K Syndrome: A False Disease That Saved Dozens of Jews During the War

The Second World War laid bare all aspects of humanity, from extreme cruelty and immorality to mercy and love for one's neighbor, which are simply impossible to measure. Schindler was also in Rome. Yes, they know less about him, they speak less about him, he saved fewer people, but heroism cannot be measured by the number of lives saved.

Giovanni Borromeo

In general, this hospital has become a legend for Rome. It is located on an island right in the middle of the Tiber River. Repeatedly people came here during an outbreak of severe diseases. It was here that in the XVII century lay patients with plague, and after two centuries - cholera. Thanks to such isolation, the hospital became a refuge for all sick.

So with the "Syndrome K" fell into Fatebenefratelli. But the details of this disease were very vague, but in fact were a cunning invention of Giovanni Borromeo, the head doctor of the hospital.

Within the walls of his hospital, Borromeo gave refuge not to the infected, but to Jews and anti-fascists. When an anti-Semitic regime was introduced in Italy in 1938, it was here that the young Jewish doctor Vittorio Sakerdoti took refuge, whom Borromeo helped falsify documents and made him one of his doctors. Italians also found refuge here: for example, the psychiatrist Adriano Osicini was imprisoned several times for suspicion of anti-fascism, but then Borromeo took him under his wing, also placing him in the hospital. Later, they all became members of a secret Nazi resistance group.

In 1943, the Nazis visited the Jewish ghetto in the Italian capital to transport all Jews to concentration camps. Thousands of them were taken from Rome, but some still managed to escape. Dozens of them became Fatebenefratelli patients suffering from the mysterious "K syndrome." This "disease" was a special identifier in the documents: in this way Jews could be distinguished from real patients. And "Syndrome K" has become a special symbol that said "I accept a Jew."

The name of a deadly disease was invented by Borromeo himself, and it was in tune with Koch syndrome - as the people called tuberculosis, at that time a very terrible disease.

Nevertheless, German soldiers fell into the walls of the hospital, but the "sick" were given instructions: when the Nazis passed by the door, it was necessary to cough heavily. And this technique worked: the soldiers were afraid of contracting a terrible disease, thinking it was tuberculosis or cancer, and quickly left the Fatebenefratelli.

Until the end, it is not known how many people Borromeo saved: from two dozen to hundreds. Borromeo became a real hero. He died in 1961 in his hospital and received his orders and the title of Righteous Among the Nations for his feat, and Fatebenefratelli, despite the past, plague and cholera, was recognized as the House of Life.