Holocaust survivor Ruth Posner and husband die at Swiss clinic
Ruth Posner, 96, and her husband Michael, 97, died at a Swiss clinic in a mutual decision years after surviving the Holocaust and forging lives in the arts and public service.
Holocaust survivor Ruth Posner and her husband Michael have died at the Pegasos clinic near Basel, Switzerland, in what friends described as a mutual decision to end their lives. Posner was 96 and her husband 97. The couple sent an email to family and friends on Tuesday informing them of their decision, a note first reported by The Times and confirmed to BBC News by playwright Sonja Linden, a close friend.
In the email, the couple wrote: "we will have shuffled off this mortal coil." The note described the decision as mutual and free of outside pressure, saying they "had lived a long life and together for almost 75 years. There came a point when failing senses, of sight and hearing and lack of energy was not living but existing that no care would improve." Linden told BBC News that Posner had been clear in recent visits that she and Michael were ready to go.
Posner, who was born in Poland, escaped the Radom Ghetto as a child and built a career in dance and theatre in the United Kingdom. She became a member of the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, bringing a distinctive presence to stage and screen. Her life story — marked by loss in the Holocaust and a subsequent artistic revival — was widely cited by friends and colleagues.
Mr. Posner, a chemist by training, worked for the United Nations children's agency Unicef and travelled the world before the couple settled in London. They lived in Belsize Park at the time of their deaths. The note’s frank farewell is tied to broader debates about end-of-life choices in Europe and the United Kingdom.
Linden, who spoke to PA News Agency, said she was "very sad" about the couple’s deaths but endorsed their decision and understood why they took it. She noted that Posner had supported efforts to legalize assisted dying in England, suggesting she would have preferred to say goodbye more publicly and without having to travel for the arrangements.
In the public record, Posner’s life story carries the weight of a family history defined by the Holocaust. Much of her family — including parents, uncles, aunts and cousins — were killed during the war, leaving Posner and one aunt as survivors. Her early years were spent in hiding after being placed on the non-Jewish side with help from her father, and she later lived under a false identity as a Polish Catholic. She was later imprisoned as a Polish Catholic following the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, before hiding on a farm near Essen until the war’s end, and then fleeing to the United Kingdom at age 16.
Tributes quickly followed from institutions involved in Holocaust remembrance. The Holocaust Memorial Trust described Posner as an "extraordinary woman" who, even in her 80s, turn toward educating younger generations about the Holocaust. "Ruth was one of a kind. Full of charisma and warmth, she left an impression on everyone she met," said its chief executive Karen Pollock. The Campaign Against Antisemitism also paid tribute, noting Posner’s influence in educating future generations and her willingness to participate in the fight against antisemitism.
By framing Posner’s death in the context of a widely debated topic, the report also notes that neither Posner nor her husband appeared to be terminally ill according to public reporting, and that the couple chose a path they described as a long-considered step rather than a spur-of-the-moment decision. Parliament in the United Kingdom has been considering changes to allow assisted dying in England and Wales, a policy that would apply to certain terminally ill patients reasonably expected to die within six months. Whether the English policy would have allowed their travel for end-of-life care remains a matter of debate in Parliament and among supporters of the measure.
This would be a notable counterpoint to Posner’s life as a public figure who used her platform to teach about the past and advocate for human rights. Her passing, and Michael’s, closes a chapter on a couple whose lives spanned a century of upheaval, art, science, and advocacy.
But the facts of the case aside, Posner’s broader legacy endures in the schools, theatres and communities that remember her voice, training, and determination to share the lessons of the Holocaust with new generations.