The Hitler years delivered other personal disasters and tragedies to Max Kaus who during the early 1940s continued to live in central Berlin at an address in the Mommsenstraße. There was little scope for landscape paintings and he reverted to portraiture, his favourite subject being now his wife, known as "Turu". Portraits survive of Turu awake and of Turu asleep, sometimes contorted into positions that must have been desperately uncomfortable, and wearing a wide array of outfits: commentators infer profound love and affection from these paintings. Max Klaus' home was also his studio. During 1943 the house was destroyed by fire as a result of bombing from the air. 200 paintings were destroyed. Kaus nevertheless managed to save some of his early graphic prints which were smaller and more transportable where urgency was of the essence.