Episodes of War: The Execution of U.S. Soldier Eddie Slovik by the United States and Its Relation to the Battle of Hürtgen Forest (Published on 02/04/2023)
So far, it seems to have attracted little attention, especially locally, that an internationally well-known example of the state’s handling of civil rights under wartime conditions has various connections to the Hürtgen Forest region and the fighting there in the fall of 1944: The execution of U.S. Private Eddie D. Slovik on 31/01/1945, the first and only case since 1864 in which the U.S. sentenced one of its soldiers to death for desertion and carried out that sentence.
Slovik was a member of the 109th Infantry Regiment of the 28th US Infantry Division. He was imprisoned in Rott, located in the Hürtgen Forest about 15 km southeast of Aachen, and the death sentence against him was pronounced in the neighboring village of Roetgen – all this in October and November 1944 while the 28th U.S. Infantry Division was engaged in the Battle of Hürtgen Forest.
The story was first described in detail in the book “The Execution of Private Slovik” by William Bradford Huie, which was first published in 1954. The following description is based on the information in the latest version of this book from 2020 (cited: “Huie”).
The civilian Eddie Slovik
Edward Donald Slovik, known as “Eddie”, was born in Detroit, Michigan, on 18/02/1920, to parents of Polish descent. As a result of a difficult adolescence in which he repeatedly came into conflict with the law and served several years in prison and finally in a reformatory, after his last parole in April 1942 Slovik was initially considered “mentally unfit” (category 4-F) to serve in the U.S. Army. Slovik found a job at a plumbing company, where he met the accountant Antoinette Wisniewski, whom he married on 07/11/1942. The increasing shortage of reservists (so-called “replacements”) subsequently led to a change in the draft criteria, so that Slovik received a letter from the U.S. authorities on his first wedding day on 07/11/1943, according to which he was now subject to draft category 1-A and was fit for service without restrictions. He was drafted into the US Army on 03/01/1944.
The soldier Eddie Slovik
After completing his basic training, he was shipped to Europe in August 1944 to fight in France. He was assigned to G Company of the 109th Infantry Regiment of the 28th U.S. Infantry Division, which was fighting at Elbeuf in Normandy at the time. On the way to G Company on the evening of 25/08/1944, Slovik’s group of twelve “replacements” ran into an artillery attack on the outskirts of town that lasted several hours and separated him and another soldier, John Tankey, from the rest, leaving them alone overnight. The next day Slovik and Tankey joined a Canadian unit, which Elbeuf took over from the 109th Infantry, while the latter moved to Paris. They remained with the Canadians for six weeks. On 05/10/1944, Slovik and Tankey reported in writing to the headquarters of the 28th U.S. Infantry Division at Elsenborn/Belgium, informing them of their whereabouts. Like many others, they were listed there as “missing or absent without leave”. It was not until 07/10/1944 that they first arrived with G Company of the 109th US Infantry Regiment at Rocherath/Belgium.
The following day, Eddie Slovik asked his company commander, Captain Ralph Grotte, to be transferred to a rear unit because he was “too scared” and “too nervous” to serve in a front-line combat unit. Otherwise, he would “run away”. The company commander nevertheless assigned him to a rifle platoon. Thereupon Slovik left his unit and moved away from the front. The next day, 09/10/1944, he met a soldier of the 112th U.S. Infantry Regiment near Rocherath, to whom he handed a written statement signed by him, stating that he could no longer serve at the front and that he would run away again if he had to return there. The soldier informed his superior, Slovik was transferred back to the 109th Infantry Regiment. There he was offered to tear up his statement and return to his unit, nothing would happen to him then. Slovik refused. He wrote another statement on the back of his first one, in which he confirmed that he was aware of its significance and the fact that it would be used as evidence against him in a military tribunal.
Slovik’s imprisonment at Rott and his sentencing to death by a U.S. military court at Roetgen
Eddie Slovik was then imprisoned. On 26/10/1944, he was transferred to the division prison in Rott, where he remained until after his trial before the military court. During his imprisonment he was again offered that the charges against him would be dropped if he returned to his unit or optionally to another one. Slovik again refused.
