Word Celebrity Blog

Private Edward Donald Slovik


About 7 months ago, I read a story about something that happened during WWII.  It had been published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, on January 31, 2011.

The following brief account of the story as it was told by a WWII veteran, by the name of Nick Gozik.  It is about the execution of Private Eddie Slovik.






















Nick Gozik.


The bravest act Nick Gozik witnessed during World War II wasn't on the battlefield.

90 year old Nick Gozik,  told how on his 25th birthday, he stood as a witness while Private Eddie Slovik became the only United States service member executed for desertion, since the Civil War.

Nick told how he and other soldiers were picked for a special duty.  "When we drove down into this little town, we weren't sure what we were expecting."

They were then taken to what Mr. Gozik described as a castle-like villa at the end of town with iron gates, a bridge and a stone wall surrounding it.  They entered a courtyard.

"They had put up a large pole in the center of this area close to the stone wall," he said.

The murmurs began to spread. Somebody was being executed today.

Nick Gozik and the other soldiers that he came with were there to be witnesses.  They were supposed to stand at attention.  He said: "Nobody did."   Instead, they watched as Private Eddie Slovik, wearing his uniform which had been stripped of its insignia, came out of a small shed.   He was flanked by 2 soldiers. Draped over his shoulders, was a blanket.  His head was bare.

Nick Gozik described Private Slovik as a "little fellow,"

In his narrative, he said that Private Nick Slovik did not try to run from his fate, in a French courtyard.  "He knew he would die within moments,  yet,  he did not cry or whimper or beg for his life."

"He was branded a deserter, but he was no coward".

"I've seen a lot of people in the service who didn't want to die, but he knew he was going to die,"

"He knew what to expect, and he was going to abide by it."

"He paid the price of several thousand people deserting during the war."

Private Slovik was strapped to the post - his feet, legs, waist and under his arms - so that when he died, he wouldn't slump to the ground.






















An army chaplain, a Catholic priest, celebrated Mass around a Jeep with Nick Gozik and his army buddies. He then went to Private Slovik's side.  At the end of their conversation, they were speaking louder and Nick Gozik heard : "Eddie,"  the priest said, "when you get up there, say a prayer for me."  Eddie said he would."

A satiny black hood was pulled over Private Slovik's head.

The firing squad of 12 more soldiers marched in.  They were supposed to be sharpshooters, that were picked from various units in the 28th.  Each rifle was loaded with 1 round., 11 of them had live ammunition;  1 had a blank shell.

A general read the charges against Private Slovik. That lasted about 5 minutes and then:  "Ready, aim, fire!"

"When they fired, you expected the bang to go off, but it shook us -- 12 rounds,"

Nick Gozik said. "It just shattered the stillness of the day."

Private Slovik slumped a bit.  A physician checked his vital signs. Eddie Slovik was still alive.

Nick Gozik said: "I heard the doctor say, 'What's the matter with you guys? Can't you shoot straight?' "

As the firing squad reloaded,  Private Slovik took his last breath.

The witnesses were ordered to march out before the body was removed.

Nick Gozik went back to his unit and told the guys what he had seen. He wrote home about it. But he never heard mention of it from his superiors. There was no article in "Stars and Stripes."

While the death that he had witnessed, stuck with him, and he didn't feel it was right, Nick Gozik never knew the details of Slovik's crimes until years later when he came across William Bradford Huie's book,  "The Execution of  Private Slovik."






















"They said he was a nobody, but he was a somebody,"

"They felt nobody would worry or care about him."

Nick Gozik said. "Believe me when I tell you, to me, he was the bravest soldier I ever met."

Upwards of 40,000 U.S. service members evaded combat during World War II. Most were tried by lesser courts-martial, but 2,864 cases were heard by general courts-martial and received sentences from 20 years to death. While 67 death sentences were given, 49 death sentences were approved, only Private Slovik's was carried out.

Nick Gozik said the execution was a blatant injustice.

"If he died as a deterrent to eliminate the possibility of further deserters, it really didn't make a difference,"

Gozik said, "It was just awful as far as I'm concerned."

Private Eddie Slovik was buried in a section of a French cemetery reserved for 96 American soldiers executed in the European Theater.  All but Private Slovik had been hanged for violent crimes - the murder or rape of civilians.

For years, Nick Gozik wanted to pay his respects to Private Slovik. Last November,  Nick Gozik decided it was time, to go to Detroit.  In November, 2010, about 65 years later, Nic Gozik went to Detroit and paid his respects to a man he never met but knew at his final hour.



















