She was younger daughter of Oscar Carl Gustav Ankarcrona and his wife, Anna Elisabeth Aurora Carleson (b.

Alice was shocked by the poverty in Austrian Galicia and sold off most of her jewelry to invest in welfare and economic improvements at her Busk estates.

When the Polish-Soviet War broke out in April 1919, Karl Albrecht joined the Polish army and Alice and Kasimir again returned to Busk.

[2] The couple had two daughters, Maria Christina and Renata, and two sons, Karl Stefan (Karol) and Albrecht.

She has also stated that to give her children a Polish upbringing "was a simple act of loyalty to the country that had opened its borders to us and given us back our property and standing".

She believed her husband and children were safe at the estate in Busk, but when the Soviet Union also invaded Poland she left Żywiec to try to find them.

[2] Eventually her three sons managed to flee the country and later joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West.

Both he and his wife were pressed to give up their loyalties to Poland and instead join or support the Nazi regime, but both refused.

Because of this Karl Albrecht was kept imprisoned in Cieszyn until December 1941, when he was released for health reasons and international pressure.

Alice had petitioned the Swedish Government and Sven Hedin to work for the release of her husband, and several royal or ex-royal families in Europe had done the same.

[2] Some time after the German invasion, Alice Habsburg joined the Polish resistance organization, the Union of Armed Struggle (later transformed into the Home Army).

[2][3] She was frequently interrogated but never arrested, and maintained that she believed the Nazi authorities never suspected that she was an active member of the resistance movement.

[3] In October 1942 Alice, together with her husband and their daughter Renata, were transferred to a labour camp in Strausberg, in Germany.