Military / City history
Eddie Slovik
1920–1945 · U.S. Army private
Detroit-born private who became the only American soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War; his remains were brought home to Woodmere Cemetery in 1987.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France
aged 24- Birth name
- Edward Donald Slovik
- Detroit years
- 1920–1944
- Field
- Military, City history
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Eddie Slovik was born in Detroit in 1920 to a working-class Polish-American Catholic family. As a teenager he was repeatedly jailed for petty theft and break-ins. Paroled in 1942, he found work at a plumbing and heating firm in Dearborn and married Antoinette Wisniewski, and at first he was classed as unfit for service because of his record. Reclassified in 1944, he was drafted from Detroit and sent to France with the 28th Infantry Division, where he twice left his unit and signed a confession. A court-martial sentenced him to death, and General Eisenhower confirmed it; he was shot on January 31, 1945, in the Vosges. He was buried among dishonored soldiers in France until 1987, when Macomb County veteran Bernard Calka raised money to move his remains to Detroit's Woodmere Cemetery, beside his wife.
Highlights
- Only U.S. soldier executed for desertion since the Civil War
- Executed near Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France, January 31, 1945
- Subject of William Bradford Huie's book and the 1974 TV film The Execution of Private Slovik
- Reburied at Woodmere Cemetery, Detroit, in 1987
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1987
Woodmere Cemetery
Southwest Detroit cemetery where he was reburied next to his wife Antoinette in 1987.