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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that shines a light on the ups and downs

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Speaker 1: of everyday history. I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we're reflecting on the sad fate of the last US

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Speaker 1: soldier to be executed for desertion, or at least the

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Speaker 1: last to date. The day was January thirty first, nineteen

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Speaker 1: forty five, American soldier Edward Slovak was shot to death

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Speaker 1: for deserting his post. He was the first US service

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Speaker 1: member to be executed for desertion since the Civil War,

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Speaker 1: and the only deserter to be put to death during

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Speaker 1: World War II, even though thousands of his fellow soldiers

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Speaker 1: were court martialed for the same crime. It's long been

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Speaker 1: debates why Private Slovak was singled out in this way.

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Speaker 1: The popular theory is that the military wanted to make

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Speaker 1: an example of someone to discourage other potential deserters during

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Speaker 1: a pivotal point in the war, and Slovak was just

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Speaker 1: the unlucky offender chosen for the job. There's a problem

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Speaker 1: with that theory that we'll get to a little later,

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Speaker 1: but in any case, it's not the only option on

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Speaker 1: the table. Some believe Slovak received a harsher sentence due

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Speaker 1: to his prior criminal background, while others claim he was

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Speaker 1: the victim of a cynical system in which those who

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Speaker 1: imposed the death sentence never expected it to actually be

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Speaker 1: carried out. The truth of who's to blame for the

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Speaker 1: soldier's death is hard to pin down for certain, but

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Speaker 1: perhaps the most troubling possibility of all is that the

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Speaker 1: person most responsible was private Slovac himself. Edward Donald Slovak

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Speaker 1: was born in Detroit, Michigan, on February eighteenth, nineteen twenty.

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Speaker 1: He dropped out of school at age fifteen and was

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Speaker 1: put on probation five times and sent to jail twice

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Speaker 1: by the time he turned twenty one. His rap sheet

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Speaker 1: included multiple counts of burglary, assault, and grand theft auto,

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Speaker 1: but after serving his time, he was paroled in April

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Speaker 1: of nineteen forty two and largely stayed out of trouble

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Speaker 1: for the next few years. During that time, Slovak met

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Speaker 1: and married Antoinette Withnouski, a Michigan bookkeeper five years his senior.

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Speaker 1: He also secured a well paying job as a shipping

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Speaker 1: clerk at Chrysler. Slovak was drafted shortly after his release

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Speaker 1: from prison, but because he was still on parole, he

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Speaker 1: was classified four F and barred from service. As the

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Speaker 1: war continued, though, the draft standards were lowered to meet

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Speaker 1: the growing need for more soldiers, resulting in Slovak being

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Speaker 1: bumped up to one A classification. He was inducted into

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Speaker 1: the U. S. Army on January third, nineteen forty four,

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Speaker 1: and soon began training as a rifleman at Camp Walters, Texas.

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Speaker 1: From the very beginning, Slovac knew he wasn't cut out

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Speaker 1: to be a soldier. He disliked using guns and bristled

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Speaker 1: at having his personal freedom restricted so soon after his release.

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Speaker 1: It's just like being in jail, he told his wife

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Speaker 1: in a letter. Only jail isn't this bad. He went

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Speaker 1: on to say that he was neglecting his training on purpose,

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Speaker 1: because quote, if you're too smart or too good, they'll

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Speaker 1: send you overseas. In the end, though, Slovak must have

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Speaker 1: done something right, because in late July the army shipped

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Speaker 1: him to England and then to the third replacement depot

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Speaker 1: in France. Slovak and fourteen other replacements were assigned to

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Speaker 1: the twenty eighth Infantry Division, located near Elbeuf, France. The

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Speaker 1: unit had already sustained heavy losses in the fighting there

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Speaker 1: and in Germany, and when Slovak and the others arrived

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Speaker 1: late that evening, the city was under heavy shell fire.

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Speaker 1: Yet again. The men were ordered to hunker down in

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Speaker 1: fox holes until it was safe to advance, But when

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Speaker 1: the barrage ended half an hour later or Private Slovak

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Speaker 1: was too terrified to move amidst all the confusion, no

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Speaker 1: one even realized he was missing, and by the time

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Speaker 1: he emerged the following morning, though hundred and ninth had

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Speaker 1: been relieved by the thirteenth Canadian Provost Corps, a military

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Speaker 1: police unit, Slovak wasn't the only American soldier to be

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Speaker 1: left behind. Private John P. Tanky, another replacement, had simply

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Speaker 1: gotten lost in the chaos of battle. Both men befriended

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Speaker 1: the Canadians, and for the next six weeks they worked

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Speaker 1: alongside them, driving trucks, cooking meals, and guarding German prisoners. Finally,

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Speaker 1: in early October, the Canadians reunited Slovak and Tanky with

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Speaker 1: one hundred and ninth Division, which was now stationed in Belgium.