He apparently speculated – in keeping with U.S. practice since the last execution for desertion in 1864, during the American Civil War – that he would be found guilty and sentenced to many years in prison, the remainder of which would be suspended a few months after the war ended. He would thus be safe during the war and able to continue his life as usual after it ended. This was a strategy that other U.S. soldiers had already used to escape the fighting, and which the U.S. military also attributed to Slovik (Huie, p. 131 f.). For Slovik, this was compounded by the fact that he was familiar with incarceration from his youth and did not perceive it as a detriment.
On 29/10/1944, an oral hearing was scheduled against Eddie Slovik before the military court, which was sitting in Roetgen at the time.
In the meantime, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest had begun, causing heavy casualties. The 28th U.S. Infantry Division was to intervene in the fighting. Beginning on 25/10/1944, the 109th and 110th U.S. Infantry Regiments had deployed east of Rott to relieve the severely depleted Infantry Regiments 39 and 60 of the 9th U.S. Infantry Division and subsequently advance together with the 5th U.S. Armored Division through the Kall Valley toward Kommerscheidt and Schmidt on the ridge beyond. The fighting, which later became known in Germany as the “Battle of All Soul’s Day” (“Allerseelenschlacht”), began on 02/11/1944, and also took a heavy toll of blood from units of the 28th U.S. Infantry Division. John Tankey, with whom Slovik had been at Elbeuf, was also wounded there on 05/11/1944. In all probability, Slovik would have had to take part in these fights as well.
On 11/11/1944 Eddie Slovik was tried before the military court in Roetgen for two cases of “desertion to avoid hazardous duty”, committed in Elbeuf and Rocherath. The trial, which began at 10:00 a.m., ended at 11:40 a.m. The nine officers, presided over by Colonel Guy M. Williams, unanimously found Slovik, who pleaded not guilty and exercised his right to remain silent, guilty and sentenced him to death by firing squad. The vote was repeated three times, the result always remaining the same.
Colonel Williams commented on this to the author Huie as follows (Huie, p. 153):
“Well, it should be made clear that Slovik’s civilian record – his having been in jail – did not and could not have influenced any member of the court. None of us knew anything about his record. All we knew was what we saw and heard: a nice-looking, healthy-looking soldier in open defiance of the authority of the United States. There was his confession: he had run away from his duties as a rifleman … and he would run away again. Given the circumstances of a division locked in bloody battle and taking heavy casualties, I didn’t think I had the right to let him get away with it. That’s how I felt; apparently the others felt the same way.”
Slovik remained in custody. At first presumably in Rott, on 14/11/1944 he was then transferred to a prison in Paris.
The confirmation of the death sentence by the division commander Cota and by the responsible theater commander Eisenhower
In accordance with the legal requirements, the sentence required its review and confirmation first by the responsible division commander and then by the responsible theater commander. Either of them could have prevented the execution of the death sentence against Slovik, but both confirmed it.
The commander of the 28th U.S. Infantry Division, Major General Norman Cota, did so on 27/11/1944, under the impression of the fighting in the Hürtgen Forest, where a major offensive (“Operation Queen”) had been launched on 16/11/, again resulting in heavy casualties. Cota later explained about his decision to the author Huie (Huie, p. 160):
“Given the situation as I knew it 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 – then I don’t know how I could have gone up to the line and looked a good soldier in the face.”