Nick Gozik and many of his family members went to Slovik's grave.  With the help of a daughter, he placed a small American flag at the grave.
























"It was the end of my journey for Eddie," he said. "I did what I wanted to do, but I'm sorry it took that many years."

Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, January 31, 2011. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, also known as "the Trib," is the second largest daily newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

***


I vaguely remember hearing about Private Slovik.  I was 13 when he was executed.  I again heard a little more about him when the book (which I did not read) and then the movie (which I did not see) came out.  It wasn't until I read about Nick Gozik's account in the newspaper,  that I was motivated to learn what were the true facts of Private Eddie Slovick's life and death.

During the Second World War there were 318,274 deaths in the United States Army,  of which 255,618 were battle deaths.

Of the larger number, 142 were deaths by execution,  all for murder, rape and rape-murder.  All of them except one.  The one exception was Private Eddie D. Slovik,  who was “shot to death by musketry” on January 31, 1945,  for the crime of desertion in the face of the enemy.




















Edward Donald Slovik was born on February 18, 1920, in Detroit, Michigan, to a Polish-American family.

As a minor, he was arrested frequently. The first time, when he was 12 years old, he and some friends broke into a foundry to steal some brass.  Between 1932 and 1937,  he was caught for several incidents of petty theft, breaking and entering, and disturbing the peace.

















The Bus Station with the Cunningham Drugstore in the left side.


He spent much of his youth in the Michigan Reformatory School for stealing candy, chewing gum and cigarettes from the Cunningham drugstore where he worked. Eddie Slovik was convicted in state court of embezzling $59.60 over a six-month period, and sentenced to six months to ten years in prison. When he was 19, he was arrested for stealing and crashing a car with two friends while he was drunk. He was sent to prison in January 1939.

In April 1942, Eddie Slovik was paroled once more, and he obtained a job at Montella Plumbing and Heating in Dearborn, Michigan.  There he met the woman who would later become his wife,  Antoinette Wisniewski,  while she was working as a bookkeeper for James Montella.


























They were married on November 7, 1942, and lived with her parents.

When Eddie Slovak got a job at the old DeSoto plant, they rented their own duplex. For the next twelve months, Eddie and Antoinette were,  for the most part,  happy and secure  in the belief that ex-convicts would not be drafted.  Eddie Slovik had been classified 4-F because of his prison record,  but was reclassifed 1-A during a military manpower shortage and received his draft notice  shortly after the couple's first wedding anniversary.

Eddie Slovik appeared frail,  timid and somewhat of a misfit,  and definitely not military material.  But on January 24, 1944,  he was sent to Camp Wolters in Texas for his basic training.





















Private Slovik made no secret of his unwillingness to enter combat,  but his pleas to be reassigned to noncombat status were rejected.  Bitterly unhappy,  he tried to forget his sorrow by writing long letters to Antoinette. During his 372 days in the Army,  he wrote 376 letters,  most of them from Camp Wolters.  The letters contained the outpourings of a man in distress.

In August, 1944,  he was dispatched to join the fighting in France.  Arriving on August 20,  he was one of 12 reinforcements assigned to Company G of the 109th Infantry Regiment, United States 28th Infantry Division.


























While en route to his assigned unit,  Private Edward Slovik and a friend,  Private John Tankey, took cover during an artillery attack and became separated from their replacement detachment. his was the point at which Eddie Slovik later stated he found he "wasn't cut out for combat."  The next morning,  they found a Canadian military police unit and remained with them for the next six weeks.  Private John Tankey wrote to their regiment to explain their absence before he and Private Slovik reported for duty on October 7, 1944.  The United States Army's rapid advance through France had caused many replacement soldiers to have trouble finding their assigned units,  and so no charges were filed against them.

The following day,  on October 8, Eddie Slovik informed his company commander,  Captain Ralph Grotte, that he was "too scared" to serve in a rifle company and asked to be reassigned to a rear area unit.  He told Captain Grotte that he would run away if he were assigned to a rifle unit, and asked his captain if that would constitute desertion.  Captain  Grotte confirmed that it would.  He refused Eddie Slovik's request for reassignment and sent him to a rifle platoon.


