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Speaker 1: There were no repercussions for the men's disappearance, as soldiers

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Speaker 1: often got separated from their units, especially early on in

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Speaker 1: their tours of duty. However, Private Slovak decided to press

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Speaker 1: the issue. On the evening of his return, he ad

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Speaker 1: Vast Company commander Captain Ralph Grot if he would be

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Speaker 1: court martialed for having stayed behind in his foxhole. Grot

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Speaker 1: said he would have to check, but he didn't think so,

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Speaker 1: at which point Slovac asked if it would be considered

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Speaker 1: desertion if he were to leave again. Grot replied in

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Speaker 1: the affirmative, and later that night Slovak took off. He

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Speaker 1: returned the very next morning with a signed confession of desertion,

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Speaker 1: claiming that he was too scared and too nervous to

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Speaker 1: be an effective rifleman, and that he would run away

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Speaker 1: again if forced into combat. Slovac's behavior made it abundantly

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Speaker 1: clear what he was planning. He was practically begging to

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Speaker 1: be court martialed, because, as the army later put it,

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Speaker 1: he had quote deliberately decided that confinement was preferable to

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Speaker 1: the risks of combat, and he deliberately sought the safety

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Speaker 1: and comparative comfort of the guardhouse. Slovac knew that the

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Speaker 1: army hadn't shot a deserter in nearly one hundred years,

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Speaker 1: so he figured the worst case scenario was that he'd

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Speaker 1: be thrown in prison until the war was over, and

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Speaker 1: having already spent time behind bars back home, he knew

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Speaker 1: that was preferable to going to the front lines, where

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Speaker 1: he'd almost certainly be killed. An officer of the one

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Speaker 1: hundred and ninth urged Slovak to recant his confession and

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Speaker 1: return to his unit, stressing that the consequences would be

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Speaker 1: severe if he didn't, but Slovak refused and was confined

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Speaker 1: to the stockade instead. The private seemed bound and determined

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Speaker 1: to be court martialed, and in mid October, that's exactly

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Speaker 1: what happened. Even then, however, an attempt was made to

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Speaker 1: save Slovak from a potentially ruinous outcome. A legal officer

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Speaker 1: of the twenty eighth Division called Slovak to his office

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Speaker 1: and offered him a deal. If he returned to active

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Speaker 1: duty immediately, his charges would be suspended, sparing him from

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Speaker 1: a lengthy prison term and possibly execution once again. Though

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Speaker 1: Slovak refused, His trial was held two weeks later, and

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Speaker 1: he was convicted in less than two hours. Under the

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Speaker 1: articles of War, the pen for wartime desertion was death

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Speaker 1: or such other punishment as a court martial may direct.

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Speaker 1: There were nine judges on Slovak's court martial panel that day,

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Speaker 1: and all of them voted for the same sentence, execution

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Speaker 1: to be shot to death with musketry. Slovak's fate wasn't

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Speaker 1: sealed just yet, as a capital punishment sentence had to

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Speaker 1: survive several layers of appeal, an outcome which the military

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Speaker 1: judges probably didn't consider very likely. To everyone's surprise, though

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Speaker 1: especially Slovak's, every appeal he made was rejected. The final

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Speaker 1: word on the matter came from the Supreme Allied Commander,

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Speaker 1: General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The appeal crossed his desk at

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Speaker 1: the same time, the Battle of the Bulge was raging

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Speaker 1: on the Western Front, and it's widely assumed that the

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Speaker 1: thousands of American casualties from that battle weighed into his

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Speaker 1: decision to uphold Slovak's sentence. That said, it's worth noting

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Speaker 1: that none of the records from the process mention that

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Speaker 1: bloody battle, or suggest any desire on the military's part

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Speaker 1: to punish deserters more harshly in light of heavy casualties.

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Speaker 1: Whatever the rationale, twenty four year old Eddie Slovak was

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Speaker 1: sent to eastern France to be killed by a twelve

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Speaker 1: man firing squad on January thirty first, nineteen forty five.

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Speaker 1: In the final days before his execution, Slovak blamed his

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Speaker 1: criminal past for his fate, telling a guard quote, They're

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Speaker 1: not shooting me for deserting the United States Army. Thousands

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Speaker 1: of guys have done that. They just need to make

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Speaker 1: an example out of somebody. And I'm it because I'm

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Speaker 1: an ex khan. I used to steal things when I

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Speaker 1: was a kid, and that's what they're shooting me for.

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Speaker 1: They're shooting me for the bread and chewing gum I

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Speaker 1: stole when I was twelve years old. If the Army

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Speaker 1: did plan to make Slovak an example, it did a

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Speaker 1: pretty bad job of it. Only Slovak's own unit, the

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Speaker 1: one hundred and ninth Regiment, was informed of his execution,

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Speaker 1: and neither the civila nor the military press reported it.

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Speaker 1: It was essentially kept secret by the Army for the

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Speaker 1: next nine years. Even Slovak's widow was told only that

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Speaker 1: her husband had died under quote dishonorable circumstances. As for

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Speaker 1: Slovak's remains, they were buried in the corner of a

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Speaker 1: military cemetery in France, alongside American soldiers who'd been executed

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Speaker 1: for the crimes of rape and murder. The names of

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Speaker 1: these men were purposely left off the grave markers, and

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Speaker 1: they were identified only by a number. It wasn't until

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Speaker 1: four decades later, in nineteen eighty seven, that Slovak's remains

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Speaker 1: were returned to Detroit and reburied next to his wife.

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Speaker 1: That project was spearheaded by the local community, which raised

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Speaker 1: five thousand dollars to make it happen. American attitudes toward

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Speaker 1: capital punishment have changed a great deal since the Second

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Speaker 1: World War, and while the maximum punishment for desertion during

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Speaker 1: wartime is still deaf, that outcome now seen seams highly unlikely,

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Speaker 1: though of course that's what Eddie Slovak thought too. I'm

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Speaker 1: Gabe Lucier, and hopefully you now know a little more

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Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. You can learn

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Speaker 1: even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have

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Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, feel free to pass them along

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Speaker 1: by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks

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Speaker 1: to Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks to

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

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Speaker 1: for another day in History class