In 1999, Nina Rosenblum made a movie called “Walter Rosenblum: In Search of Pitt Street,” about her father, a wartime photographer famous for his street photography of New York City, but also for his time as a combat cameraman during World War II.
“My dad was the most compassionate and emotionally profound person, and yet he never talked to us about WWII,” Rosenblum remembered. “Growing up, we would take his medals out of his drawers and play with them. Only when we did the first film on dad did we interview him about the war. He was open, and he told us, and he went through it all. But then, he never really spoke about it again.”
In 2016, years after that film and her father’s death, Rosenblum helped put together a traveling exhibition of some of her father’s photos. Then, a contact in Rome sent her something incredible – a film slate from World War II that had her father’s name on it.
The slate proved that Walter Rosenblum had not only taken photos, but video footage too. So began a journey to find that footage. Ten years later, that initial discovery has evolved into “They Fight with Cameras,” a documentary co-directed by Rosenblum and her husband, Dan Allentuck, which is playing at this year’s Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. It played once on Feb. 23 and will screen again on Feb. 26.
The discovery of the slate was just the first step. In 2018, after Rosenblum and Allentuck had already started working on the film, they got a call from the West Coast. A former teacher and history buff named Don Lown told them that he had around 180 of Walter’s World War II letters that he had written to his first wife.
“It turned out that this gentleman, 50 years earlier, had been a student in Oneonta, New York,” Rosenblum said. “His professor was having a tag sale of his garage, and right by the garbage was a pile of letters. This young guy says to his professor, ‘I’m interested in WWII and stamps – can I have these letters if you’re throwing them out?’”
“They Fight with Cameras” uses Walter’s letters as a throughline through different images, both photographic and cinematic, of the D-Day landings on Omaha Beach, the liberation of the concentration camp Dachau, and more. Rosenblum and Allentuck worked to fit all of that information together with the help of their editor, Russell Greene.
Rosenblum knew it was imperative to have multiple sources to corroborate where her father was at any given time during the war. That led to a lot of time spent verifying his whereabouts through footage, his letters, the National Archives, the website of whatever battalion he was attached to at the time, and more.
One of Rosenblum’s previous films, “The Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II,” was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 65th Academy Awards. The film tells the story of a primarily Black battalion and its role in liberating Nazi concentration camps. After the film’s release, questions were raised about the its accuracy, particularly in regards to the military units that were involved in the initial liberation of those camps.
Over the years, Rosenblum has defended her work on “The Liberators.” She said she remains proud of the film for its focus on “the courage of Black soldiers who fought in Europe during WWII and the bravery of Jewish Holocaust survivors they helped liberate.” She also highlighted the historical advisors on “They Fight with Cameras” and their work to ensure the film’s accuracy.
“In creating ‘They Fight with Cameras’ we are grateful to have had outstanding historical advisors James Holland and the National World War II Museum’s Dr. Jennifer Putnam, who kindly and generously lent their expertise to help ensure the film was accurate,” she said. “We also thank the National Archives for the access they provided.”
The verification process for the film was painstaking, but it led to some moments of joy as well. Allentuck remembered reading one of Walter’s action reports (he saved much of his paperwork) and finding a story about a stray dog who attached itself to one of the GIs when Walter was working with the 14th Armored Division. He thought it was a cute story, and quickly moved on.
“Then, some months later, we see this footage that he had shot, and there’s the little dog and there’s the GI,” Allentuck said. “That’s the kind of thing where it all comes together.”
One of the key moments in the film almost didn’t have any of Walter’s footage at all. Originally, Rosenblum said they believed all of the D-Day footage from Detachment P (Walter’s photography unit) had been lost at sea. Then, remarkably, a man in Rotterdam working with the National Archives found the footage. It was a huge win for the filmmakers.
“We were like, Hallelujah!” Rosenblum said.
One of the main reasons Rosenblum and Allentuck wanted to make “They Fight with Cameras” was to give credit to military photographers who were not given their due at the time. According to Allentuck, at the time the military’s policy was not to credit individual photographers. As a result, they didn’t become as well known as press photographers like Robert Capa and W. Eugene Smith.
“That’s why we were very proud to do this,” Rosenblum said. “Not just for my dad, but to really make the point that behind these anonymous [photos are] courageous people who are risking their lives every second because they have to stand up to take pictures.”