On the very next day, October 9, Eddie Slovik deserted from his infantry unit.  His friend John Tankey caught up with him and attempted to persuade him to stay,  but Private Slovik's only comment was that his "mind was made up".  Eddie Slovik walked several miles to the rear and approached an enlisted cook at a headquarters detachment, presenting him with a note in which he stated his intention to "run away" if he were sent into combat.  The cook summoned his company commander and an MP, who read the note and urged Eddie Slovik to destroy it before he was taken into custody.  Private Slovik refused and was brought before Lieutenant Colonel Ross Henbest,  who again offered him the opportunity to tear up the note,  return to his unit and face no further charges.  After Private Edward Slovik again refused,  Lieutenant Colonel Ross Henbest ordered Private Edward Slovik to write another note on the back of the first one stating that he fully understood the legal consequences of deliberately incriminating himself with the note,  and that it would be used as evidence against him in a court martial.

After being transferred to a prisoner stockade on October 26, Slovik was interviewed by both the division judge advocate and the division psychiatrist.

The divisional judge advocate, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Sommer,  again offered Slovik an opportunity to rejoin his unit and have the charges against him suspended.  He offered to transfer Eddie Slovik to a different infantry regiment where no one would know of his past and he could start with a "clean slate". 

Private Slovik seemed to be convinced that he would face only jail time,  with which he had experience and found preferable to combat.  He declined all of the offers,  saying,  "I've made up my mind. I'll take my court martial."

The division psychiatrist interviewed him and found him “to show no evidence of mental disease… and I consider him sane and responsible for his actions …”  Private Slovik was ordered to stand trial on November 11, 1944,  before a general court-martial of the 28th Division. Private Edward Slovik was confined to the division stockade.






















The 28th Division was scheduled to begin an attack in the Hurtgen Forest.  The coming attack was common knowledge in the unit, and casualty rates were expected to be very high,  as the prolonged combat in the area had been unusually grueling.  The Germans were determined to hold,  and terrain and stormy  weather reduced the usual American advantages in armor and air support to almost nothing.  A small minority of soldiers  (less than 0.5%)  indicated they preferred to be imprisoned rather than remain in combat,  and the rates of desertion as well as other crimes had begun to rise.

It’s not clear whether Private Slovik was acting on principles or out of an understanding of the United States military judicial system.  He was by no means the only soldier without affinity for the conditions of war, particularly on the allied side.  During the war,  thousands of soldiers were tried and convicted in military courts for desertion,  but up to then,  all had only received time in the brig.

What is clear is that Private Eddie Slovik was repeatedly offered opportunities to return to the line,  and Eddie Slovik repeatedly refused.

Private Edward Slovik was charged with desertion in order to avoid hazardous duty and was tried by court martial on November 11 1944.

Private Edward Slovik had to be tried by a court martial composed of staff officers from other United States Army Divisions,  because all combat officers from the 28th Infantry Division were fighting on the front lines. The prosecutor,  Captain John Green,  presented witnesses to whom Private Edward Slovik had stated his intention to "run away."

The defense counsel, Captain Edward Woods,  announced that Private Slovik had elected not to testify.



















The case was adjudicated on Nov 11, by nine staff officers of the 28th Division,  none of whom had yet been in battle.

One of those judges, Benedict B. Kimmelman,  wrote a stark and intriguing account of his role in the story of Private Slovik,  capturing the scene thusly: "Five witnesses were heard.  The cross-examinations were perfunctory.  The defense made no closing argument. "

The court recessed for ten minutes,  resumed,  and retired almost immediately afterward.  Three ballots were taken in closed court,  the verdicts unanimously guilty on all counts.  In open court once more,  the president announced the verdict and the sentence: to be dishonorably discharged,  to forfeit all pay and allowances due, and to be shot to death with musketry."

The trial had begun at 10:00 A.M.; the verdict was in at 11:40 A.M.

The sentence was reviewed and approved by the division commander,  Major General Norman Cota.  General Cota’s stated attitude was. "Given the situation as I knew it in November, 1944, I thought it was my duty to this country to approve that sentence. If I hadn’t approved it — if I had let Slovik accomplish his purpose — I don’t know how I could have gone up to the line and looked a good soldier in the face."













The Theater Judge Advocate recommended that the death sentence be approved, “not as a punitive measure nor a retribution, but to maintain that discipline upon which alone an army can succeed against the enemy”.

On December 9,  Private Slovik wrote an apologetic letter to the Supreme Allied commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower,  pleading for clemency and ending with  “To my knowledge I have a good record since my marriage and as a soldier. I’d like to continue to be a good soldier.…”  General Eisenhower did not read the letter in the short time that transpired before he confirmed the death sentence.  The various reviewing military authorities approved the death sentence.

