'We created those papers for Jewish people as if they were ordinary patients, and in the moment when we had to say what disease they suffered? It was Syndrome K, meaning "I am admitting a Jew".' Dr Adriano Ossicini IN October 1943, Adolf Eichmann sent an SS Einsatzkommando into Rome, with orders to begin rounding up and deporting Italy's Jews. He had no idea what he was up against. For over two years the Nazis had rampaged their way through Europe, invading and defeating countries before systematically murdering millions of Jews and other 'undesirables'. They saw no reason why Italy - their former ally in fascism - would be any different. They were wrong. Syndrome K is the story of how 80 per cent of Italy's Jews escaped the Holocaust, with the help of their fellow countrymen, the Allies and even some Germans. From claiming sanctuary in the Vatican to pitched battles by partisans, and even inventing a highly contagious 'Jewish disease', it was an ingenious, covert and complicated effort - and one that saved the lives of thousands of people. Drawing on original archive material from Italy, Germany, the Vatican City, Switzerland, the UK and US, acclaimed historian Christian Jennings tells the whole story in English for the first time

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