Peace broke out, formally, in May 1945. His home region of Thuringia had been liberated by US forces but the winning powers had already agreed between themselves occupation zones that placed Thuringia in the Soviet occupation zone, and within a month the Americans had withdrawn, to be replaced by Soviet Military Administration across the entire central third of what had been Germany. At this time Benkowitz's father was arrested by the Soviet Secret Police: he disappeared and his fate remains unknown. Benkowitz obtained work initially as a sales representative for a food business, and later as an officer with the town administration in Weimar. From the end of 1946 he was working for the Military Administration in Thuringia.