A screen that separates patients from other people in a hospital. During morning rounds, if the head of the ward deemed a patient to be a lost cause and further treatment by a doctor to be unecessary, he would say – surrounded by nurses and his assistant – the word parawan [screen].
 
After several minutes, an orderly would bring a partition to shield other patients from the sight. The dying would remain unnoticed, protected by the screen after death for several hours while the deceased lied in the hall unnoticed by other patients.
 
The word parawan was uttered quickly and quietly so that other patients would not notice.
 
Oskar Rosenfeld