Edwin Slomka was born in New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] in January 1926. He grew up with an older brother. His father emigrated from Russia at a young age and his mother was born in the United States and had Romanian family. Slomka's father was a doctor and taught himself how to be an ophthalmologist [Annotator's Note: a specialist in the branch of medicine concerned with the study and treatment of disorders and diseases of the eye]. In the house, the kids did not speak Yiddish but his parents did; they all spoke mostly English in the house. Slomka's parents were Jewish. His family was aware of how the European Jews were being treated. They would immigrate to the United States to escape the treatment. His father practiced medicine during the Depression [Annotator's Note: Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s], so the family had food. Slomka attended public school in the city. He skipped some grades and attended an advanced junior high school. He did three years of work in two years. When he started college, he was 16 years old. When Slomka was due to graduate, his father made him do a year of schooling in a private prep school in Brooklyn [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. He then went to Hamilton College [Annotator's Note: in Clinton, New York], which was a small school. Slomka was drafted after he completed three years of college. While driving out to visit friends on Long Island [Annotator's Note: Long Island, New York], his family heard about the Pearl Harbor attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] on the radio. The family was surprised. The Lend-Lease program [Annotator's Note: a government program where the United States gave military hardware to Allied nations in exchange for rights to build bases on their lands] was happening and the civilians were sympathetic to the Allies. Slmoka was drafted in September 1944. He was sent to Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: in Trenton, New Jersey] and because he had big feet, he was delayed for a few weeks. He was then sent to Spartanburg [Annotator's Note: Camp Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina] for training. During that time, the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] started, so the training was cut short and he was sent to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] to embark for overseas duty. He was given a week off before he went overseas. He knew he would be shipped overseas. Slomka spent time with his family during that time.

Edwin Slomka was shipped overseas on the Aquitania [Annotator's Note: RMS Aquitania], which was turned into a troopship. It was a fast ship, so it was not in a convoy. They intercepted the code for the submarines, so the Allies would know where the submarines were. Slomka shipped out from New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] right after Christmas [Annotator's Note: Christmas 1944]. They docked in Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England], then took a ferry into either Marseilles [Annotator's Note: Marseilles, France] or Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France]. He was a replacement. When he arrived, Slomka was put into the 80th Division [Annotator's Note: 80th Infantry Division], the "Blue Range Mountain Boys" as an infantryman. Joining the fight was the thing to do in those days. At the time, the Army was moving up tanks and half-tracks [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] to the Rhine [Annotator's Note: Rhine River, Germany]. At night, the Germans would cut telephone lines. Slomka and five other replacements were assigned to a corporal who was a phone line stringer. They would string up telephone lines along the road the infantry was using. The replacements were guards for the telephone lineman. At some point, an armored column was set to pass them up. When it came to pass, the linemen would get off the road to let them pass. The column hit a mess about a mile ahead of the linemen. The linemen were in an old German campsite and a dozen or so Germans surrendered to Slomka. He had to bring them to the main body of soldiers going down the road. That was his first combat situation. After the road was cleared, Slomka was assigned to a different unit as a BAR [Annotator's Note: M1918A2 Browning Automatic Rifle; also known as the BAR] man. As the unit moved up, it ran into a few enemy tanks. The soldiers were dispersed into the forest along the road while the Air Force came to take care of the tanks. While on the side of the road, enemy fire opened up and Slomka was shot. He was hit in the right hip. Slomka saw the Germans as the enemy and they were doing awful things at Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp complex in German occupied Oswiecim, Poland]. The Americans knew the Germans were persecuting and killing Jews and other groups. That knowledge enforced Slomka as he fought. When he was shot, he thought he was hit in the spine. He figured it would be best to get hit again, so he propped himself up. When he realized it was a hip wound, he ducked back down. He was tended to by medics then transported to Glasgow, Scotland for treatment. He was hit on 21 March 1945.

