the question of Julius Rosenberg's guilt has been answered. Simply put, he did engage in espionage for the Soviet Union. The case of Ethel Rosenberg, however, has not been so clear cut. Now, the previously mentioned NSA memo that was recently declassified appears to be powerful evidence in favor of her innocence.

In addition to discussing what is in this memo, Michael and I will also discuss his experiences growing up under the long shadow of his parents' espionage charges, the collaboration between liberals and right-wing anti-communists during the Red Scare, Michael's review of a biography about Judge Irving R. Kaufman (the judge who sentenced the Rosenbergs), and much, much more.

Episode 27: Der Richter und sein Henker