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| When doctors terrorized Hitler's army with a 'fake disease' to save the Jews |
An unknown deadly disease, a merciless invader. A community persecuted by some brave doctors and religious people.
It all looks like a scene from a Hollywood movie, but it's actually part of a lesser-known event of World War II that will be commemorated eight decades later this year.
It all happened in Rome in late 1943 when Nazi German troops occupied the Italian capital after their ally, the fascist Benito Mussolini, was overthrown by a group of soldiers, businessmen, and politicians.
After capturing the 'Eternal City', Adolf Hitler's soldiers began to hunt down the city's Jewish community, which until then had been spared the brutal persecution and destruction carried out in other parts of Europe.
To avoid deportation to the dreaded concentration camps that had begun to be reported, many Jews sought refuge with their neighbors, but above all in churches, monasteries, convents, and even Catholics. The shelter was also taken in the hospitals run by the church.
In one of these health centers, three doctors received dozens of people and diagnosed them with a terrible and deadly disease, which no one had ever heard of because the disease did not exist.
Original and effective treatment
On October 16, 1943, German soldiers entered the ghetto in the Italian capital, just three kilometers from the Vatican, and captured 1,000 men, women, and children.
A few lucky ones managed to escape and made it to the San Juan Calibeta Hospital, known to the Romans as Fete Benefratelli (meaning do good).
The center, which is 437 years old and belongs to the Holy See, is located on a small island in the middle of the Tiber River and overlooks the Italian capital's Great Synagogue and Jewish Quarter.
The Nazis soon arrived at the hospital to continue their hunt. The then director of the hospital, Giovanni Borromeo, a Catholic with good connections in the Holy See, welcomed him and offered to show the uniformed officers around the compound.
However, upon reaching a room, he warned them that people showing symptoms of a strange and dangerous disease (which they were currently researching) were being isolated.
Borromeo told the Germans it was 'K's syndrome', a disease he described as highly contagious, affecting the nervous system and causing death.
"The Nazis thought it was cancer or tuberculosis and ran away like rabbits," Dr. Vittorio Cicerdotti told the BBC in 2004.
Behind the plan were Sacerdotti, Borromeo, and the Italian doctor and anti-fascist Adriano Ossini, who saved dozens of Jews from certain death.
This doctor, who was originally Jewish, was hired by Borromeo to work in a Roman hospital, even though racial laws passed by Mussolini in the late 1930s made it illegal.
According to another story, the 'K' with which the pseudo-disease was named was a term used for Herbert Kepler, the head of the 'SS', the symbol of terror in Rome, although other experts offer different explanations.
Spanish writer and priest Jesus Sánchez Adald explained to BBC Mundo that 'to research Koch's disease (tuberculosis), the disease was called 'K syndrome', which Hitler's armies in Hungary and Poland at the time. was causing many problems for
Earlier this month, the author published the novel 'Light in the Dark Night of Rome', a love story between a rich young woman and a Jewish boy, which takes place during these historical events.
Excellent acting
Cicerdotti, Borromeo and Adriano Occini did a great job. Thus he began to fabricate the medical records of Jews who had contracted mysterious diseases. It was an operation that required the support of many people inside and outside the center.
"There was a huge team of religious people, including the Superior of the Order (San Juan de Dios) who managed the hospital," added Sánchez-Adalde.
Other historical and journalistic investigations have shown that Monsignor Giovanni Battista Monti, the future Pope Paul VI and who at the time held a high position in the Vatican Secretariat of State, was aware of what was happening at the hospital and that he supported by
The prelate at the time signed several documents that aided Borromeo's activities.
And although the supposed deadly disease kept the Nazis at bay, the doctors didn't let their guard down and instructed the Jews what to do if they returned.
Gabrielle Sonnino, who was barely four years old when she was 'admitted', told television in 2019: 'The doctor told us that if the Germans came, we would have to cough with all our might and make this impression. Say that we are seriously ill.'
Sánchez Edald explained that the Germans sent doctors to the hospital to confirm the disease, but they believed the explanation of the Italian doctors. Maybe they were at risk of contracting a disease or they didn't want to waste time in a hospital full of patients they didn't want to and that's why they fell into the trap.
He further says that if the German doctors had examined these fake patients, they would have come to know the lie. But they did not examine the patients.
In May 1944, Nazi soldiers returned to inspect the hospital but passed by the room where the Jews were kept and heard them coughing.
A month later, Allied forces liberated Rome and released the fake patients in the hospital.
A big secret
The events that took place in the hospital in Rome have been confirmed by historians and various authorities.
Finally, Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial center in Israel, gave Borromeo an award in 2004 called 'Righteous Among the Nations.
This honor is given to those who saved or helped save Jewish lives during World War II.
It is still unknown how many Nazis died as a result of the syndrome.
"We don't know the exact number of people rescued at the hospital," explained Sanchez-Adalde. We could not find him because the hospital was an escape route.
He says that people who arrived at the hospital who were fake sick were given fake documents so that they could go to Switzerland or other countries. At one point, 75 children were also included in them.
He revealed that some 'patients' had gone to Latin America after the end of the war, but refused to give further details about them, claiming that they did not want to be identified.
The hospital was one of the places where the Catholic Church saved Jews from extermination in Europe.
"The Catholic Church saved 4,480 Jews in hospitals, churches, and monasteries," says Sánchez Edald.
"I have been told that when Hitler's fear-mongering intelligence agency arrived in Rome, they were surprised to find about 70 nuns in the convents. Actually, most of them were not nuns but they were Jews in disguise.
He says that 'these nuns offered the explanation to divert the attention of the Nazis that because Rome is the capital of Catholicism, there are more nuns here than anywhere else.'
It wasn't just a place to hide
Protection from feigned illness did not make the hospital a hiding place for Jews alone.
Sánchez Edald says that the hospital became an espionage center because of the Nazis' fear of disease. It was a base of coordination and a meeting place for the Italian resistance.
The hospital operated a so-called Victoria Radio, a network operated by Italian-American soldiers to inform Allied troops of Nazi barracks and units for the bombing.
Sánchez Edald says that he did not want to write a novel titled 'Rom Ki Raat Mein Roshi Ki Kiran' on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the events that took place in the hospital in Rome, but this story was given to him by the authorities of the center.
However, Sánchez-Adald admits that his research allowed him to confirm that "the best people came out of the worst period in human history."