Desertion had become a systemic problem in France,  and the surprise of the German offensive through the Ardenne forests had begun with severe United States casualties.  The morale of the infantrymen was the worst that been seen so far in the war.



























General Dwight Eisenhower confirmed the execution order on December 23, 1944, noting that it was necessary to discourage further desertions.   The Battle of the Bulge was raging.

General Eisenhower’s action completed confirmation of the case , but the review required by Article 50 1/2 was still to come. The sentence came as a shock to Eddie Slovik.  He had expected a dishonorable discharge and a jail term (which he assumed would be commuted once the war was over),  the same punishment that he had seen given to other deserters from his division,  while he was confined to the stockade.

The record of trial was found legally sufficient by a board of review, and then by the Assistant Judge Advocate General for the European Theater of Operations.  The latter officer wrote: "This soldier has performed no front line duty.  He did not intend to.  He deserted from his group of fifteen when about to join the infantry company to which he had been assigned.  His subsequent conduct shows a deliberate plan to secure trial and incarceration in a safe place. The sentence adjudged was more severe than he had anticipated,  but the imposition of a less severe sentence would only have accomplished the accused’s purpose of securing his incarceration and consequent freedom from the dangers which so many of our armed forces are required to face daily.   His unfavorable civilian record indicates that he is not a worthy subject of clemency."

Eddie Slovik was sent back to the 28th Division to be executed.  This was a surprise to General Cota,.  He   “conceded the logic in the theater commander’s action;  a deserter should be shot by the outfit he deserts.”


The Germans poured fourteen infantry divisions and five Panzer divisions into the front. This smashing the new American 106th division out of existence.  7,500 soldiers surrendered in the largest American mass surrender in the European Theater of Operations.

The German Army was racing for Antwerp.  They were led by a SS armored column under the command of SS Gruppenführer Joachim Peiper. Because the German Army was short of petrel,  his tanks had to capture gas from the Americans as they went.  On December 17,  Peiper ordered the execution of hundreds of Americans captured by his column.   He also massacred Belgian civilians in the town of Stavelot.   Initially, their was confusion over the nature of the offensive that went as far as the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force headquarters in Paris.  General Omar Bradley thought it was just an attempt to delay the offensive in the Rhine. 


























The Malmedy massacre was a war crime in which 84 American prisoners of war were murdered by their German captors during World War II.  The massacre was committed on December 17, 1944,  by members of  Kampfgruppe Peiper  (part of the 1st SS Panzer Division),  a German combat unit,  during the Battle of the Bulge.

The massacre, as well as others committed by the same unit on the same day and following days,  was the subject of the Malmedy massacre trial,  part of the Dachau Trials of 1946.




















113 American prisoners-of-war, had survived battles before they had surrendered.  They were assembled in a field near the Café Bodarwés.  There was a young Belgium boy who witnessed the deliberate slaughter of American POWs.

At about 2.15 pm,  soldiers from the 1st SS Panzer Division opened fire on the 113 men who were in the field.  The firing stopped after about 15 minutes.  SS soldiers from Kampfgruppe Peiper's unit went around the field and shot at close range, any soldier who appeared to be alive.  Some of the Americans were clubbed to death.  This fact was later supported by  autopsies.  There were some of the American prisoners who did get away after they pretended to be dead.


























 Because of the nature of the "Battle of the Bulge",  no one side were able secure the land where the dead Americans lay.   It was only after January 14th, 1945, on,  that the Americans could lsecure the area around the crossroads and claim the bodies.  71 snow-covered bodies were recovered.  The freezing weather had done a lot to preserve the bodies and that made the autopsies easier,  especially since some of them had been covered in snow.


By noon of December 17, the Allied intelligence counted twenty-four new German divisions. The Americans nicknamed the offensive the “Battle of the Bulge.”  Realizing that this was a major offensive,  General Eisenhower sent the Airborne divisions, who were refitting after Market-Garden battle, to take Bastogne and Saint-Vith.  The 101st Airborne,  whose defense of Bastogne would become legendary, arrived by truck just hours before the town was cut off and surrounded. They were supported by units of the 10th armored.

















Bad weather grounded the Allied air forces and prevented resupply.  They were to hold the town with little supplies and few tanks or vehicles.   A store of flour in a Belgian warehouse fed the 101st with flapjack pancakes.

American soldiers who had been retreating from the German advance, stopped and joined in the defense.  Artillery was set up in the center of Bastonge to give the defenders support anywhere along the lines, For 8 days, after their arrival on December 18th,until the day after Christmas,  the 101st beat back multiple German attacks.

