Syndrome K: The Rare Malady That Prevented Death

In 1943, the Nazi’s had taken brutal control of Rome, Italy – as a result of the fall of Mussolini earlier in the summer. And the Nazi’s were systematically emptying the Jewish ghetto’s, and shipping the former residents in railroad box cars to concentration camps and their deaths.

Somehow, a few slipped away, and took refuge in Fatebenefratelli Hospital, on a tiny island in the middle of Romes Tiber river – situated just across from one of the Jewish Ghettos. And at the hospital, these refugees were fortunate to find a few allies. Allies with courage – advocates that at the risk of their own lives, and the lives of their own families - were willing to help.

But, how could all these people, moving through the hospital over about a year, be kept from the prying eyes, and probing questions of the Nazi’s?

Well, an ingeniously whacky plan was quickly hatched.The physicians uncovered– or invented - a rare, malignant, contagious, disfiguring, painful, and torturous malady. A new one. One that wasn’t yet in the medical books. It was called Syndrome K.