Fatebenefratelli Hospital

Fatebenefratelli Hospital (officially Ospedale San Giovanni Calibita Fatebenefratelli) is a hospital located on the western side of the Tiber Island in Rome. It was established in 1585 and is currently run by the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God. The hospital is said to have sheltered many different fugitives during the German occupation of Rome (1943-1944), including some Jews. Between 2007 and 2012 two books by Pietro Borromeo and Pius XII's apologist Gordon Thomas claimed that the hospital sheltered a large number of Jews under the cover of an invented "k" syndrome. However, no historical evidence of this event has been found and testimonial evidence is contradictory.
History.
The origins of the hospital on the Tiber Island date to before 1000 AD, when an ancient temple dedicated to the Greek god of medicine, Asclepius, was replaced by a sanctuary dedicated to Bartholomew the Apostle, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. The sanctuary provided aid for local populations of beggars, the poor, and the sick. During the mid-sixteenth century, begging was banned in Rome and the shelter was converted into a "fabbriche della salute" ("health factory").
In 1539 Saint John of God founded the religious institute, the Brothers Hospital, in Granada, Spain. The institute was recognized in 1572 by Pope Pius V and was nicknamed ""Fatebenefratelli", a phrase used by the saints while inviting passersby to do charity. The epithet means "You do well, brothers [, for God's sake]". In 1581, the Brothers Hospital founded a new hospital called ""Casa degli Orfanelli" ("House of Orphans") in Piazza di Pietra, with around 20 beds. Two members of the institute, Brother Pietro Soriano and Brother Sebastiano Arias, moved to the Tiber Island. In 1585, the institute purchased a monastery with the help of Pope Gregory XIII; the monastery had previously been occupied by the Benedictine Sisters until 1573 and later by the Brotherhood of the Bolognese. The pontiff also granted them the adjoining church of St. John Calybita.
Fifteen saints settled on Tiber Island and introduced health care measures. During the 1656–57 plague outbreaks in Rome, the hospital specialized in the treatment of plague patients and formed a school to teach its staff to deal with epidemics. The hospital was recognized by the Special Commission of Health during the 1832 cholera outbreaks in Rome.
Eight years after the capture of Rome in 1870, the hospital management was dissolved in 1878. Three individuals bought the hospital for "private industry and interest". These three "mysterious" people were three friars who acted as buyers in disguise to elude the law still in force against possessing the work of religious hospitals. In 1892, the old management of the hospital was restored. During the nineteenth century, the hospital was strengthened against the floods of the Tiber River with the erection of surrounding walls. This construction was interrupted by World War I and resumed in 1922. The hospital added ophthalmology and fluoroscopy units, considered the first of their kind in Rome.
"Rome under the German Occupation and the Italian Social Republic (September 1943-June 1944)".
Initially, the hospital was used as a hospice on the premises of the San Giovanni Calibita Church. Later, it was expanded into a modern hospital by Dr. Giovanni Borromeo, who joined in 1934, with the help of Father Maurizio Bialek.
With the Italian racial laws, introduced in 1938, Jews were expelled from all aspects of civic life. World War II broke out in 1939. In June 1940 Italy entered the war. By 1941, the situation of the Jews had worsened considerably as the laws had become increasingly harsher. In 1941, at the request of his professor and mentor, Marco Alamjà, Prof. Borromeo allowed Almajà's nephew, the Jewish doctor Vittorio Emanuele Sacerdoti to work there. According to Sacerdoti's interview given to the Shoah Foundation, the family had been able to buy him a false identity. After the Armistice, of September 8, 1943, Rome fell under the control of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic and its Nazi allies. In the same interview, Sacerdoti stated that he had a relative living in the Jewish quarter across the street from the hospital and he provided medical assistance to many Jews who had no other access to care.
During the Nazi raid of the Jewish ghetto in Rome on October 16, 1943, Jewish escapees sought refuge at the hospital. Sacerdoti remembered to have let in 27 people and others joined for a total of 60 people. He then asked Borromeo for permission and Borromeo "did not oppose it" as long as they would leave soon. Sacerdoti believed that many of them were among the 1000 Jews arrested during the month after October 16.
In his interview, Sacerdoti stated that "k" was for Koch, the tuberculosis sector of the hospital and that the doctors used it as a code word for the many categories of fugitives passing through the hospital: partisans, former fascists, deserters, POW, aristocrats linked to the royal family that the Germans regarded as traitors, and, eventually Jews.
In his memoir, Adriano Ossicini stated that the name was invented by Sacerdoti. However in his interview, Sacerdoti stated that "k" was a simple internal joke and he didn't know how it came up. As the story went from an anecdote to an account of mass rescue, Ossicini began to state that he had invented the name. The only two sources of this story however are Ossicini and Borromeo's son.
Borromeo's son also claims that Frà Maurizio and Borromeo installed an illegal radio transmitter in the hospital basement and made contact with General Roberto Lordi of the Italian Royal Air Force. In another version of the story, he claims that Lordi was working for the resistance from the hospital and that his father went to see him at the prison of Via Tasso before he was killed. However, no source related to Roberto Lordi's life mentions the link with Borromeo and/or the Fatebenefratelli. Sacerdoti's deposition indicates that there was no political activity at the hospital. No other source about the existence of a radio at the Fatebenefratelli is known. After World War II, Borromeo was lauded by Government of Italy for his work and was recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem. He died in the hospital on 24 August 1961.
Departments.
The hospital has following departments:
Services and surgeries.
Following are the services provided and surgeries performed at the hospital:
Surgeries
Services
Awards.
On 21 June 2016, the hospital was honored as a "House of Life" by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.