During the battle,  the German commander charged with taking the vital crossroads sent a long letter to General Anthony C. McAuliffe, calling for his surrender.  General McAuliffe’s one-word reply,  “NUTS!”,  indicated the determination of the 101st to hang on, and has become a part of American military folklore.

The American soldiers all over the battlefield were showing incredible courage.  Often outnumbered five-to-one,  infantry units stopped or held up the German advance. But there were other units that broke ranks and fled.

The American manpower shortage had become critical.  Since the success of the liberation of France, production goals for ammunition were lowered  The effects of this mistake were first felt in the Ardenne Forests in December 1944.  A German offensive coupled with our lack of ammunition meant the Americans were facing a crisis. 

















The heavy overcast weather was preventing the Allies’ superior air power from even taking off.   Cooks,  clerks, marching band members,  command staffs,  anyone who could carry a rifle was quickly put into the front lines . High profile units like the Rangers,  who had very high requirements for volunteers before the Normandy invasion,  were simply given any replacements just like every other unit.

While all of this was going on,  the United States Army decided to carry out the execution of Private Edward D. Slovik.





















The execution by firing squad was carried out at 10:04 a.m. on January 31, 1945, near the village of Sainte Marie aux-Mines.  A remorseless Private Slovik said to the soldiers whose duty it was to prepare him for the firing squad before they led him to the place of execution, "They're not shooting me for deserting the United States Army, thousands of guys have done that. They just need to make an example out of somebody and I'm it because I'm an ex-con. I used to steal things when I was a kid, and that's what they are shooting me for. They're shooting me for the bread and chewing gum I stole when I was 12 years old."

Eddie Slovik, wearing a uniform stripped of all insignia, and with a GI blanket laid across his shoulders to protect him from the cold.  He was led into the courtyard of a house that had been chosen for the execution because it had a high masonry wall. The commanders did not want the local French civilians to witness the proceedings. Soldiers stood him against a six by six post. The soldiers strapped him to the post using web belts. One went around and under his arms and hung on a spike on the back side of the post to prevent his body from slumping following the volley of bullets.  The other straps went around his knees and ankles.


























The attending chaplain said to Private Slovik, "Eddie, when you get Up There, say a little prayer for me."

Eddie Slovik answered, "Okay, Father. I'll pray that you don't follow me too soon."   Those were Private Eddie Slovik's last words.



























Just before he was to be shot, another soldier placed a black hood over his head.






































Twelve soldiers, who had been picked, were detailed for the firing squad from the 109th Regiment. 




















The weapons they used were standard issue M-1 rifles. Only one of the rifles was loaded with a blank cartridge.





















On the command of "Fire", Private Edward Slovik was hit by eleven bullets.

Private Edward Slovik's wounds were all over the place.  They ranged from high in the neck region out to the left shoulder, over the left chest, and under the heart.  One bullet was in the left upper arm. 

An Army physician quickly determined that Private Slovik had not been immediately killed. The firing squad's rifles were reloaded in preparation for another volley.  But before the officer reloading the rifles was able to finish, Private Slovik died.

Eddie Slovik's dying slowly on the firing post, took five minutes. 

Private Edward Slovik was 24, just weeks from his 25th birthday.  The entire process of the execution took about fifteen minutes.

None of the rifleman so much as flinched, believing that Eddie Slovik had gotten what he deserved.

Two members of the firing squad later summarized what many front-line soldiers thought about the execution of Eddie Slovik.  One reportedly declared: "I got no sympathy for the son of a bitch!  He deserted us, didn't he?  He didn't give a damn how many of us got the hell shot out of us,  why should we care for him?"

The other soldier said, "I personally figured that Slovik was a no-good, and that what he had done was as bad as murder."


Witnesses reported that Private Eddie Slovik was stoic at the end, his only show of bravery as a soldier.

Nick Gozik is one of the few men who are still alive that saw the execution.

"It was very unnerving," said 90 yera old, Mr. Nick Gozik, of Pittsburgh.   "I had been through the Battle of the Bulge;  there were things I don't even want to talk about.  But, the reason this was so bad was that the Germans didn't do it.  We had executed one of our own."

Eddie Slovik's wife Antoinette, was totally unaware of the death sentence.  The army denied any responsibility,  claiming that Private Eddie Slovik himself,  should have notified her.

The villa at No. 86 has since been demolished and three residential apartment blocks have been built on the site.  The street name has also been changed.

