Instant Teacher - just add War

The year is 1943, the place is Germany and the war is going great (oops - don't mention the WAR). My darling sister Gisela left school the previous year and enrolled in a secretarial course at a business college. Well, that only lasted a few months since everybody had to do their duty and serve the Reich for three months in something called Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labour Service) to support the war effort.
She was sent to what was then Pomerania - now Poland - to Posen (Poznan) to work in a clothing factory making overcoats for the army.
After her six months stint the government had changed its mind (as governments are apt to do) and introduced the ancillary war service for girls. Another six months stint, we are now in 1944 and the war is not going great at all. Maybe the coats Gisela made weren't that great after all.

Gisela in Dress Uniform

It was now all hands on deck! Gisela got transferred to an anti-aircraft battery operating big guns. Strange thing happened, when she got to her unit she found her best friend since childhood was posted to the same unit. 
The battery made a steady retreat towards Berlin as the Russians advanced. When things got really bad, the Russians were 50 km outside Berlin, the battery 45 km outside. Her commanding officer decided it was all a lost cause and ordered the girls (apart from the colonel commanding, there were only three other men in the unit - a lieutenant, a sergeant and a driver) to go home. The guys had squirrelled away petrol for the only car they had. They fuelled it up, packed up and were ready to head for Berlin. Gisela and her friend were the only ones hailing from Berlin, all other girls came from towns not far from where the unit was stationed.
The colonel advised them to head for home on foot. He took pity on the two girls from Berlin and offered that they could ride on the car (not in the car) by standing on the running boards, holding hands across the bonnet to steady themselves.
On the outskirts of Berlin the colonel declared "that's it girls, you are on your own from here on". The girls headed for home on foot. In Gisela's case it was a good days walk to reach Neue Muehle.

With the Russians imminent to reach Neue Muehle any time very soon my Dad decided precautions were in order. The family moved to the basement and Gisela's hair was cut short like a boys. Mum bandaged up Gisela's boobs and dressed her in men's pants, shirt and pullover. When the Russians entered Neue Muehle, conducting a house-to-house 'inspection' (they were looking for easily transported valuables like gold and watches) Gisela was shoved under the bed and told not to make a sound.

Russian PPSH41 sub-machine gun

Sure enough, a Russian soldier with a bad shoulder wound entered the basement. He proceeded to deposit his gun  and a hand-grenade on the lid of a very large pot that mum was boiling the washing in. He then indicated to mum to change the dressing on his shoulder - communication was by hand signs since neither party spoke the others language. Mum tore up a bed sheet (it was all she could think of in her state of fright and panic) and dressed the wound. That done the soldier rummaged in his rucksack and produced several small chocolate bars. Through hand signs he made it abundantly clear those were for the little boy (moi) NOT the adults. He picked up his rifle and left! He kindly left the handgranade behind - why - nobody knows. Dad disposed of the item by carrying it to the bottom of the garden and throwing it in the river.

Russian Hand-grenade RG-42

Gisela spent the rest of 1945 holed up the house in Neue Muehle contemplating her future. With little useful practical experience, there wasn't a great call for anti-aircraft gun operators by then, and uncompleted formal education her choices were somewhat limited. However, she found out that there was a severe shortage of teachers. Most teachers active then were past retirement age. The authorities, Russian occupation forces and a rudimentary government, offered a Blitz-course to train as elementary teacher. The course lasted about nine months, after which the poor souls were thrown 'to the wolves' - let loose on unsuspecting six and seven year olds.
As it turned out teaching was the ideal occupation for her. Not only did she have the 'pleasure' of being her little brother's class teacher in year one, but went on to forge a stellar career in teaching. When she retired she was the director of a special school, both day and boarding school, for blind, deaf and dumb children - one of only two such institutions in East Germany.