New Historical Novel Explores the Odd Survival of Berlin's Jewish Hospital

In his new historical novel, Jonathan Hammel recounts the unlikely persistence of Berlin's Jewish Hospital from 1933 to the end of the Third Reich, using his grandmother Gerda Schild Haas as a focal point. Set in March 1943, the story shows how Nazi officials rationalized keeping the hospital operational, fearing that ill Jews would be less useful for forced labor or extermination. The narrative features real and fictionalized participants, including Dr. Walter Lustig, who navigated Nuremberg Laws to protect his staff, and Stella Goldschlag, a notorious collaborator forced to spy on fellow Jews.

Prominent Nazis such as Adolf Eichmann and Alois Brunner appear as overseers of the hospital's fate. Hammel depicts the constant terror, the manipulation of Jewish workers as informants, and the eventual deportation of some staff to places like Theresienstadt, while the hospital itself continues to serve the community today.