1941 Maroc Presse City Map or Plan of Casablanca, Morocco

This is a 1941 Editions Maroc-Presse city map or plan of Casablanca, Morocco. Created in 1941, the map reflects the period when Casablanca was the final stopping point for refugees fleeing World War II through North Africa. It was a strange and turbulent time for Casablanca, as romanticized in the classic Humphrey Bogart film Casablanca.

A Closer Look

The map depicts the city from the Cimetiere d'El Hank to the new cemetery and from the Atlantic Ocean to the new medina. Streets, squares, and roundabouts are labeled throughout. So too are the city's schools, hospitals, churches, parks, and numerous other locations. The port is illustrated in detail, with over fifty locations numerically identified, although the corresponding index has been lost.

Casablanca and Morocco During World War II

By 1941, when this map was originally issued, Morocco had been a French protectorate since March 30, 1912. When France entered World War II, the Moroccan sultan declared allegiance to France and offered aid. Within less than a year, France suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Nazi Germany and signed a separate peace, allowing Germany to occupy three fifths of France and creating the collaborationist Vichy Regime. As a French Protectorate, Morocco was still governed by France, but became a kind of grey zone. Certain parts of the French government that had been against the treaty planned to continue fighting the Axis powers from the colonies in French North Africa. In this effort, a group of French politicians left for Africa. The treaty was signed while they were in the middle of the Atlantic, and when these politicians arrived in Casablanca, they soon found themselves captives of the collaborationist Vichi, unable to leave.

The Refugee Crisis and Casablanca

Not long after this harrowing episode, refugees from across Europe began pouring into North Africa while trying to escape persecution in Europe. These refugees ended their trek in Casablanca. Although the introduction to Casablanca oversimplifies the complexities and dangers of escaping from France across the Mediterranean, the screen writers do a masterful job and the iconic nature of their summary cannot be denied

With the coming of the Second World War, many eyes in imprisoned Europe turned hopefully, or desperately, toward the freedom of the Americas. Lisbon became the great embarkation point, but not everybody could get to Lisbon directly, and so a torturous roundabout refugee trail sprang up. Paris to Marseille, across the Mediterranean to Oran, then by train or auto or foot across the rim of Africa to Casablanca in French Morocco. Here the fortunate ones through money, or influence, or luck, might obtain exit visas and scurry to Lisbon, and from Lisbon to the New World. But the others wait in Casablanca, and wait, and wait, and wait…

The film goes on to tell the story of two such refuges seeking safety who must travel through Casablanca.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Editions Maroc-Presse in 1941 and published in a bilingual English and French guide to Casablanca in 1943. This map is not cataloged in OCLC and we have located only a handful of instances when it has appeared on the private market.