The fake disease that saved dozens of Jews during WWII

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About 3 km (2 mi) from the Vatican, located on Rome's Tiber Island, is Ospedale San Giovanni Calibita Fatebenefratelli, or Fatebenefratelli Hospital.

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Rome in the 1930s was a hotbed of fascism, the human face of which was Benito Mussolini.

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In March 1939, Cardinal Pacelli was elected to the papacy. As Pope Pius XII, his leadership of the Catholic Church during the war became—and still remains—the subject of controversy.

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The Vatican, meanwhile, attempted to steer a course of neutrality. But the relationship between the Holy See and Berlin was becoming increasingly fraught.

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Fatebenefratelli Hospital was founded in 1585 by the Catholic religious order Saint John of God. Fatebenefratelli is an epithet meaning "Do good brothers."

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In 1938, Fascist Italy introduced its so-called Racial Laws to enforce racial discrimination and segregation, mainly against Italian Jews. The November 11, 1938 front page of Corriere della Sera reports on the day the laws were enacted.

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Two months later on May 22, 1939, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany signed what became known as the Pact of Steel, a military and political alliance between the two countries. Pictured is Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and his German counterpart Joachim von Ribbentrop signing documents in Berlin in Hitler's presence.

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Four years later, the Second World War was turning in the Allies' favor. The invasion of Sicily in July 1943 initiated the Italian campaign to liberate the country.

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The synagogue, completed in 1904, stands in what was once a Jewish ghetto, established in 1555.

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Many were arrested and made to undertake forced labor. But worst was yet to come. The photograph shows Roman Jews in a work detachment along the banks of the Tiber river.

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While much of Roman Jewry knew about the persecution of the Jewish people elsewhere in Europe, they themselves had not been subject to physical danger. But after 1938, a sense of dread began permeating throughout the city's Jewish community. Many began seeking sanctuary in any one of Rome's many churches, convents, and monasteries.

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Kesselring, a committed Nazi and ruthless anti-Semite, began rounding up Rome's Jewish population, which numbered around 8,000.

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Herbert Kappler, pictured here after his arrest in 1945, was the Nazi Chief of Police in occupied Rome.

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In the same year as Hitler rose to power, a concordat was signed between Germany and the Vatican, officially a neutral state. The convention essentially forged diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Nazi regime. Pictured cosigning the Reichskonkordat is Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, later to become Pope Pius XII.

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The Raid of the Ghetto of Rome took place on October 16, 1943. As many as 1,259 members of the city's Jewish community were arrested by the Gestapo. Most ended up being deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

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General Roberto Lordi, another loyal antifascist, smuggled in a radio, after which Borromeo and the hospital's Father Maurizio Bialek assembled a transmitter in the basement. Lordi was later among those murdered by the Nazis at the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome.

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To stop the SS from entering the building, the physicians invented a deadly disease they called Syndrome K. Dozens of 'patients' had caught the fatal infection, and they warned the SS that the condition was highly contagious. The ruse worked. The Nazis were terrified of catching Syndrome K and dared not enter the ward, turning their attention elsewhere.

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A thriving clandestine printing operation ensured that those Jewish patients who moved on to safer hideouts outside the hospital were armed with false documentation allowing them free movement through the city and beyond.

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In 2016, two Jewish survivors of the city's occupation, Luciana Tedesco and Gabriele Sonnino, unveiled a plaque on the hospital's wall issued by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation in recognition of the "House of Life"—the hospital that saved dozens of Jews during the Nazi persecution in Rome.

Sources: (Haaretz) (Shofar) (Europe Remembers) (Holocaust Encyclopedia)

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All the time, the hospital was feeding and clothing the displaced Jewish citizens, but always keeping them isolated from regular patients in order to maintain the deceit.

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Instead of treating patients, doctors and staff at Fatebenefratelli Hospital were hiding Jewish refugees. Borromeo and his team urged residents to appear ill and to cough loudly, affecting symptoms similar to tuberculosis.

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Allied forces—specifically the US Fifth Army—liberated Rome in June 1944. Pictured is Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark riding in a jeep through St. Peter's Square.

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But it was already the beginning of the end for the Third Reich. In late 1943, Hitler, fearing an Allied breakthrough in Italy, had ordered the construction of the Winter Line, a series of military fortifications that considerably slowed their advance. A particularly bloody battle took place at San Pietro Infine (pictured).

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Other items smuggled into Fatebenefratelli included hospital supplies such as medicines and linen. But guns were also smuggled.

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At Fatebenefratelli Hospital, Giovanni Borromeo, the hospital's director and a staunch antifascist, was appalled by the events taking place in the city.

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After Rome's liberation, the three doctors—Borromeo, Sacerdoti, and Ossicini—could finally reveal their audacious ploy. The ruse saved approximately 100 refugees. In all, over 80% of Roman Jews survived the occupation due to the benevolence of the Italian people. Pictured is Fatebenefratelli Hospital today.

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Frightened Jewish citizens began arriving at the hospital, pursued by the SS. Realizing the danger they were in, Borromeo, together with two doctors (Vittorio Emanuele Sacerdoti and Adriano Ossicini), came up with an ingenious plan to foil the Germans.

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In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Nazi Germany. It was against this backdrop of European dictatorship that one of the Holocaust's most courageous acts unfolded.

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The hospital is within walking distance of the Great Synagogue of Rome (the square-dome building on the left).

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The occupiers believed the doctors were dealing with a condition similar to Koch's disease, or tuberculosis, an infectious disease named for German physician Robert Koch (pictured).

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In fact, Borromeo named the fictitious disease "K" after either Albert Kesselring or Herbert Kappler.

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While the Vatican had suggested the hospital remain outside German authority, in May 1944 the premises was raided by the now suspicious Nazis. Five Jews were detained. Pope Pius XII refused to intervene even when it became clear that the SS were beginning to unravel the clues about the fictitious Syndrome K.

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The invasion of Sicily led to the collapse of the Fascist Italian regime and the fall of Mussolini. However, celebrations were short lived. Hitler, fearing Rome would be taken by the Allies, ordered its occupation by German troops. General Albert Kesselring was placed in command.

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It was one of the most audacious ploys of the Second World War: a fake disease with no cure that saved dozens of Jews from the Nazis in occupied Rome. The fictitious disorder was known as Syndrome K, and was 'treated' in a hospital right under the noses of the Germans. Fearing infection, the Gestapo and SS refrained from investigating the hospital. But soon clues began to unravel about the mysterious malady. If the ruse was discovered, the repercussions would be swift and deadly.

So, what was Syndrome K, and what were the reasons behind its invention? Click through and find out more about the lethal wartime contagion that never was.

The fake disease that saved dozens of Jews during WWII

How three doctors managed to deceive the SS

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