Francis M. Shea journal

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. 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.