Francis M. Shea journal
Extent and Medium
folder
1
Creator(s)
- Francis M. Shea
Biographical History
Francis M. Shea (1905-1989) joined the staff of Justice Robert H. Jackson in the spring of 1945 at the Office of Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality, whose task was the prosecution of captured Nazi leaders for war crimes. He served as one of Jackson’s chief assistants in Washington and London that summer and in Nuremberg in the fall. Shea and his staff assembled evidence and prepared cases for trial before the International Military Tribunal, and he represented the United States when the criminal indictments were presented to the Tribunal in October 1945. He left Nuremberg before the trials began.
Archival History
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Acquisition
Funding Note: The cataloging of this collection has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Senator Mark Warner donated the Francis M. Shea journal to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998 after finding it in the attic of his Virginia home.
Scope and Content
The Francis M. Shea journal consists of an incomplete set of Shea’s journal entries and corresponding documents related to preparations for the trial of major war criminals before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and is dated July 12 - October 29, 1945. Documents include correspondence with Justice Robert H. Jackson and Colonel Telford Taylor, memoranda, and meeting minutes and primarily address policy, procedural, and staffing issues.
System of Arrangement
The Francis M. Shea journal is arranged as a single series: I. Francis M. Shea journal, 1945
Corporate Bodies
- International Military Tribunal
Subjects
- Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946.
Genre
- Document
- Diaries.