Reflections on Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse Five

Dr. Gifford Doxsee, retired from teaching at Ohio University, will discuss his experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II during an event at Urbana University planned for Aug. 29.

Gifford Doxsee, Ph.D., a World War II veteran who was a prisoner of war with author Kurt Vonnegut in Dresden, Germany, will discuss “Reflections on Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse Five” at Urbana University.

The public is invited to attend the event planned for Wednesday, Aug. 29, at 7 p.m. in the Honda Lecture Hall of the Lewis and Jean Moore Center for Mathematics and Science. Admission is free.

Born on Long Island, N.Y., in 1924, Dr. Doxsee is Professor Emeritus of History at Ohio University.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor and U.S. entry into the war, Dr. Doxsee enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1942 while he was a freshman at Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y. Called to active duty in June of 1943, he received Infantry Basic Training at Fort McClellan in Alabama. He later joined the 106th Infantry Division and underwent training in Indiana until his 423rd Infantry Regiment shipped to Europe from New York City aboard the Queen Elizabeth I on Oct. 17, 1944. The regiment was housed in Britain for several weeks just outside Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, until they shipped out for France.

“We arrived at the front, in the Siegfried Line just inside Germany, on Monday, December 11, 1944, five days before the Germans launched the Battle of the Bulge against us,” Dr. Doxsee recalls. “Ordered to evacuate our position and go to a rendezvous point near Schonberg, Belgium, we reached our destination but were not ‘rescued’ as planned. Our Regimental Commander surrendered the remnant of his regiment on Tuesday afternoon, December 19, 1944, to save us from death by German artillery fire.”

Processed as a prisoner of war by the Germans at Stalag IVB at Muhlberg, on Jan. 12, 1945, Dr. Doxsee was sent with 150 men to Dresden.

“We were billeted in Building Number Five of the Dresden Slaughterhouse Compound, later made famous by Kurt Vonnegut’s classic novel which was based on our common experiences,” he said.

Dr. Doxsee was a prisoner at Dresden during the firebombing of the city by the Allies. Afterwards, the Germans moved their prisoners to other locations. In April, the prisoners were marched to the hamlet of Hellendorf on the Czech border, about 35 miles southeast of Dresden, where the prisoners awaited the end of the war.

Dr. Doxsee was returned to U.S. Army control on Mother’s Day, May 13, 1945, and was given an honorable discharge from the Army on Nov. 25 of that year.

The veteran then returned to college, graduating from Cornell University in 1948. He then began graduate study of the history of modern Europe at Harvard University, completing a Master of Arts in 1949 and a Ph.D. in 1966.

Dr. Doxsee taught at The American University of Beirut, Lebanon, during 1952-55. In 1958, he joined the faculty of Ohio University.

At Ohio University he met Mary Letitia Cowan, also on the faculty, and the two were married on June 9, 1964. They both continued teaching there for several years.

Dr. Doxsee chaired the Energy Conservation Committee at Ohio University in the 1970s and directed the graduate program in African Studies from 1983 to 1991. He retired from Ohio University in 1994.

Since his retirement, Dr. Doxsee has been active in the Mid-Ohio Valley Chapter, American Ex-Prisoners of War.