Holocaust survivor Ruth Posner and husband die in Swiss euthanasia clinic
Kyiv • UNN
Ruth Posner, a 96-year-old Holocaust survivor and artist, and her 97-year-old husband Michael, died in a clinic in Switzerland by assisted suicide. They had been married for almost 75 years and made the decision due to emotional weakness and lack of energy.
Holocaust survivor Ruth Posner and her husband Michael, both in their 90s, died at an euthanasia clinic in Switzerland, the BBC reports, according to UNN.
Details
The 96-year-old Polish-born artist, who escaped a Nazi ghetto as a child and had a successful career in dance and drama, likely died last weekend at the Pegasos clinic near Basel.
On Tuesday, she and 97-year-old Michael sent an email to family and friends informing them of their decision to end their lives, said playwright Sonia Linden, who told the BBC about receiving the letter.
In the note, first reported by The Times, the couple wrote: "We are sorry not to have mentioned this, but by the time you receive this letter, we will have already departed this mortal world."
"The decision was mutual and without any external pressure. We lived a long life together for almost 75 years. The time came when, due to the weakening of our senses, sight and hearing, and the lack of energy, we were no longer living but existing, and nothing could fix that," they wrote.
"We had an interesting and varied life, and, apart from the sadness of losing Jeremy, our son, we enjoyed our time together, tried not to regret the past, live in the present, and not expect too much from the future. With love, Ruth and Mike."
Most of Ms. Posner's family was killed during the Holocaust, including her parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Only she and one of her aunts survived.
The family was sent to the Radom ghetto after the Nazi invasion of Poland, but with the help of her father, Ms. Posner managed to escape to the non-Jewish side, later hiding with a Catholic family. Living under a false name, she was imprisoned as a Polish Catholic after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
She then managed to hide on a local farm near Essen until the end of World War II, which allowed her to flee to Great Britain at the age of 16.
She later became a member of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Mr. Posner, a chemist, worked for the UN humanitarian agency UNICEF, and after traveling the world, the couple settled in London. At the time of their deaths, they resided in Belsize Park.
The Holocaust Memorial Foundation honored Ms. Posner, calling her an "extraordinary woman."