Alice Schalek (1874-1956) was a journalist, photographer and author for the Neue Freie Presse from 1903-1933, writing mostly about her extensive travels around the world. Schalek was the first and only female war reporter during World War I for which she was awarded a number of war medals in 1917, a most unusual distinction for a woman. However, her patriotic war reports were not without detractors. Karl Kraus, in particular, criticized Schalek for “glorifying the war.”  During the 1920s she began to sympathize with communism, justifying the persecutions of the Russian landowners, or kulaks, under Stalin. In 1939, she was arrested by the Gestapo for alleged “horror propaganda” against the Nazi regime, a euphemism used by the Nazis to describe critical reports on the persecution of Jews or political opponents. With the help of friends Schalek was released and fled first to London and later to New York.