Stefan Zweig was born in a Jewish family in Austria. He wasn't religious at all. "My mother and father were Jewish only through accident of birth," he said.

In the 1920s and 30s, Zweig became one of the most popular writers in the world. His novels, and especially his historical biographies, established his place among the literature's elite.

Alas, it's the 30s, Austria. You can put two and two together. Zweig had to leave. So off he went, first to England, then to the US, then to Brazil.

And in Brazil, in 1942, Zweig had enough, committing a double-suicide with his wife. "I think it is better to conclude in good time and in erect bearing a life in which intellectual labour meant the purest joy and personal freedom the highest good on Earth," he wrote.

Clearly, he was more Jewish that he let on.