Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "Nuremberg Executions 1946 - What Happened to the Bodies?" video.

@sadwingsraging3044 141 US soldiers were executed in WWII, all except one for murder, rape, or both. The sole exception was the rather famous case of Eddie Slovik, executed by shooting on January 31, 1945 for desertion. The military had long =feared an outbreak of murder, rape, and/or looting as the military began to take over enemy countries. They used the executions and a way to underline the military's resolve not to let this happen. Given the millions of troops involved with the invasion and occupation of Axis countries, the number of US servicemen who were involved in such crimes was far lower than would have been expected, but the idea you'd be executed if you committed such crimes, or at least would if you were caught, seemed to have a salutary effect in diminishing such crimes.
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@Sheehan1 My guess is some of both. He had long shown himself to be incompetent in almost everything he did, right up to his accidental electrocution. Stories from those he served with and his own statements show his sadistic streak as well.
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@michaelmanning5379 Yes, although the movie has enough historical inaccuracies to make it a poor choice for actually learning about Slovik's life before the military. He's one of many unfit men drafted in 1944 when it was obvious the size of Army would need a drastic expansion to be able to handle the defeat and occupation of Germany and Japan in 1945-1946.
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@nickcohen4900 It was a sternly enforced law for US and British soldiers. It was also the law for Soviet soldiers, but a lot depended on the unit. Guys that had been fighting the Nazis for four years and had seen some of the atrocities committed by German soldiers against Russian people were a lot less interested in the law and more interested in revenge. If the unit had good officer that were enforcing the law, things stayed under control, but that wasn't the case with more than a few Soviet units.
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@stevekaczynski3793 No, Slovik committed crimes as a juvenile and as an adult. He wasn't paroled until April, 1942, when he was 22 years old, after his last bout of criminality committed when he was 19 years old. The Army needed men for the invasion and occupation of Germany, and then the much larger invasion and occupation of Japan that was still to come. Slovik was a criminal, but not a violent criminal, and tens of thousands of others with backgrounds similar to Slovik's were drafted and served honorably. Slovik was a coward. He was not the only one, but he deserted multiple times so as not to serve at the front. His execution was meant to serve as a warning that cowardice and desertion wasn't going to tolerated. Seems harsh now, but now isn't 1945.
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@bigblue6917 I don't think so. Carl Foreman's "The Victors" from 1963 showed the execution of a US deserter in a scene deliberately reminiscent of Slovok's execution, but it was fictionalized.
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@cgee2224 I'm sure you have a link to even one of these supposed grossly underreported facts, right?
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@edoedo8686 Goodness. Ten years at hard labor in Leavenworth would indicate he had done more than just being AWOL for the first time.
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@haljohnson6947 I just happened to see this. To anyone else who might be thinking of posting, this thread is up to 425 replies. Everything is long loat in these masses of posts. If you have a thought on the subject, post a new thread rather than adding on to this already too long mass of replies.
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