"Free Workers"
In the meantime, as a result of an agreement between Mussolini and Hitler, the internees were transformed, in theory at least, into "free workers". But this was to be a slow process which remained true only for those in good health. Orsenigo reported on September 15 that he had protested to the Foreign Ministry against the suspension of the repatriation of the sick.
In these months the Holy See used not only the channels of Berlin, Berne and Rome but also the Nunciature of Vichy and Father Biasio Marbotto, who was located in Poland, where Italian internees were also detained. The French Relief Agency, under Abbe Jean Rodhain, was able to print prayer books in Italian and to distribute them to the relatively few Italians in the so-called "mixed camps", but the French had no access to the main camps. On November 14, 1944, as the second winter approached for the Italian internees, the Secretariat of State renewed his urgent appeal to the German government. The note, addressed to Ambassador von Weizsacker, referred to the still-unanswered note of December 22, 1943. It acknowledged that, despite the lack of response, it had been able "in certain cases" to provide religious assistance in camps where Italian internees were held, and also to contribute some medicines and concentrated foods. The letter also cited the condition of French internees and the dangers that were said to menace prisoners and internees of certain races or nationalities (a reference to the treatment of Jews). Could not the German government, asked the Holy See, gratify world opinion by releasing the sick, the aged, women and children and arranging for their repatriation, while at the same time issuing a statement guaranteeing humane treatment for prisoners and internees of whatever race or nationality?
There followed, in this note, the Holy See's statement of its own hopes and ambitions:
The Holy See which, carrying out its universal mission of charity, has left no stone unturned in order to relieve in some way the unspeakable sufferings of so many human beings in the course of this international conflict, once more addresses the German Embassy, begging it to be so kind as to submit to its government the considerations set forth above, in the hope that measures dictated by human and Christian piety, which in any case, would be to the advantage of the German people itself, will be taken and carried out, in favor of prisoners and internees.