During the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, Sultan Mohammed V sat alongside President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, marking a famous moment of defiance against the pro-Nazi Vichy French regime.
When pressured to implement anti-Semitic laws, such as forcing Jewish citizens to wear yellow stars, the Sultan famously refused to distinguish between his people, asserting that all were Moroccan subjects. This moral stance provided vital protection for approximately 250,000 Jews, then the largest Jewish community in the Muslim world.
While the Sultan’s refusal successfully prevented mass deportations to European death camps, the historical reality for the community remained difficult under Vichy French control. Many Jewish citizens still faced discriminatory decrees, including loss of livelihoods and forced relocation to overcrowded quarters known as mellahs.
Additionally, thousands of Jewish refugees and political prisoners were held in harsh North African labor camps, such as Bou Arfa, where many succumbed to disease and exhaustion.
