PRESS RELEASE – A dream decades in the making has come true for book author, Cynthia A. Sandor. She will be the guest author at “Echoes of Valor” at the Auglaize Village & Farm Museum, 12296 Krouse Rd., Defiance, OH on April 4 – 5, 2025, showcasing original League of German Girl items including banners, medals, and her mother’s hand-written journal.
“It’s nice to know that people are interested in learning about the League of German Girls,” Sandor said. Based upon her mother’s journal written in 1941, “Through Innocent Eyes – The Chosen Girls of the Hitler Youth,” recognizes the importance of telling this compelling and personal life story of 13-year-old Gertrude Kerschner growing up in Austria during WWII and being selected for the Country Service Year Camp program, then meeting and marrying PFC Robert Sandor from the 87th Infantry Division.
“It is not your fictional story about a girl in the Hitler Youth. It is very candid, especially since Cynthia spent the last remaining months with her mother recounting her childhood experiences and how Gertrude left her family to participate in the Landjahr Lager program,” said Jeanne Onuska, CEO of the European Military Historical Society.
“I found this book refreshing for I was captivated by the steady indoctrination of Gertrude as she progressed from a young girl to becoming a ‘Girl in Service’ for her country.
Every chapter builds upon the prior, offering an insightful glimpse into Gertrude’s personal world. I really bonded with her and felt like I personally knew Gertrude.”
“My mother was a down-to-earth, practical woman,” Sandor recalls. “She was self-sufficient and the independent traits she developed during her time in the Bund Deutscher Mädel.
All throughout her time in Camp Seidorf, she was right in the middle of everything. She wanted to learn and experience as much as she could, and her personal 100-page handwritten journal is proof of the fun times she had and the lessons she learned with her roommates, Ellie, Nelly, Steffie, and Marie.”
It would take some twenty years before Sandor actually found the house in Poland where her mother lived for 8 months then afterwards, finding and corresponding with Gertrude’s roommates, to receiving copies of their journals for inclusion in the book.
“I am incredibly grateful to God for putting the pieces of the puzzle together,” Sandor said. “It was a miracle that I found the house and my mother’s roommates. I’ve completed my mission and my parents’ legacy will continue to live on.”
“These details will dispel many misconceptions and skewed perspectives about the League of German Girls,” said the late Paul E. Fischer, President of the German Cultural Society of Erie, PA.
“Cynthia has provided an intimate, detailed account of her mother’s daily experiences during her mandatory service in the Hitler Youth.
From her initiation to her training at Landjahr Lager, the book offers new perspectives on the purpose, ideology, and daily routines of the Hitler Youth movement as experienced by her mother.
There is no other book out there like this one.” “I’m thrilled that my mother’s story is published and that Distant Star Pictures in Illinois is interested in turning it into a movie,” Sandor said.
Through Innocent Eyes – The Chosen Girls of the Hitler Youth is available at your local bookstore or online and autograph copies will be available at the event.
Contact: Cynthia A. Sandor BDM History Publishing 149 Garden St. Conneaut, Ohio 44030 813-895-2516 casandor@gmail.com https://cynthiaasandor.com https://bdmhistory.com
