Film exposes a dark era


“Complicit,” a 2013 documentary about why the Roosevelt administration denied safe haven to hundreds of Jewish refugees, will screen at 7:30 p.m. Mon., Oct. 15 at Westlake Village Cinema, 4711 Lakeview Canyon Road.

In 1939, the SS St. Louis left Germany and set sail for North America. Among the ocean liner’s passengers were more than 900 Jews attempting to escape Nazi persecution and gain entry into the United States through Cuba. But upon arrival the ship and the passengers were denied entry.

After weeks at sea pleading with the American, Canadian and Cuban governments, the SS St. Louis returned to Europe. It is estimated that more than a quarter of the passengers later died in German concentration camps.

Robert Krakow’s film blends drama, survivor interviews and actual footage to tell the story of the doomed ship.

The film includes then-U.S. Special Envoy Hannah Rosenthal discussing America’s inadequate response to the crisis, and it documents a 2012 State Department ceremony in which then-Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns makes the first apology to a delegation of surviving SS St. Louis passengers.

A Q&A session with Tom Jacobson, a passenger on the SS St. Louis, will follow the screening, which is being presented by the Conejo Jewish Academy.

Tickets are $12 in advance at jewishacademy.com.