Talk:Anna Gmeyner

Anna Gmeyner's Jewish Identity
Anna Gmeyner was a Jewish refugee who fled the Weimar Republic and is most famous for a novel about the rise of Nazism, which she wrote and published during the Holocaust.

I believe that the leading sentence of this article should be the following: "Anna Wilhelmine Gmeyner (16 March 1902 – 3 January 1991) was an Austrian-born Jewish writer, playwright, and screenwriter who was exiled from Germany and Austria, best known for her novel Manja (1938)." This replaces the description of Gmeyner as "an exiled German and Austrian writer, playwright, and screenwriter," which erases both the reason for her exile and her historical significance.

Without my edit, this article never explicitly describes Gmeyner as Jewish. It is only tacitly referenced in the early life section, which describes her as "born to liberal Jewish parents in Vienna."

Omitting Gmeyner's Jewishness does a disservice to the public. There can be no introduction to Anna Gmeyner that does not acknowledge her Jewish identity. Cerulean Quill (talk) 07:07, 24 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Please see MOS:ETHNICITY. Since Jewishness is asserted by you to be an inherent part of her identity, it can be perfectly well mentioned in the lead paragraph, but not as a national identity, provided it is explained and sourced in the article body. What is deprecated is substituting ethnicity or religion for nationality. As I explained on your talkpage this can be a means of separating someone from their compatriots. That can be done with good or malicious motives, obviously the former in this case, but in either case it is generally seen as pernicious, and would never be done for other ethnicities or religions. The usual question would be what is so special that requires Jewishness to be so emphasized, when nobody would do so for a Presbyterian in the same circumstances. If Jewishness can be shown in the article body to be a defining feature of her life and work through sources in the body of the article, then it can receive greater prominence it the lede, which is a summary of that sourced content. Improve the article body and sourcing first, not the other way around.   Acroterion   (talk)   11:15, 24 October 2023 (UTC)