Thus the case reached the responsible theater commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom Slovik had asked for clemency in a letter on 09/12/1944. In a written opinion prepared on the case for Eisenhower by the department of the responsible military lawyer, General Ed. C. Betts, it is stated on the question of whether Slovik’s request for clemency should be granted (Huie, p. 170):
“[Slovik’s] prior offenses are not of sufficient gravity to influence my recommendation in the instant case. However, they indicate a persistent refusal to conform to the rules of society in civilian life, an imperviousness to penal correction and a total lack of appreciation of clemency; these qualities the accused brought with him into his military life. He was obstinately determined not to engage in combat, and on two occasions, the second after express warning as to the results, he deserted. He boldly confessed to these offenses and concluded his confession with the statement, ‘so I ran away again AND I’LL RUN AWAY AGAIN IF I HAVE TO GO OUT THEIR [sic]’. There can be no doubt that he deliberately sought the safety and comparative comfort of the guardhouse. To him and to the soldiers who may follow his example, if he achieves his end, confinement is neither deterrent nor punishment. He has directly challenged the authority of the government, and future discipline depends upon a resolute reply to this challenge. If the death penalty is ever to be imposed for desertion it should be imposed in this case, not as a punitive measure or as retribution, but to maintain that discipline upon which alone an army can succeed against an enemy. There was no recommendation for clemency in this case and none is here recommended.”
Eisenhower confirmed the death sentence on 23/12/1944.
Slovik’s execution on 31/01/1945
Eddie Slovik’s execution was carried out at 10:04 a.m. on 31/01/1945, in the backyard of a private house in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, a small town in the Vosges Mountains of eastern France, by a firing squad of twelve soldiers from the 109th U.S. Infantry Regiment. Slovik was hit by eleven bullets – one of the rifles is loaded with a blank cartridge –, but did not die immediately. He died while the rifles were being reloaded for the second volley. Eddie Slovik was 24 years old.
Major General Cota had personally witnessed the execution and subsequently informed General Eisenhower of its execution. Also personally present was the then commander of the 109th U.S. Infantry Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel James E. Rudder, who had been highly decorated as the leader of two Ranger battalions during “D-Day” and who had assembled the firing squad. Rudder informed the regiment’s soldiers of Slovik’s killing as follows (Huie, p. 107):
“Today, I had the most regrettable experience I have had since the war began. I saw a former soldier of the 109th Infantry, Private Eddie D. Slovik, shot to death by musketry by soldiers of this regiment. I pray that this man’s death will be a lesson to each of us who have any doubt at any time about the price that we must pay to win this war. The person that is not willing to fight and die, if need be, for his country has no right to life. According to record, this is the first time in eighty years of American history that any United States soldier has been shot to death by musketry for deserting his unit and his fellow man. There is only one reason for our being here and that is to eliminate the enemy that has brought the war about. There is only one way to eliminate the enemy and that is to close with him. Let’s all get on with the job we were sent here to do in order that we may return home at the earliest possible moment.”
The struggle of Antoinette Slovik for Eddie’s rehabilitation
Eddie Slovik was originally buried in a numbered grave in a separate hidden field at the Oisne-Aisne Amercian Cemetery and Memorial in Fère-en-Tardenois, France, along with 95 other U.S. soldiers who had been executed by hanging for the rape and murder of unarmed civilians.
His wife Antoinette, to whom Slovik had written 376 letters during his 372 days of service, was initially unaware of all this.
She had been notified of Eddie’s death by telegram, but not of the circumstances. When she claimed his life insurance, she was refused on the grounds that Eddie had died “under dishonorable circumstances”. She learned the details only after author Huie contacted her in the course of his research for the aforementioned book. Antoinette Slovik and others subsequently petitioned a total of seven U.S. presidents over a period of decades for both a subsequent pardon for Eddie and a repatriation of his remains to the U.S., as well as for payment of the insurance money for his death; all petitions were rejected.
Antoinette Slovik died on 07/09/1979 at the age of 64. Her tombstone bears the inscription “Compassion and justice unto this moment unfulfilled”.
Veteran Bernard V. Calka continued to pursue the case and was ultimately successful in 1987. Eddie Slovik’s remains were brought to the United States and buried in Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit next to his wife Antoinette. His tombstone bears the inscription “Honour and justice prevailed”.
During World War II, the U.S. Army sentenced more than 21,000 soldiers for desertion, 49 of them to death. Only the death sentence against Eddie Slovik was carried out.
(Head picture: Grave of Eddie and Antoinette Slovik
at the Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit,
source: de.findagrave.com, photo: Eric)
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