The Real Refugees of Casablanca

When the Hollywood classic, Casablanca, was released in 1943, moviegoers were thrilled by the love story. Humphrey Bogart stars as the cynical owner of Rick’s Cafe, a nightclub in Morocco. Ingrid Bergman is his old flame, Ilsa, now married to Victor Laszlo, a dashing resistance leader hunted by the Nazis. Many of the characters at Rick's Café are European refugees trying to make their way to America. What most viewers didn't know is that those characters were played by actors who themselves had recently fled the Nazis. This casting choice lent the film an authenticity that helped deliver its message: that a war far from our borders was a war worth waging. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

You can listen to The Real Refugees of Casablanca online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Real Refugees of Casablanca is an episode from Radio Diaries by Radio Diaries & Radiotopia.

This episode is 12:30 long.

This episode was published on Mar 19, 2026.

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