This question occured to me last night when I was watching Frank Capra's Prelude to War from the Why We Fight series of films on Netflix.
In the beginning of the film there are many clips of German invasions of France, the Low Countries, Russia, Norway and others.
I was just wondering, how did American filmmakers or reporters obtain German footage from the battlefield?
The film was released in May '42, but I would imagine with the war raging in Europe from '39 onwards it must of been difficult to obtain German newsreels in America.
Did the Germans proactively send footage overseas to America?
Were there American reporters in Germany who were sending footage back?
UFA, the state film studio, produced two newsreels during the war. Die Deutsche Wochenschau (German Weekly Review) was produced for the domestic market and annexed countries. The Auslandstonwoche (Foreign Weekly Newsreel) was distributed to occupied and neutral countries.
Neutral countries also got copies of Allied propaganda reels, and it wasn't hard for British and American newsreel producers to get hold of the German reels and vice versa, shipping them back home for further use. Military intelligence also poured over the cans particularly at their unit at Pinewood Studios for analysis.