Edwin Slomka was in the hospital until June [Annotator's Note: June 1945], when he was shipped down to the George Washington [Annotator's Note: USAT George Washington], which the Americans took from the Germans. That ship brought Slomka back to the United States in June 1945. He was in the hospital when the war in Europe ended. Slomka was in an Army hospital in Atlantic City [Annotator's Note: Atlantic City, New Jersey] when he heard the news. He did not have much interaction with the locals while he was in the hospital. The injury gave him issues for years after the war. Initially, Slomka was at 80 percent disability, but now he is considered 100 percent disabled. He is not able to lay on his stomach and his leg gets infections. By modern standards, the treatment he received was poor, but he thinks that back then they did not know any better. There is a lot of difference in medicine between then and now. Some people with horrific wounds have survived because of modern medicine. Slomka had a pressure sore on his heel that would not heal. Medicine evolves in wars. He was put in a cast from the waist down and was not able to move by himself. When he got to Atlantic City, they took him out of the cast and gave him a brace. Slomka remained in that hospital through the summer, and was then sent to Percy Jones General Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he did his physical therapy. Slomka was discharged and returned to college for his remaining year of pre-med education. He was discharged sometime in August 1946. Slomka was discharged as a private. He was wounded not long after reaching his replacement outfit. He did not have time to get to know anyone. Slomka's family received a telegram about his injury. His father knew an EMT [Annotator's Note: emergency medical technician], who became a proctologist in Europe. That man visited Slomka in the hospital in Scotland and reported back to his father. He used the version of the G.I. Bill for disabled veterans to return to school. Because his father was a practicing doctor, Slomka could have gone back to school. Tuition was not as high as it is in the modern day. He did not have any issues with post traumatic stress [Annotator's Note: PTSD] after the war. People that went through D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] and other big battle probably had some issues, but Slomka does not think he did because he was not there long. Getting shot was the most memorable thing that happened to him in the war. When he was shot, the lieutenant that went overseas with him was shot too. The medics got to him a couple hours after he was shot. They had to wait for the planes to knock out the tanks. When he was first shot, he thought it was a spinal injury, so he wanted to end his life. He sat up to let a Germans kill him, but that is when he realized it was a hip wound. He knew what a spinal injury would mean for him going forward.

The war affected Edwin Slomka's ability to do physical things because of his leg injury. He does not think he has suffered mentally or emotionally. In those days, everyone wanted to join the war. He would have liked to have gone through medical school in England, but it did not happen. All of the problems he has had have been on the side he was shot in. Slomka has had hip and knee replacements and infections. For years, he was 80 percent disabled and in more modern times, he has been reevaluated and moved to 100 percent disabled. That gave him tax benefits. Slomka first practiced medicine in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] at Lennox Hill Hospital. He then went on to work at several hospitals. He decided to get married, but did not want to have a family in New York. The ophthalmologist at a different hospital was leaving, so Slomka took over his position. That was in the mid-1950s. He graduated medical school in 1951 and finished his internship in 1952. Slomka fought in World War 2 because he was drafted. He would have liked to have gone to medical school, then served. World War 2 is history that affected this country and Europe. Slomka believes people should be aware of what is going on. There are groups that try to deny the Holocaust [Annotator's Note: also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War 2] and other histories that happened, so he thinks The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important. While on Staten Island [Annotator's Note: Staten Island is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York] in Halloran General Hospital, Slomka's mother visited. She was told she would not recognize him because of his weight loss. She performed the family whistle and found him. When Slomka was in Battle Creek, Michigan at the rehab center, he was able to visit the Kellogg estate. The property had sail boats. Slomka had sailing experience from before the war, so he would bring people on the lake. By that time, he could walk with a brace and all he had to do was sit while directing the boat. Slomka would spend time on the boardwalk in Atlantic City [Annotator's Note: Atlantic City, New Jersey] that had hospitals on it. The boardwalk had restaurants, but he ate at the hospital. He would go out in a wheelchair.