Private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion - January 31st, 1945

On this day in 1945, American soldier Edward Slovik was shot to death for deserting his post.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that shines a light on the ups and downs
of everyday history. I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode,
we're reflecting on the sad fate of the last US

(00:23):
soldier to be executed for desertion, or at least the
last to date. The day was January thirty first, nineteen
forty five, American soldier Edward Slovak was shot to death
for deserting his post. He was the first US service

(00:45):
member to be executed for desertion since the Civil War,
and the only deserter to be put to death during
World War II, even though thousands of his fellow soldiers
were court martialed for the same crime. It's long been
debates why Private Slovak was singled out in this way.
The popular theory is that the military wanted to make

(01:06):
an example of someone to discourage other potential deserters during
a pivotal point in the war, and Slovak was just
the unlucky offender chosen for the job. There's a problem
with that theory that we'll get to a little later,
but in any case, it's not the only option on
the table. Some believe Slovak received a harsher sentence due
to his prior criminal background, while others claim he was

(01:29):
the victim of a cynical system in which those who
imposed the death sentence never expected it to actually be
carried out. The truth of who's to blame for the
soldier's death is hard to pin down for certain, but
perhaps the most troubling possibility of all is that the
person most responsible was private Slovac himself. Edward Donald Slovak

(01:52):
was born in Detroit, Michigan, on February eighteenth, nineteen twenty.
He dropped out of school at age fifteen and was
put on probation five times and sent to jail twice
by the time he turned twenty one. His rap sheet
included multiple counts of burglary, assault, and grand theft auto,
but after serving his time, he was paroled in April

(02:13):
of nineteen forty two and largely stayed out of trouble
for the next few years. During that time, Slovak met
and married Antoinette Withnouski, a Michigan bookkeeper five years his senior.
He also secured a well paying job as a shipping
clerk at Chrysler. Slovak was drafted shortly after his release
from prison, but because he was still on parole, he

(02:36):
was classified four F and barred from service. As the
war continued, though, the draft standards were lowered to meet
the growing need for more soldiers, resulting in Slovak being
bumped up to one A classification. He was inducted into
the U. S. Army on January third, nineteen forty four,
and soon began training as a rifleman at Camp Walters, Texas.

(02:59):
From the very beginning, Slovac knew he wasn't cut out
to be a soldier. He disliked using guns and bristled
at having his personal freedom restricted so soon after his release.
It's just like being in jail, he told his wife
in a letter. Only jail isn't this bad. He went
on to say that he was neglecting his training on purpose,

(03:19):
because quote, if you're too smart or too good, they'll
send you overseas. In the end, though, Slovak must have
done something right, because in late July the army shipped
him to England and then to the third replacement depot
in France. Slovak and fourteen other replacements were assigned to
the twenty eighth Infantry Division, located near Elbeuf, France. The

(03:42):
unit had already sustained heavy losses in the fighting there
and in Germany, and when Slovak and the others arrived
late that evening, the city was under heavy shell fire.
Yet again. The men were ordered to hunker down in
fox holes until it was safe to advance, But when
the barrage ended half an hour later or Private Slovak
was too terrified to move amidst all the confusion, no

(04:05):
one even realized he was missing, and by the time
he emerged the following morning, though hundred and ninth had
been relieved by the thirteenth Canadian Provost Corps, a military
police unit, Slovak wasn't the only American soldier to be
left behind. Private John P. Tanky, another replacement, had simply
gotten lost in the chaos of battle. Both men befriended

(04:28):
the Canadians, and for the next six weeks they worked
alongside them, driving trucks, cooking meals, and guarding German prisoners. Finally,
in early October, the Canadians reunited Slovak and Tanky with
one hundred and ninth Division, which was now stationed in Belgium.
There were no repercussions for the men's disappearance, as soldiers

(04:48):
often got separated from their units, especially early on in
their tours of duty. However, Private Slovak decided to press
the issue. On the evening of his return, he ad
Vast Company commander Captain Ralph Grot if he would be
court martialed for having stayed behind in his foxhole. Grot
said he would have to check, but he didn't think so,

