Confined in the German concentration camp at Vittel, France, were more Jews who claimed citizenship of either the United States or Latin American nations. They, too, were the objects of protracted and intensive diplomatic negotiations, with the Holy See as a willing participant. According to a report filed December 31, 1943, by the Nuncio Bernardini, they had been transferred from Germany to France, where they were kept together in the ostensible hope that they could be exchanged for Germans interned in the Western hemisphere. However, because in many cases their documents appeared to have been illegally obtained, one Latin American government after another withdrew its recognition of the passports, causing the prisoner's fragile situation to grow increasingly grave.
On December 27, 1943, the apostolic delegate in Washington wired his superiors that the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada had pleaded for lenience toward the thousands of Polish Jews interned at Vittel. The Vatican, under Maglione's signature, immediately appealed to the Spanish government, the protecting power, urging it to maintain its support. And instructions were sent to Paraguay, one of the most involved states, to urge that rejection of the documents be suspended. On January 24, following contacts with the International Red Cross, the Vatican sent circular instructions to the other nunciatures in Latin America, instructing them to solicit from the respective governments continued recognition of the passports, "no matter how illegally obtained."
The controversy over the Latin America passports seemed to subside for a short time. But on March 20, 1944, a German order set the stage for the transfer of the affected prisoners to the infamous camp at Drancy. From Madrid, alerted by Rome, the Nuncio Gaetano Cicognani on April 12 telegraphed that the German government did not welcome Spanish intervention for Jews (other than for Sephardic Jews, whose Spanish citizenship the Madrid government recognized). "However," stated the nuncio, "with regard to the Jews at Vittel this government will take opportune steps in view of an exchange between German civilians interned in America and Jews."