In October 1939, Princess Marie-José was made President of the
Red Cross in Italy. The
Princess and
Duchess of Aosta attended the ceremony where Marie-José was installed as President of the Italian Red Cross. During the
Second World War she was one of the very few diplomatic channels between the German/Italian camp and the other European countries involved in the war, as she was the sister of
Leopold III of Belgium (kept hostage by the German forces) and at the same time, as the wife of the heir to the throne, close to some of the ministers of
Benito Mussolini's cabinet. In 1943, the Crown Princess involved herself in vain attempts to arrange a separate peace treaty between Italy and the United States; her interlocutor from the
Vatican was
Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, a senior diplomat who later became Pope Paul VI. She also interceded with
Adolf Hitler to ask for mercy towards the people of Belgium. Her attempts were not sponsored by the king and Umberto was not (directly, at least) involved in them. After her failure (she never met the American agents), she was sent with her children to
Sarre, in the
Aosta Valley, and isolated from the political life of the Royal House. She sympathised with the partisans, and while she was a refugee in Switzerland, smuggled weapons, money and food for them. She was nominated for appointment as chief of a
partisan brigade, but declined. ==Queen for a month==