Private Edward Slovik was buried in Plot "E" of Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial in Fère-en-Tardenois, alongside 95 American soldiers executed for rape and/or murder. Their grave markers are hidden from view by shrubbery and bear sequential numbers instead of names, making it impossible to identify them individually without knowing the key.


























Hames E Rudder.


Colonel James E. Rudder of the 109th Infantry Regiment would later write to his men "The person that is not willing to fight and die, if need be, for his country has no right to life".

Antoinette Slovik was told simply that her husband died in the European Theater.  She learned the truth in 1954 when William Bradford Hule published his book "The Execution of Private Slovik."


























Private Edward Slovik's execution was meant as a warning.  Yet it has not deterred thousands of service personnel who every year,  in war or peace, go AWOL  intending to stay AWOL - the legal definition of desertion.

According to the Pentagon, currently, each year, about 5,000 military personnel abandon their military duty.  They do not specify how many do so Stateside or on overseas duty, nor do thet indicate how many were involved in the Iraq or Afghanistan wars.

The number sounds high. But, it is well below the 40,000 who did so during the four years of WWII. It is miniscule in comparison to  the 33,000 who deserted the Army alone in 1971, during the Vietnam War.

The rate has declined since that era, from about 5 percent to less than 1 percent of the 1.2 million-member armed forces today. This trend has been attributed to the volunteer makeup of the military, plus a post-9/11 fervor to fight terrorism.

The military's zeal for prosecution has just about disappeared.

Two-thirds of Army deserters are caught, often when local police pick them up for unrelated infractions such as speeding. Of those who were returned to military custody last year, only 7 percent faced courts-martial.

Today's deserters typically are young and poorly educated, with histories of delinquency - much like Private Eddie  Slovik. They are more apt to flee for personal and financial reasons than for any moral objection to the mission. Commanders have the latitude to consider the circumstances, usually leading to less-than-honorable discharges, non-judicial penalties such as cuts in pay or rank - or it might entail a quiet welcome-back.

Even in high-profile desertions, punishment rarely exceeds a year in the brig.




























Antoinette Slovik in 1974..


Eddie's wife, Antoinette Slovik unsuccessfully petitioned the Army for her husband's remains and for his $10,000.00 insurance/penssion.

In the late 1970s, an Army review board looked at Private Eddie Slovik's case,  where an amendment would have allowed the benefits to his widow.  The board ruled against any change,  making the only official comment by the Army.
 




















Eddie Slovik's widow spent her final days at Medicos Nursing Home in Detroit.  She had been living on Social Security disability.  She suffered from heart problems,  and was being treated for breast cancer.   She died  on September 7, 1979.  She had been living in Detroit all those years,  under an assumed name.






















The remains of Pvt. Eddie Slovik, were lost on their way from France and then found in San Francisco, and sent home to Detroit. Private Slovik's body, had been scheduled to arrive on Trans World Airlines Flight 769 from New York's Kennedy International Airport.  When the flight landed in Detroit,  however,  the box carrying the remains could not be found.

"During the course of the night we found that it was loaded on Flight 803 and wound up in San Francisco," said Dwayne Swindle, the T.W.A. station manager in Detroit.



















According to Bernard Calka, the man responsible for bringing Private Eddie Slovik's remains home in 1987 from an army cemetery in France reserved for criminals to the Woodmere cemetery in Michigan, "The man didn't refuse to serve, he refused to kill."  

Bernard Calka, a Polish-American WWII veteran who served as an MP during the war and a commander of a VFW post afterward, and later became a commissioner of Macomb County (one of the three counties in Detroit's "tri-county" metro area), spent more than ten years and $8,000 of his own money to have Private Slovik's remains re-interred next to his wife.


























Anna Kadlubski, eldest sister of Eddie Slovik,  stands with her husband John as Eddie Slovik was reburied after his remains were returned in 1987.

Stephen Osinski, a retired judge who filed a formal petition for a Slovik pardon, said that he found "a virtual plethora of significant deprivations of Private Slovik's constitutional rights." 

Although Antoinette Slovik and others had petitioned seven United States presidents for a pardon for Private Edward Slovik,  none was ever granted.





















Plot E is in a private section of Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, that was specifically built to hold what Graves Registration referred to as "the dishonorable dead",  since (per standard practice) all had been officially dishonorably discharged from the US Army just prior to their executions.

