Destination Casablanca

In the summer of 1940, following Frances surrender to Germany, Casablanca was transformed from an exotic travel destination to a key military target. Nazi agents and collaborators soon overran the city looking to capitalize on the new Vichy regime. The resistance was not far behind, as bartenders, shopkeepers, taxi drivers, celebrities, and disgruntled bureaucrats formed a network of Allied spies. Meanwhile, Jewish refugees from Europe flooded the city, hoping to obtain visas to the United States and beyond. In November 1942, Casablancas wartime fate changed in seventy-four hours, when 33,000 American soldiers stormed the beaches of French Morocco as part of Operation Torch. In Allied hands, Casablancas port became a crucial logistical hub in British and American plans to return to Europe and defeat Germany. Two months later, Roosevelt and Churchill traveled to Casablanca to plot the next phase of war and achieve Germanys “unconditional surrender. â€Rife with rogue soldiers, power grabs, plot twists, and diplomatic intrigue, Destination Casablanca is the riveting and untold history of this glamorous and beloved city—memorialized in the classic film—at the heart of World War II.