The Magician of Casablanca: A Sephardic Woman's Quest to Save Lives in WW2

Episode 1: Letter for a Dead Man Enter the true story of Nelly Benatar, Morocco's first female attorney, who rises to the challenge of saving lives in World War II. When Hitler's swift victories dash her plans to serve as a Red Cross ambulance nurse, the widowed mother feels powerless to help—until a strange delivery beckons her to an unexpected destiny. Over six episodes, follow Nelly's extraordinary journey from saving refugees in wartime Casablanca to confronting post-war humanitaria...

As Casablanca swells with refugees fleeing Nazi Europe—everyone comes to Casablanca seeking safe passage—Nelly Benatar confronts Vichy Morocco's gruesome and even deadly deportation policies. The determined attorney rallies supporters and unlocks bureaucratic mysteries to save WWII refugees' lives—while dangerously attracting the Gestapo's scrutiny. Created and narrated by Matthew Abergel Vocal talent provided by Joe Alkire, Chantal Baur, Bob Cooner, Charlotte French, Ron Ranagan, Lenore Seba...

As the Gestapo closes in, Nelly Benatar draws upon both her French legal training and the ancient Jewish Moroccan culture of her community. In this episode, Casablanca itself becomes a main character, a colonial crossroads of ethnic and religious friends and foes in French Morocco, a Tower of Babel that defies easy categorization. While the wartime attorney hurries to weave red tape into lifelines for Europe's “undesirables,” World War II's darkening shadow advances across Europe. Creat...

The war finally engulfs Casablanca as a massive Allied military operation catapults Morocco from the fringe of the conflict to its blazing center. In the shadows, legendary performer Josephine Baker continues her secret work for the Resistance, possibly crossing paths with Nelly in the underground networks shrouded in wartime secrecy. This pivotal chapter in World War II history—too often overlooked—picks up where the fictional film Casablanca dramatically ends, setting in motion critical dev...

After Operation Torch, Nelly Benatar's humanitarian mission expands to liberating Spanish political prisoners and other victims of fascism from Vichy’s forced-labor camps. While Roosevelt and Churchill plot “unconditional surrender” at the famous Casablanca Conference, Nelly shrewdly rallies support to close these colonial camps for good. Meanwhile, in UN displaced-persons camps, Nelly faces the horrifying challenge of helping Holocaust survivors. Created and narrated by Matthew Abergel Vocal...

The finale jumps ahead to a very different Casablanca in the 1960s. Nelly reflects on the aftermath of the war and the Holocaust; on the long reach of the Middle East troubles and Israel's statehood; as well as Moroccan independence, postcolonial changes, and the Jewish exodus. Through it all, Nelly has continued responding to humanitarian crises—crises threatening to become as urgent today as they were then, reminding us that Nelly’s brand of courage and compassion are needed now more than e...