Hartley Shawcross est né le 4 février 1902 en Allemagne. Il était marié à Susanne Monique Huiskamp, Joan Winifred Mather et Rosina Alberta Shyvers. Il est mort le 10 juillet 2003 à East Sussex, Angleterre, Royaume-Uni.
Step by step I have been forced more and more to the conclusion that the aims of Communism in Europe are sinister and deadly aims. I prosecuted the Nazis in Nuremberg. With my Russian colleagues I condemned Nazi aggression and Nazi terror. I feel shame and humiliation now to see under a different name the same aims pursued, the same technique followed, without check. (13 March 1948)