I recently found that during WWII we had executed men who had committed rape and murder but I did not know that President Eisenhower had signed the execution of a 25 year old. Desertion was punishable by firing squad but we had not carried out such a sentence since 1864. Pvt. Eddie Slovik wanted to be put in the stockade for the rest of the war but he was used as an example instead. In 1974 an NBC-TV movie entitled the Execution of Private Slovik, staring Martin Sheen, Ned Beatty, and Gary Busey, is available on video. The trailer can be viewed here. For those of you who are interested I have copied excerpts below.
There were thousands of ordinary criminals in ETO. Hundreds of them were caught, tried by court-martial, and sentenced to the stockade or, in the case of rape or murder, to death by firing squad. Sixty-five men were ordered shot. Eisenhower had to pass the final judgment. In sixteen cases he changed the sentence to life in the stockade; forty-nine men were shot. Desertion was also punishable by death by firing squad, but the U.S. Army had not carried out such a sentence since 1864.
One deserter only, Pvt. Eddie Slovik, went through the process from confession to court-martial to sentence to execution by firing squad. Slovik got to France as a replacement in August. On the 25th, he spent the night in a village, dug in with some other replacements. There was shelling. In the morning, when they moved out, he stayed behind. That afternoon, he hooked up with some Canadian infantry, with whom he spent the next six weeks. Then he was turned over to American MPs, who escorted him back to the company to which he had been assigned. Slovik told the CO he was too frightened of the shelling and swore, "If I have to go out there again I'll run away."
He later put that warning in writing, at the end of a written confession of desertion. The high command was looking to set an example. Slovik fit perfectly. He was found guilty and sentenced to execution. By the time Eisenhower gave the case its last review, on January 30, the Bulge had made desertion an even greater problem. Eisenhower did not intervene. On January 31, Slovik was executed. Slovik's case excited comment and controversy. There was a hue and cry about Army justice. Eisenhower never backed away from his decision. He thought the case about as clear-cut as one could get. But whatever the merits, it helps put the Slovik execution in some perspective to mention that during the course of the eleven-month campaign in Northwest Europe, when Eisenhower had one deserter put to death, Hitler had 50,000 executed for desertion or cowardice.
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