The end of the war in May 1945 marked an end to the Hitler nightmare and new beginnings for millions of Germans. There were choices to be made. The western two thirds of Germany had ended up divided into four military occupation zones, administered respectively by the British, the Americans, the French and the Soviets. The region surrounding Berlin, along with the ruins and rubble comprising eastern part of the city itself, were administered as the Soviet occupation zone. Torhorst had spent the Hitler years based in Berlin and she now made her choice: she joined the (no longer outlawed) Communist Party in or before January 1946.