Many of the actors and actresses belting out La Marseillaise in Casablanca were French refugees from the Third Reich. Ironically, Major Heinrich Strasser, leading the German officers in Die Wacht am Rhein, was portrayed by German actor Conrad Veidt. A combat veteran of the German Army during World War I, he too was a refugee from Nazi Germany.
Bonus:
No matter how much wannabe dictators like Francis wish it weren’t so, nations will always exist. Vive la nation state!
My now deceased mother-in-law was born in France (emigrated in 1950) and her birthday was July 14, which I suppose would be the equivalent of an American being born on the Fourth of July, although I don’t recall her ever having mentioned that.
I cry from the heart whenever I see that scene. And to know how many in it were refugees who did not have our temporal advantage of knowing how the war came out only adds to it.
Patriotism is about people.