Duoos, Robert (1923-2021)

https://reflections.mndigital.org/catalog/stc:8559#/kaltura_audio

Biographical Information: Robert “Bob” Duoos was born on January 15, 1923 and was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Duoos was drafted by the U.S. Army in December 1942. He was a part of the 80th Infantry Division of General George Patton’s Third Army in the European theatre. After the war, Duoos married his wife, Gloria, in 1948 and had four children: Bridget, Deborah, Tim, and Lisa. He attended Augsburg College and majored in History, and taught high school for 32 years in Cambridge, Minnesota. He died on January 11, 2021 and is bured at the Cambridge Lutheran Cemetery in Cambridge, Minnesota.

Transcript Summary: Robert “Bob” Duoos described his experiences as soldier in the 80th Infantry Division in Europe during World War II. He began the interview by detailing his draft notice and basic training at Camp Campbell in Kentucky in 1943. In the summer of 1944, Duoos was assigned to a cavalry and reconnaissance unit. Duoos detailed his experiences with the foreign civilians and the time he spent in England, France, Germany, Luxemburg, and Czechoslovakia. Duoos discussed his participation in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany. He described the horrors of “The Beast of Buchenwald” from his own experiences and recounted the stories he heard from survivors of the camp. The final piece of Duoos’ interview addressed his own thoughts and feelings about General Patton, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the Pacific theatre of World War II.

Interview by Mike McDonald