Eddie Slovik

American Cemetery and Oise-Aisne Memorial (Cimetière américain de Seringes-et-Nesles). Eddie Slovik was buried here after the execution before the body was exhumed in 1987 and transferred to the United States.

Edward Donald "Eddie" Slovik (born  February 18, 1920 in Detroit ; †  January 31, 1945 near Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines , France ) was the only American soldier in World War II who was executed by the US Army for desertion . The US Army sentenced 21,049 soldiers for desertion (49 of them to death) in World War II; only the sentence against Slovik was carried out. He was the first and so far only soldier executed for this reason since the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Life

Youth and military time

Slovik's ancestors were immigrants from Poland . Some sources claim that he was mentally retarded; there is no concrete evidence of this. When it was first patterned, the military classified it as "4-F" which means. H. as disabled, u. a. because he had been arrested several times. He was caught by the police at the age of twelve when he and a few others broke into a foundry to steal pieces of brass. In the period from 1932 to 1937 he was arrested several times for minor thefts, break-ins and public disturbance of the peace. In October 1937 he was sent to prison; He was paroled eleven months later. He was returned to prison about four months later. He had stolen a car with two friends this time, and police found him drunk behind the wheel after causing an accident with the vehicle.

In April 1942, Slovik was paroled again. The Axis powers had declared war on the United States four months earlier, and unemployment fell rapidly because of the rampant arms industry. Slovik got a job with a plumbing company called the Montella Plumbing Company in Dearborn , where he met Antoinette Wisniewski. They married on November 7, 1942 and moved into their parents' apartment, presumably because of the lack of accommodation. Slovik was called up in November 1943. In the meantime, the military had lowered the fitness standards significantly, and he was no longer considered a "4-F", but a "1-A" - completely fit for duty. The US Army sent him to Camp Wolters, Texas , for basic training on January 24, 1944 ; This training ended at the end of August. The US Army then sent him to France on a troop ship, where he arrived on August 20, 1944 - four months before the German Ardennes offensive .

In France, Slovik was one of twelve reinforcements that were to fight with G Company of the US 109th Infantry Regiment; this regiment belonged to the 28th US Infantry Division . As the reinforcements were on their way to their new unit, they got lost in the confusion of an artillery attack . Early in the morning of the following day, Slovik and a second soldier, John Tankey, encountered a Canadian unit where they stayed "unofficially" in a unit for six weeks. Tankey wrote a message to the 109th Regiment explaining the absence of the two soldiers. When Slovik and his comrade returned to the US armed forces on October 7, 1944, they were neither reported nor punished.

On October 8, 1944, Slovik reported to the chief of his company , Captain Ralph Grotte, that he was "too scared" to fight in a rifle company. He asked to be transferred to any unit behind the front. Grotte refused Slovik's request and warned the soldier not to attempt desertion. Shortly afterwards Slovik was assigned to a platoon of the company. The next day, he went to a military policeman and made a confession. He said he would "run away" if sent to the front. He was brought before Lieutenant Colonel Ross Henbest. He offered Slovik the chance to withdraw his confession without any negative consequences and to tear up the protocol. Slovik refused and wrote a second note in which he reiterated that he fully understood his actions and the possible consequences thereof.

Arrest and execution

Slovik was then arrested. He was locked in the division's military prison . The division's military judge , Lieutenant Colonel Henry Summer, offered Slovik one last opportunity to return to his unit. Had he agreed, the charges would have been suspended. Summer also gave Slovik the choice to fight with another regiment . He declined both offers and said, “I've made up my mind. I'm taking a military trial. ”Meanwhile, the military situation for the Allies had become critical, because the 28th Division was planning an attack on the Huertgen Forest . Most of the soldiers knew about it, and the expected losses were great. The number of soldiers deserting increased; many also committed minor crimes because they would rather go to prison than go to the front.

The US Army accused Slovik of deserting , probably with the intention of setting an example. The trial took place on November 11, 1944 and lasted just under 100 minutes. The US Army Prosecutor, Captain John Green, presented the testimony to the court that Slovik had already expressed his intention to "get away from it all". Slovik's defense attorney, Captain Edward Woods, announced that his client had made the decision not to testify. The nine jurors found him guilty and sentenced him to death . The commander of the division, Major General Norman Cota , reviewed the ruling and considered it legitimate.

On December 9th, Slovik wrote a letter to General Eisenhower , the Allied Commander in Chief . The convicted soldier pleaded for indulgence and mercy. Eisenhower confirmed the execution order on December 23, 1944 . On January 31, 1945 at 10:04 a.m., the sentence was carried out by shooting near Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines , France .

His body was originally buried in the Oise-Aisne cemetery east of Fère-en-Tardenois in France. In this WWI cemetery, 94 other US soldiers were buried in a special block E. The US Army was charged with serious crimes, e. B. murder or rape , executed during World War II. The tombstones had no names, only numbers. In 1987, Slovik's remains were returned to Michigan and buried in Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit next to his widow Antoinette, who had died in September 1979 and who had struggled unsuccessfully for many years to have his army life insurance paid out . Despite the efforts of his wife and others to obtain Slovik's pardon, albeit posthumously, several US presidents have denied the requests. Those who campaigned for his rehabilitation always claimed that Slovik was seen as a suitable scapegoat for conflicting with the law in civilian life before the war. Benedict B. Kimmelman, who was an officer in the military trial against Slovik, retrospectively concluded that the case was an "historical injustice".

Consequences and literary processing

In 1951, the US Congress passed the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), a code that gave US military personnel more rights and is still in force today.

Slovik's story formed the basis of William Bradford Huie's 1954 book The Execution of Private Slovik , which sold more than 5 million copies. Frank Sinatra bought the film rights for $ 35,000. A film was initially not made because the intended screenwriter Albert Maltz was on an unofficial "black list" of film studios in the McCarthy era . In 1972 Universal Studios bought the rights and produced a television movie that aired in March 1974. In the film, Martin Sheen played the main role. The execution shocked the American public (at the time heavily influenced by the Vietnam War ) enough to call for a thorough reform of the military justice system.

Hans Magnus Enzensberger processed the case in 1964 in his book Politics and Crimes under the title “The innocent deserter. Reconstruction of an Execution ”.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Antoinette Slovik, Widow of a GI Shot by Army for Desertion in 1945 , New York Times , September 8, 1979.

literature

• William Bradford Huie: The Fall of the Soldier Slovik . Kossodo, Geneva 1959 (English original edition The Execution of Private Slovik , New York 1954)
• Benedict B. Kimmelman: The Example of Private Slovik . In: American Heritage 38 (1987), 6

Web links

• Eddie Slovik in the database of Find a Grave (English)