the ss officers are infuriated at max for hiding a key witness. max refuses to go through with the trial, calling it 'a farce', and admits that he works as a night porter due to his sense of shame in daytime. he returns to lucia, telling her that the police questioned him and others at the hotel about her disappearance, and that no suspicion fell on him. eventually, max quits his job, devoting all of his time to lucia. the ss officers cut off the couple's supply of food from a nearby grocery store. max barricades the door to the apartment, and he and lucia begin rationing. max seeks help by phoning one of his old hotel friends, who refuses, and imploring his neighbor, but she is prevented from providing aid by adolph, the youth who had spied on max earlier. max retreats again to the apartment, where lucia is almost unconscious from malnutrition. after one of the ss cuts off the electricity in max's apartment, max and lucia, respectively dressed in his nazi uniform and a negligee resembling the one she had worn in the concentration camp, leave the building and drive away; they are soon followed by a car driven by max's former colleagues. max parks his car on a bridge, where he and lucia walk along the sidewalk as dawn breaks. two gunshots ring out, and the doomed lovers fall dead.