K disease

Morbus K (ital. Il Morbo di K ) was that of Dr. Giovanni Borromeo invented a term for a non-existent disease in the course of the Roman deportations of Jews .

From October 16, 1943, the deportations of Italian Jews began in Rome under the command of Theodor Dannecker . The ghetto of Rome was opposite the Tiber Island , on which the Ospedale Fatebenefratelli hospital is still located today, an institution of the Order of the Brothers of Mercy of St. John of God . The then Prior of the Order, Brother Maurizio, asked the head of the hospital, Dr. Giovanni Borromeo to find shelter for Jews in hiding. Borromeo accommodated 40 to 50 Jews in rooms called "isolation wards". A medical record was created for each person, on which "Morbus K" was recorded. German inspectors interpreted this as "Koch's disease", i.e. tuberculosis , and left the affected people alone.

The term "Morbus K" is used as an allusion to Dr. Borromeos understood, depending on the source, on the then chief of the security police and the SD in Rome, Herbert Kappler , or on Albert Kesselring , the then commander in chief of the Wehrmacht in Italy.

Web links

• Invented disease saves Jews from the SS on Deutschlandradio Kultur
• Medal of merit for the chief physician of the "Fatebenefratelli" hospital at agenzia fides, press organ of the Pontifical Mission Societies