Clínica Ruber is a private hospital in Madrid whose secluded, hotel-like interior becomes the setting for the reunion of two men bound up in the mystery of the missing Nazi embassy treasure. The clinic once served Hans Lazar as a refuge from repatriation; later, its private rooms let Manuel Arroyo Benítez meet him at last, transforming an old suspicion into a personal encounter.

A refuge from repatriation

In February 1946, the Spanish government authorized the return of Lazar, a former diplomat of the Reich, to Germany. The day before he was due to board the plane, he entered Clínica Ruber with what appeared to be a severe case of appendicitis. His appendix was removed that day, but the Allied pursuers suspected that the operation had been a means of avoiding repatriation. Lazar disappeared from their view, and the treasure and documents they believed he had hidden remained missing.

The escape came at a physical cost. When Manuel later saw Lazar’s medical diagnosis at the foot of his bed, he recognized painful intestinal adhesions, a common consequence of appendectomy. In Lazar’s case, the unnecessary operation that may have preserved his freedom had also left him with recurring pain.

A hospital unlike San Carlos

Years later, Manuel follows Rolf Steinbauer into the clinic with a particular fear: that someone from his former professional life might recognize him as Dr. García, the surgeon. At San Carlos, where he had worked in a large public hospital, staff moved constantly through crowded wards, and colleagues and nurses were likely to encounter one another. Accompanied by Steinbauer—a nearly two-metre-tall man with a conspicuous facial scar—Manuel expects an unwanted meeting before they have walked fifty metres.

Clínica Ruber’s ground floor offers a sharp contrast. The “noble” area Manuel crosses resembles a luxury hotel rather than a hospital: there are no white coats in the lobby, and the people they pass wear street clothes as they visit patients. Although passersby stare at Steinbauer, the setting affords Manuel a measure of concealment that he had not expected.

The room itself extends that separation from ordinary hospital life. Each widely spaced door opens onto a private suite: a reception area, a sitting room larger than Manuel’s own, and a hospital bedroom with a single adjustable bed, a sofa, and a low table. In the sitting room, Lazar waits in an armchair. The room makes the meeting possible, but its comfort also marks the distance between this clinic and the crowded public hospital Manuel remembers.

The meeting and its revelations

Lazar is the man who had failed to appear for a meeting Clara Stauffer arranged with Manuel on 18 July 1947. His presence at Clínica Ruber confirms the importance of the connection that had drawn Manuel into her circle. Manuel recognizes him immediately, though Lazar’s appearance contrasts with Steinbauer’s: short and thin, with slack cheeks and loose skin at his neck. His burgundy silk pajamas and white pocket handkerchief lend the encounter the air of a private visit rather than an interrogation.

Afterward, Steinbauer tells Manuel that Lazar trusts him, but emphasizes that he himself does not trust Lazar. In their two-hour conversation at a bar, Steinbauer confirms that the former diplomat has kept what was hidden and suggests that prolonged possession of a great deal of money can make a person feel it belongs to him. The clinic therefore functions not simply as the place where Lazar survived repatriation, but as the point at which the suspected keeper of the missing property becomes accessible to Manuel.

A private space within a larger mystery

The clinic’s role rests on the contrast between what it reveals and what remains concealed. Manuel has long suspected that the shipments Guillermo agreed to supervise might include art, valuables, and perhaps currency taken from occupied territories and Jewish owners. He also connects Clara’s interest in Rafael Cuesta Sánchez to her work and recalls her attempt to introduce him to a man called Ban—or possibly Bam. The final consonant matters: Bam was Lazar’s nickname among intimates. The uncertainty is slight in sound but decisive in Manuel’s reasoning, linking Clara’s circle to the missing diplomatic treasure.

The clinic is also where Manuel’s medical knowledge lets him read Lazar’s vulnerability in the diagnosis and the morphine injection arranged by a nurse. Lazar had become dependent on morphine after wounds sustained in the First World War made physical suffering a daily part of his life. He habitually handled important matters at the worst points of the day, claiming that pain and anxiety sharpened his alertness and suspicion. Manuel suspects the drug may also have offered Lazar a private pleasure, but recognizes that addiction is not the source of Steinbauer’s distrust.

Clínica Ruber thus gathers several kinds of refuge into one place: a means of postponing enforced return, a secluded setting in which Lazar can receive visitors, and a private threshold through which Manuel’s investigation reaches the man associated with the missing treasure. Its polished rooms conceal a history of evasion and suspected appropriation; beneath their hotel-like calm, the question of who truly possesses the hidden wealth remains unresolved.