The Swiss passport in your pocket refuses to get you out-what do you do?

A Polish film star's café opens just months before war engulfs Europe. His Swiss passport should offer escape, but identity becomes a deadly trap.

The Swiss passport in your pocket refuses to get you out-what do you do?

This episode explores the life of Eugeniusz Bodo, a celebrated Polish actor whose world was upended by war, and how his inherited Swiss identity became a pivotal factor in his fate. It asks how the objects we use to carry our identities can also be used against us.

Person: Eugeniusz Bodo Birth Name: Bohdan Eugène Junod Nationality: Swiss (inherited) Occupation: Actor, Singer, Producer, Café Owner Died: October 7, 1943

- Eugeniusz Bodo, born Bohdan Eugène Junod, was Poland's biggest film star, voted King of Polish Actors in 1932. - His father, Teodor Junod, a Swiss immigrant, opened Urania, the first permanent cinema in Łódź around 1903. - Bodo opened his own café on Pierackiego Street in Warsaw on January 10, 1939, just months before Germany invaded Poland. - After the fall of Warsaw, Bodo fled east to Lwów, then under Soviet occupation, and continued to perform with the Tea-Jazz band. - He carried a Swiss passport, inherited from his father, which was supposed to be his means of escaping the war.

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