Through the lens of war

Longtime Norfolk resident Nina Rosenblum will present her award-winning documentary, “They Fight With Cameras,” on Saturday, Sept. 26, at 6:30 p.m. at the Norfolk Library.

The film tells the story of her father, decorated U.S. Army Signal Corps combat cameraman Walter Rosenblum.

“It is very special for me to screen ‘They Fight With Cameras’ at the Norfolk Library because our family has deep ties to Norfolk,” Rosenblum said.

After the war, Walter taught photography at the Yale Summer School of Art in Norfolk for 25 years, and he and his wife, photography historian Naomi Rosenblum, later retired to the town they loved.

The film was produced and directed by Nina and her partner, Daniel Allentuck, son of Oscar-winning actress Maureen Stapleton of Lenox, Mass. For Nina, the evening is a chance to show her Norfolk friends “a side of my father that was not well known to them: a courageous combat cameraman whose images helped the world confront the truth of the war.”

Walter Rosenblum was one of the most decorated Signal Corps cameramen of the war, receiving the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Presidential Unit Citation. He filmed some of its defining moments: the D-Day landings on Omaha Beach, the capture of Cherbourg and the bitter winter campaign in Alsace. On April 29, 1945, he was among the first Americans to enter the concentration camp at Dachau.

“It’s like a nightmare you’re trying to photograph as you’re trying to survive,” he recalled. “It’ll never leave me.”

Narrated by Liev Schreiber, the 55-minute film recounts Rosenblum’s service through his own photographs, never-before-seen motion picture footage, after-action reports and recently discovered wartime letters. It has received best documentary honors at 15 international film festivals.

The film also restores the names of anonymous soldier-cameramen who served alongside him, including movie cameraman Val Pope, who was killed by a sniper in Brittany.

“The vital role played by World War II combat cameramen has been largely overlooked,” Rosenblum said. “Operating under extreme danger, often armed with nothing more than a camera, they captured the definitive visual record of the century’s defining conflict, and their footage provided undeniable proof of Nazi atrocities at the Nuremberg trials.”

“They Fight With Cameras” screens Saturday, Sept. 26, at 6:30 p.m. at the Norfolk Library, 9 Greenwoods Road East. Admission is free; registration is requested at norfolklibrary.org.