20. Ossicini was himself a fugitive at the hospital, according to his account
Ossicini disputed Sacerdoti’s assertion K Syndrome was limited to helping Jews, and claimed that several notable political figures in Rome were sheltered at the hospital, registered under false names, and kept from the prying eyes of German inspectors by residence in the K Syndrome wards. He was himself protected with false identity documents, since according to his account, he was listed under the German records as a subversive. He also claimed to have, via the radio hidden by Borromeo and Father Bialek, remained in communication with both partisans and the Allied command in Italy. Though he was known to the Germans, he ventured out of the hospital many times, into the Roman streets.
On one such event, he was caught in a dragnet by the SS and taken with several others to a command post, where the prisoners were lined up for an identity check. Ossicini wrote that he was aware that his false papers wouldn’t stand up in the face of the German records, and rather than waiting his turn to approach the table at which the identity papers were to be examined he simply ran. He claimed that his abrupt departure “was so spontaneous that no one noticed it at the time”. The Italian claimed that he returned to the hospital unhindered by German police or SS. Ossicini claimed that he had no choice but to run, since there was at the time a price on his head.