[1][3][4] During World War II, 1.7 million courts-martial were held, representing one third of all criminal cases tried in the United States during the same period.

[2] Slovik was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1920 to a Catholic, Polish-American family, the son of Anna Lutsky and Josef Slowikowski.

Tankey wrote to his and Slovik's regiment to explain their absence before the Canadians made arrangements for them to return to duty with their unit on October 7, 1944.

He then told Grotte that he would run away if he were assigned to a rifle unit, and asked his captain if that would constitute desertion, resulting in a court-martial.

Slovik walked several miles to the rear and approached an enlisted cook at a military government detachment of the 112th Infantry Regiment, presenting him with a note which stated: I, Pvt.

He was brought before Lieutenant Colonel Ross Henbest, who again offered him the opportunity to tear up the note, return to his unit, and face no further charges; Slovik again refused.

Henbest instructed Slovik to write another note on the back of the first one stating that he fully understood the consequences of deliberately incriminating himself, and that it would be used as evidence against him in a court-martial.

The division's judge advocate, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Sommer, offered Slovik a third and final opportunity to rejoin his unit in exchange for the charges against him being dropped.

Slovik, still convinced that he would face only jail time (which he had already experienced and considered far more tolerable than combat), declined these offers, saying "I've made up my mind.

The coming attack was common knowledge in the unit, and casualty rates were expected to be high, as the prolonged combat in the area had been unusually grueling.

The Germans were determined to hold the terrain, and weather greatly reduced the usual American advantages in armor and air support.

[11] However, desertion had become a systemic problem in France, and the Battle of the Bulge, a surprise German offensive through the Ardennes, began on December 16 with severe US casualties, bypassing and surrounding many units and straining the morale of the infantry to the greatest extent yet seen during the war.

If the death penalty is ever to be applied to desertion it should be imposed in this case, not as a punitive measure or retribution, but to maintain that discipline upon which an army can succeed against the enemy.

Col. Henry J. Sommer, the division judge advocate who had previously offered Slovik a final opportunity to have his charges dismissed, wrote: The death sentence is deemed appropriate in this case.

The sentence came as a shock to Slovik, who had been expecting a dishonorable discharge and a prison term, the same punishment he had seen given to other deserters from the division while he was confined to the stockade.

As he was an ex-convict, a dishonorable discharge would have made little impact on his civilian life as a common laborer, and military prison terms for discipline offenses were widely expected to be commuted once the war was over.

The defiant Slovik said to the soldiers whose duty it was to prepare him for the firing squad before they led him to the place of execution: They're not shooting me for deserting the United States Army, thousands of guys have done that.

He was wrapped with a GI blanket over his shoulders to protect him against the cold, and led into the courtyard of a house chosen for the execution because of its high masonry wall, which would deflect errant bullets and discourage the local French civilians from witnessing the proceedings.

Just before a soldier placed a black hood over his head, the attending chaplain, Father Carl Patrick Cummings, said to Slovik, "Eddie, when you get up there, say a little prayer for me."

Their grave markers are hidden from view by shrubbery and bear sequential numbers instead of names, making it impossible to identify them individually without knowing the key.

Antoinette Slovik and others petitioned seven U.S. presidents (Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter) for a pardon, but none was granted.

In France during World War I, from 1917 to 1918, the United States Army executed 35 of its own soldiers, but all were convicted of rape or unprovoked murder of civilians and not for military offenses.

At least one of the members of the tribunal came to believe that Slovik's execution was an injustice in light of all the circumstances, and was an example of disparate treatment from a flawed process.

In 1960, Frank Sinatra announced his plan to produce a movie based on the book, with the same title, to be written by screenwriter Albert Maltz.

[19] Hans Magnus Enzensberger wrote an essay about Slovik and his death, included in the 1964 book Dreamers of the Absolute (German: Politik und Verbrechen).

In 1974, Huie's book was adapted by Lamont Johnson into a TV movie, also titled The Execution of Private Slovik, which starred Martin Sheen.

Vonnegut also wrote a companion (alternate) libretto to Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat (A Soldier's Tale), telling Slovik's story.