Plot E section is located in a 100x50 foot rectangular clearing surrounded by hedges and hidden in thick forest, accessible only through the back door of the superintendent's office. It is maintained and groomed by cemetery caretakers, though it is hidden from view and kept far separate from the nearby four plots for the honored dead of World War I. One cemetery employee described Plot E as "a house of shame" and "a perfect anti-memorial";[2] unlike the marble monuments and inscribed standing headstones of the regular plots, Plot E contains nothing but 96 flat markers and a single small granite cross. The markers are the size of index cards and bear no honors or identification, only sequential grave numbers engraved in black. No United States flag is permitted to fly over the section, and the numbered graves literally lie with their backs turned to the hallowed ground of the main cemetery across the street. Visitors are not encouraged, and its existence is not mentioned on the cemetery website or guide pamphlets.

The remains of two prisoners have been exhumed and returned to the United States after the war. The first was David Cobb (executed at Shepton Mallet for murder on March 12, 1943) whose remains were repatriated to Dothan, Alabama in 1949. This particular repatriation appears to have been an administrative error, as permission had been specifically denied for any of the 98 to be repatriated and honorably interred. The second repatriation occurred much later and concerned the remains of Private Eddie Slovik, the only United States serviceman executed for desertion in World War II and the only man buried in Plot E who was not convicted of rape or murder.


























In 1977, Eddie Slovik's wife Antoinette, petitioned the Army and Congress for permission to rebury his body in America, but was denied. ,Following Antoinette's death in 1981, ,World War II veteran Bernard V. Calka took up Slovik's case,, but Slovik remained buried in Grave #65 of Plot E until 1987,  when the Army finally granted permission for his remains to be exhumed and repatriated to the United States,  for honorable burial next to his wife Antoinette.


























In 1960, Frank Sinatra announced his plan to produce a movie entitled The Execution of Private Slovik, to be written by blacklisted Hollywood 10 screenwriter Albert Maltz. This announcement provoked great outrage, and Sinatra was accused of being a Communist sympathizer. As Sinatra was campaigning for John F. Kennedy for President, the Kennedy camp was naturally concerned, and ultimately persuaded Sinatra to cancel the project.


























In William Bradford Huie’s book, "The Execution of Private Slovik".   William Huie questions the fairness of Eddie Slovik’s draft classification, the fairness of the replacement system,  the United States’ prosecution of WWII, the singling out of Eddie Slovik for execution,  and whether Eddie Slovik’s case was even the most flagrant case of desertion,  whether the execution served to make an example of Private Slovik, and whether Private Slovik’s treatment by the United States Army was just.


























In 1974, the book was adapted for a TV movie starring Martin Sheen and also called "The Execution of Private Slovik".

In addition, President Eisenhower's execution orders and Private Slovik's death by firing squad are included in a scene in the 1963 film "The Victors".

Kurt Vonnegut mentions Slovik's execution in his novel Slaughterhouse-Five. Kurt Vonnegut also wrote a companion libretto to Igor Stravinsky's Histoire du soldat, or "A Soldier's Tale", which tells Eddie Slovik's story. Private Slovik also appears in Nick Arvin's 2005 novel "Articles of War", in which the fictional protagonist, Private George (Heck) Tilson, is one of the members of Private Slovik's firing squad. The British rock band IQ also mentioned Eddie  Slovik in their song "For the Taking".


























Carlo D’Este's book "Eisenhower — A Soldier’s Life" 629 (2002)  (what Eisenhower asserts he instructed his JAG to say to Eddie Slovik, to which Eisenhower reports he was told Slovik replied, “baloney”).  In reality, no one from the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (“SHAEF”) was ever sent to Slovik’s 28th Division before his execution.  Id.; Geoffrey Perret, Eisenhower 333 (1999).





























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The following was written some years after the war by Captain Benedict B. Kimmelman, who was one of the court marshal judges at the trial.  He and many of the other judges went into battle immediately during the "Battle of the Bilge".  He was captured and was a prisoner of the German Army until the war was over. He knew nothing about the circunstances concerning Private Slovick until after his release.

"The trial took place in the grimmest surroundings and during the worst time the division had endured, a stalemate in the H’fcrtgen Forest. For nine days the Americans had been wasting their men and firepower against impregnable pillboxes expertly placed years before. The casualty lists were high, with one-third of the casualties killed in action or dying of wounds, and with no ground gained. The site of the trial was a scarred two-story building in the village of Rötgen, Germany. It was a cold, gray day, with snow off and on."

