Curt Riess was born of Jewish-German origin in Wurzburg, Germany in 1902. As a young man, Riess studied in Paris, Munich, and Heidelberg, and spent time working as a merchant in both New York and Berlin. On a business trip to the USA he discovered his talent for journalism and decided to pursue a career in the industry. Riess' first journalistic position was for a liberal 12 o'clock worksheet in Berlin, for which he also edited the sports section and throughout the 1920s he toured Europe as a reporter and film and theatre critic. In 1933, Riess was forced into exile and finally settled in Manhattan where he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post. Throughout the Second World War, he was heavily engaged in anti-Nazi activity, serving as a spy, and then, once the USA had joined the Allies, as a specialist in the United States Navy. His final military job was as a war correspondent for the Army, and as such he became well known for his exposure of the moral depravity of Adolf Hitler's regime.