(05:09):
at which point Slovac asked if it would be considered
desertion if he were to leave again. Grot replied in
the affirmative, and later that night Slovak took off. He
returned the very next morning with a signed confession of desertion,
claiming that he was too scared and too nervous to
be an effective rifleman, and that he would run away

(05:30):
again if forced into combat. Slovac's behavior made it abundantly
clear what he was planning. He was practically begging to
be court martialed, because, as the army later put it,
he had quote deliberately decided that confinement was preferable to
the risks of combat, and he deliberately sought the safety
and comparative comfort of the guardhouse. Slovac knew that the

(05:52):
army hadn't shot a deserter in nearly one hundred years,
so he figured the worst case scenario was that he'd
be thrown in prison until the war was over, and
having already spent time behind bars back home, he knew
that was preferable to going to the front lines, where
he'd almost certainly be killed. An officer of the one
hundred and ninth urged Slovak to recant his confession and

(06:14):
return to his unit, stressing that the consequences would be
severe if he didn't, but Slovak refused and was confined
to the stockade instead. The private seemed bound and determined
to be court martialed, and in mid October, that's exactly
what happened. Even then, however, an attempt was made to
save Slovak from a potentially ruinous outcome. A legal officer

(06:36):
of the twenty eighth Division called Slovak to his office
and offered him a deal. If he returned to active
duty immediately, his charges would be suspended, sparing him from
a lengthy prison term and possibly execution once again. Though
Slovak refused, His trial was held two weeks later, and
he was convicted in less than two hours. Under the

(06:58):
articles of War, the pen for wartime desertion was death
or such other punishment as a court martial may direct.
There were nine judges on Slovak's court martial panel that day,
and all of them voted for the same sentence, execution
to be shot to death with musketry. Slovak's fate wasn't

(07:18):
sealed just yet, as a capital punishment sentence had to
survive several layers of appeal, an outcome which the military
judges probably didn't consider very likely. To everyone's surprise, though
especially Slovak's, every appeal he made was rejected. The final
word on the matter came from the Supreme Allied Commander,

(07:39):
General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The appeal crossed his desk at
the same time, the Battle of the Bulge was raging
on the Western Front, and it's widely assumed that the
thousands of American casualties from that battle weighed into his
decision to uphold Slovak's sentence. That said, it's worth noting
that none of the records from the process mention that

(08:00):
bloody battle, or suggest any desire on the military's part
to punish deserters more harshly in light of heavy casualties.
Whatever the rationale, twenty four year old Eddie Slovak was
sent to eastern France to be killed by a twelve
man firing squad on January thirty first, nineteen forty five.
In the final days before his execution, Slovak blamed his

(08:23):
criminal past for his fate, telling a guard quote, 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 khan. I used to steal things when I
was a kid, and that's what they're shooting me for.
They're shooting me for the bread and chewing gum I

(08:45):
stole when I was twelve years old. If the Army
did plan to make Slovak an example, it did a
pretty bad job of it. Only Slovak's own unit, the
one hundred and ninth Regiment, was informed of his execution,
and neither the civila nor the military press reported it.
It was essentially kept secret by the Army for the

(09:05):
next nine years. Even Slovak's widow was told only that
her husband had died under quote dishonorable circumstances. As for
Slovak's remains, they were buried in the corner of a
military cemetery in France, alongside American soldiers who'd been executed
for the crimes of rape and murder. The names of

(09:26):
these men were purposely left off the grave markers, and
they were identified only by a number. It wasn't until
four decades later, in nineteen eighty seven, that Slovak's remains
were returned to Detroit and reburied next to his wife.
That project was spearheaded by the local community, which raised
five thousand dollars to make it happen. American attitudes toward

(09:49):
capital punishment have changed a great deal since the Second
World War, and while the maximum punishment for desertion during
wartime is still deaf, that outcome now seen seams highly unlikely,
though of course that's what Eddie Slovak thought too. I'm
Gabe Lucier, and hopefully you now know a little more

(10:12):
about history today than you did yesterday. You can learn
even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,
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any comments or suggestions, feel free to pass them along
by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks

(10:33):
to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks to
you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow
for another day in History class