"The court convened at 10:00 A.M. The judges all were, like myself, staff officers. Up to that time none of us had truly served in the line or had had the job of commanding troops in actual combat. I was a dentist. Another was a lawyer in civil life. The division finance officer, a colonel, presided. Staff officers were more likely to be readily available than line (combat) officers, and their appointments to serve on general courts-martial were not unusual. Slovik’s defense counsel, a young staff captain, was not an attorney, but he had served on previous courts-martial."

"Slovik elected to stand mute. His defense counsel pleaded him “not guilty.” Witnesses gave testimony to Slovik’s identity and the dates and places of his defections. His written statement was placed in evidence with his and his counsel’s permission. 1 recall that at one point some member of the court suggested that Slovik might withdraw his statement about refusing to go out there in the future in return for our dismissing the charges and removing the risk of his receiving the “full penalty.” The scene in my mind is of Slovik’s turning silently to his defense counsel, who declared, “Let it stand,” which seemed to satisfy Slovik."

"Five witnesses were heard. The crossexaminations were perfunctory. The defense made no closing argument. The court recessed for ten minutes, resumed, and retired almost immediately afterward. Three ballots were taken in closed court, the verdicts unanimously guilty on all counts. In open court once more, the president announced the verdict and the sentence: to be dishonorably discharged, to forfeit all pay and allowances due, and to be shot to death with musketry. The trial had begun at 10:00 A.M.; it was over at 11:40 A.M."

"None of us in closed court had voiced any doubts about his guilt. There was brief disagreement about the nature of the death penalty to be imposed, whether it should be by hanging or firing squad, but consensus was quickly reached on the firing squad, as the less dishonorable means."

"Slovik, still wordless, was escorted out under guard. We members of the court, satisfied with our morning’s work, disbanded and went our separate ways. If the too-simple procedure and the too-quick verdict stirred doubts within, I put them down, as I and probably lots of others had gotten into the habit of doing during our time in the Army. For the next several days the case and its no-nonsense disposition and verdict created some little stir in headquarters, but it was an approving stir.  If there was a different reaction among the enlisted men, we knew nothing about it then."

"The sentence was approved by the division commander, Maj. Gen. Norman D. Cota, on November 27, while the division was still mired in the Hürtgen Forest. On December 9 Slovik wrote an explanatory, apologetic letter to Gen. Dwight D. Elsenhower, ending with “To my knowledge I have a good record since my marriage and as a soldier. I’d like to continue to be a good soldier.…” Eisenhower did not read the letter in the short time before he confirmed the death sentence. The various reviewing authorities approved the death sentence."

"The execution was carried out on January 31, in a walled-in garden of an estate in a small town in eastern France, before a large group of military witnesses. Twelve expert riflemen, strangers to Slovik, were detailed to the firing squad. They were rehearsed the day before. Slovik needed no assistance and replied quietly to those trussing him up and placing the hood over his head. He stood “straight as could be” without “any sign of emotion,” in the words of one of the squad."

"When the military surgeon examined the slumped body, following the volley of rifle shots, Slovik was still alive. None of the eleven bullets (one unknown rifleman having drawn a blank), fired from a distance of twenty paces by expert riflemen perfectly capable of hitting a silver dollar on a stationary target at twice that distance, had exactly hit the heart. He died as the guns were being reloaded."

"Meanwhile, several of those involved in the case, myself included, had been taken prisoner in the Battle of the Bulge, which had begun for us on December 16, five weeks after the trial. The first knowledge I had of the execution followed my release from a German prison camp in the spring of 1945, when a noncom, recognizing me, cried out, “Hey, Captain, you know they shot Slovik!” We were in a souvenir shop in Paris, where I was looking for a wedding-anniversary gift to send home to my wife."

"I was shaken. It was bitter bad news. My experiences in the Battle of the Bulge had totally changed my mind about the sentence."
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Conclusions --

Captain Benedict Kimmelman, who had been a member of the court martial board, wrote in 1987 that "Slovik, guilty as many others were, was made an example, the sole example, it turned out."  He considered the execution a "historic injustice."

Benedict Kimmelman makes the point in his article over and over that the "jury" sitting in judgement on Private Eddie Slovik consisted ONLY of staff officers. NO line combat officers.

"There cannot be a fair trial under unfair circumstances." - Benedict B. Kimmelman[


Colonel Guy Williams, another officer on the panel, said that he didn't think "a single member of that court actually believed that Slovik would ever be shot. I know I didn't believe it."



"I believe that in the beginning he thought he could “beat-the-rap,” but as the inexorable process of military law became eventually inescapable he probably succumbed to some deep death wish, which we so frequently encounter when life fails us or we fail life." - Dr. Robert E. Rougelot

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