God Blessed America

The beautiful 17-year-old actress Madeleine LeBeau fled Paris in June, 1940, just hours before the Germans marched in. The face of her Jewish husband, a celebrated film star in France, was featured on Nazi propaganda posters as a typical Jew. The rest of his family died in Nazi concentration camps. Like thousands of other refugees, they made their way to Lisbon, and from Lisbon, with forged visas and all the complications, uncertainties, and delays imaginable in wartime, they managed to make their way eventually to Hollywood. Two years later, still only 19, Madeleine LeBeau would play a memorable role in a pivotal scene in what would become one of the most well-loved movies ever made: Casablanca.